The Renault Twingo

Retailing at 55,000 French Francs at launch, the Twingo was Renault’s cheapest offering in the range and replaced the 4 as the cheapest car; but unlike the outgoing Renault 4, it was modern motoring in a cheap and cheerful shell.

The Twingo, named by Manfred Gotta, was the byword in economy and practical motoring for French citizens and Renault fans in the markets the car was sold into.

The car was designed to be as cheaply made as possible - but they didn’t do it by putting in poor quality fabrics and parts - they instead did things like putting the radio antenna on the side mirror to save on the length of the cabling use.

The car was as basic at entry price as you might hope for in 90s motoring: there’s no air bag, there’s no ABS, no central locking, no electric windows, no electric mirrors, no power steering, no air con and no automatic transmission option.

Which to be fair, does cut back on potential to go wrong if you’re trying to run one of these as your daily driver.

The low weight at 790kg, pared back design inside and lack of frills coupled with its size gave the car a low fuel consumption and some components were borrowed from other cars like the Clio to ensure they weren’t specialist and therefore kept costs down further.

The low entry price point and thrifty running and maintenance costs made the car a popular choice and it was so popular circa 2.4 million of these were sold into the Renault markets where Twingo were available.

However, it wasn’t all cutting costs and being meagre, because despite cost saving being vital, the car was designed with end user in mind. For example, the car’s wheels were pushed as far into each corner as they possibly could be to ensure the interior space was at maximum capacity. The windows were oversized not over to ensure visibility was enhanced but to give the feeling of being light and airy inside the car. The rear seats slid and folded and that had never been a thing in cars of this size before; making it a small car with an awful lot of potential.

In fact, the advertising for this car is wild and there’s an advert floating round from the time which shows two men dressed as sumo wrestlers laid down in the car as though they’re laid in a double bed.

Being a car which could easily fit into city life, Renault thought about how it would fit into life in Paris. The car was designed with a turning circle of 9.7m which gave drivers the ability to do a U-turn on a two lane street in the busy capital.

One of the things which stands out for many in terms of these early Twingos is the colour and on this generation you were able to choose from four colours: ultramarine blue, india yellow which is sometimes named as curry yellow in German markets, coriander green and coral red.

After launching in 1993, the car soon began to progress in terms of what it offered and whilst the body shape might not have changed swiftly, even as early as 1994 new models are launched, Twingo Easy transmission is introduced and Renault Boutique are offering a package called Pack Electrique which gives you things like the electric windows and central locking along with air con and abs.

But a vehicle’s success is largely measured on its sales figures and by 1995, half a million had been produced; a boon for the budget Renault Twingo.

Now whilst we never got these in the UK, there were a few dealers who shipped a few over to be sold in the UK as a bit of a press opportunity and to offer a bit of excitement. You’ll notice a dealer mentioned on the plates of this car, well that’s one of the dealers which did it at the time although isn’t believed to have sold this particular car.

Now this is a very brief history of the Twingo, but should you wish to know more, the owner of this car Chris will be bringing out a book on the Twingo next year and it’ll dive deep into the rich history of this brilliant little motor.

With so many still about and parts still available for all your service items especially, if this is a car that takes your fancy, there’s never been a better time than now to find a decent example to cherish.