Renault Twingo Hatchback 2007 - Present

The Twingo is Renault's city car alternative to the hugely successful Clio, and other so called city cars. It was originally launched in Europe only, as a left hooker but in it's latest version comes to the UK's streets in right hand drive. It has a tall, thin body which offers nicely laid out space in the cabin.

The height of the Twingo is something of a surprise as you approach the small French car. It's tall and as a result the headroom in generous once inside. The seats are comfortable and the two back seats, rather than the conventional bench styling, have completely separate bases. This enables them to slide back and forth in order to afford more generous leg room. While being more accommodating to the two passengers this does also effectively prohibit squeezing and extra person in the back. Road and engine noise are well suppressed and the ride is very comfortable. The sliding rear seats mean that you can have decent boot space or good rear legroom, but not both. So if you're going away for the weekend there's every chance that the rear passengers are going to be somewhat cramped, but other than that the Twingo offers pretty decent space in the back.

Driving the Twingo is a mildly disappointing experience. The handling suffers a little with bodyroll, which is almost certainly due to the height of the car. This also makes the car a little unsteady when driving in windy conditions. There are three different engine choices, all 1.2 litre. There is a standard which is frankly slow and boring with a 0 - 60 time of 14.2 seconds and a top speed just shy of 100 mph. The 16 valve edition reaches 60 mph in 11.6 seconds and tops out at 106 mph, so still nothing to really shout about. At the top of the range is the turbo edition which gets to 60 mph in less than ten seconds (9.6), and tops out at 117 mph, adequate performance but really not that much more. The turbo engine does offer a good spread of power and will reward the owner with a versatile and useful engine as well as decent fuel economy with 47 mpg; they're all pretty prudent with 50 mpg for the 1.2 and 49mpg for the 16V.

The Twingo is a reasonable leftfield choice but is unlikely to set too many peoples driveways alight. It's not that fast and the handling can be a little off putting, but it's nicely put together and will work well for the right owner. The decent economy figures will be another bonus for buyers.

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