Renault's New RWD, Rear-Engined Twingo Is A City Car That Might Surprise You

It’s been a good few years since we’ve seen a RWD production car from Renault (the electric Twizy doesn’t count because it’s a quadracycle), the most memorable examples being the Clio Renaultsport V6, the 5 Turbo and even earlier, the 8 Gordini.

Now, Renault’s back with a modern RWD offering, the new Twingo, and this time it’s rear-engined as well.

On paper, Renault makes the Twingo sound like an uncompromised city car that’ll quickly make us forget about the Up, Mii and Citigo triplets.

‘While the baby Renault has got the looks and agility departments sewn up, it’s the interior and quality of materials which take the shine off the Twingo package’

For starters, the Twingo’s rear-engine layout gives the car a considerably better turning circle than a front-driver (the wheels can turn a full 45 degrees), and space in the cabin is improved because the dashboard has been pushed forward. It also promises to be a more agile car than its wrong-wheel drive counterparts, possesses shorter overhangs and has a flat boot floor to make loading and unloading a bit easier. With the engine in the rear, there’s also more room for crash protection up front, which makes perfect sense.

The Twingo’s new look also makes good sense; it’s distinctive and handsome, while being cute and butch at the same time. Think of it as a Jack Russell Terrier with five doors.

To drive, you’d have to possess Yoda-like senses to even realise that the Twingo was in fact RWD and rear-engined. The supermini drives as well as any other well-sorted FWD city car, and in top-spec 0.9-litre, turbocharged three-cylinder form with 89bhp, feels decently nippy. Sure, 10.8 seconds to 62mph and a top speed of 103mph might say otherwise, but compared to the aforementioned triplets, it’s positively sportscar-like.

There’s also a lower-powered, naturally-aspirated 1.0-litre three-pot engine, which produces 69bhp and 67lb ft of torque. The vital stats here are 0-62mph in 14.5sec and a top speed of 94mph.

The gear shift of the five-speed manual is pleasingly notchy which makes changing gear good fun, and the steering responses are also decent at low speeds, if a little vague when you’re travelling at pace. The Twingo is easily the most nimble car in its class, which should get potential buyers pretty excited.

While the baby Renault has got the looks and agility departments sewn up, it’s the interior and quality of materials which takes the shine off the Twingo package, however.

The glass boot, for example, feels flimsy when you open and close it and the interior features no soft-touch plastics on the dashboard area. Zero.

The coloured vent-surrounds inside look modern but are too easy to pull off, and there’s an odd bin (the red thing in front of the gearlever) that sits on top of two cupholders between the driver and passenger that I wasn’t keen on. For starters, tall people will knock their leg against it, and when you simply want to use the cup holders underneath, you pull the bin out and then have nowhere to put the thing. The rear doors also come with pop out windows only, which is acceptable for a budget three-door car, but probably shouldn’t have been considered for the five-door only Twingo.

For those of you keen on maintaining your own Twingo (over 50 per cent of you already work on your own cars), there’s bad news; even for a simple service, you need to lift the carpet in the boot, undo a number of screws, lift the metal cover out and then get to work dropping the engine slightly to gain proper access.

Overall, though, the new Twingo is a car that you should consider for a number of reasons. It looks good, drives well, is agile and unrivalled in terms of manoeuvrability and, priced from £9495 for the entry-level ‘Expression 70’ and £11,695 for the Dynamique Energy 90 offers good value for money. Had Renault spent a little more time on the interior, I think the new Twingo could have easily been top of the city car pile.

Oh, and in case you were wondering: no, the Twingo cannot be drifted…