In October 1992, so exactly 30 years ago, Renault unveiled their little monospace gem, called the Twingo. Small on the outside, yet with a spacious and practical interior. And it was low-priced, but also remarkably tough.
Lower picture: 1993 on the left (with the optional soft top), 1994 on the right. Alphabetically, the letters HB come before HX (see license plates), which indicates the Twingo on the left is a bit older. Dutch plates tell you something about the vehicle’s first date of registration in the Netherlands, nothing else.
The duo is powered by the old-school, 1,239 cc Cléon-Fonte engine with a maximum power output of 54 hp. Luckily, it’s in a 785 kg (1,731 lbs) lightweight-people mover. No worries, the Twingo does accelerate, in one way or another.
The Twingo was born a classic. In hindsight, anyway. I’m sure that in many years from now, we can still enjoy its overwhelming simplicity and practicality, all combined with such a small footprint. Once again, Renault hit a home run in the world of small passenger cars.
The whole first gen Renault Twingo story, by Tatra87:
Curbside Classic: 1995 Renault Twingo Easy – Renault’s Most Intelligent Small Car
Owned an early Twingo for years as my “practical” car – spacious, charming and fun. Flat packed 2.4m wardrobes would fit in it with the front passenger seat reclined, I used it to sleep in it at Le Mans and later worked at Renault with its designer, LeQuement.
He and lead designer Ploue achieved a one box design which was space efficient and charming, both inside and out. It rode well and with the big sunroof folded back it just put you in a good, relaxed mood. The old pushrod motor was not very powerful or refined, but when hustled it could actually handle, too. Its successor was disappointingly just another generic small car.
Fond memories!
A future classic as the fiat cinquecento or the mini. I am pretty sure of that.
For you in Europe, it’s time to buy them … At the start, there was absolutely no option , your only choice was the colour. Then they introduced, electric windows, open roof etc… but still very limited number of options.
Nevertheless, there was for a few years an “initiale” version with leather and some luxurious features. The Cleon engine got replaced by a more powerful and modern one with 60 HP and 16 valves if I am correct.
You can also check the nice and charming ad campaign on you tube : https://youtu.be/_KtHRktR6fg
And as Huey said the 2nd generation was so disappointing, bland, dull, boring… how can you mess like that when you are renewing such a smart and successful car ?
60 hp with 8 valves (D7F engine) and 75 with 16 valves (D4F).
Love those first-gen Twingos. 30 years later, the design still holds. One of a long list of cool small cars that were verboden in the US.
Like Huey says, the later variants lacked the personality of the first gen. The Ford Ka is another small hatch that was very cool and unique with the first gen, followed by very forgettable successors.
There are a number of charming French cars and this is one of them. The interior is as charming as the exterior. It was not blessed with a charming engine however – but it functioned well enough. I am a fan of these one box cars and disappointed that their practicality, affordability and dependability lose to hulking SUVs in today’s driveways. I sat in the parking lot of my kid’s school yesterday and there wasn’t a single vehicle in that school parking lot that didn’t weigh less than 4000 pounds and cost under $50,000. I miss seeing practical rides popular during the 1980s and 1990s before the SUV boom. It seem today’s mom has returned to the days of their grandmothers when granny was young and tooled around in a Mercury Colony Park, Chrysler Town and Country or Chevrolet Suburban.
The Twingo was cool, French and affordable – nothing an Infiniti Super Manatee SUV could hold a croissant to.
My 80 year old mother is still driving her 1999 Twingomatic, Renault speak for a automatic gearbox. They are almost indestructible, specially when you drove maybe 2000 mile a year….
Neat little cars, smart interior with slidingvrearseat makes them more practical then you would expect from such a small car.
True, we have a 2004 Initiale Paris with quick shift, which in plain English is the 16Valve OHC engine with leather, airco and a rbot automatic gearbox.
It has 48000 kilometers on the clock.
The Dutch adore and have embraced le Twingo, in our cities it is still a common sight.
I love the Gumby green.
In the US, that color was how I could identify vehicles that had been Helig-Meyers delivery trucks sold on to the private market. I saw an F-150 this morning in that color.
We never got the first gen Twingo here in the UK, but I do occasionally see either grey imports or foreign registered cars driving about and they always catch my eye for all the right reasons. Very cool little cars with great, practical design
When traveling by car in Europe I’d see and admire these. Even went to a Renault dealer to look closer. I still like them. Certainly the first and only Renault about which I can say that. Even have a 1/43 scale model of a Twingo.
From Japan we get 25+ year old different cars that seem to have some market demand here – Figaro, S-Cargo, Autozam, Stagea, Soarer, etc. Is there a market in the USA for imported Twingos? They’re cheap in Europe but maybe they are not as well built or maintained as used Japanese market cars.
I think an imported Twingo would be fun, if it was cheap enough. But I’d be scared to ever take one on Phoenix or Denver freeways and how would I get parts?
Oh the world needs ride like this now adays!!
Perhaps the most charming European car of the 1990s?
An extremely worthy contender in my opinion, but i’d also argue it would be nearly impossible to compete with VW’s New Beetle; as deliberate as it may be, it really is on a completely different level than anything else.
What an endearing little car! Just to look at it makes you feel good. It almost makes me want to own a Renault – this one.
I reckon this era was something of a high point in car design, as far as appearance is concerned, at least. Yes I know we need increased body strength and all that – but look at this thing! Clean, practical, attractive, and fun looking. You can see out. And it comes in colour. I cannot think what the current Renault equivalent would be and I’m not sure I care to look.
I don’t expect my take to be revelation, but with those parking lights under the eyes, the “face” is undeniably endearing. Moe, even.
In 1997 I started traveling to Taiwan (from the US) frequently for business. Lots of great memories – delicious food, new friends, great professional colleagues – but also a whole new world of cars, eclectic compared to the US, Europe, or Japan. Alongside Ford Tempo’s, GM J cars, Alfa 164 police cars, Nissan Figaro’s and various other Japanese cars never imported to the US, the Renault Twingo was very popular. I immediately fell in love with it, but within a few years they all seemed gone from Taiwanese streets, along with the US brands, and the streets looked much more American, crowded with Civics, Camries, RAV4’s and CRV’s.
I’ve never been too keen on small no-frills motoring, but the Twingo and the original Ford Ka both made me smile when I saw them in magazines or on a screen. Such fun styling – it must be near impossible to be in a bad mood when driving such a happy car!
Renault (with the Twingo) and Ford (with the Ka): “we have two unique models which sell well and have a cult following, what shall we do? Oh, that’s it, we’ll replace them with anodyne, generic cars”.
That’s an extremely appealing little vehicle. Looks like it should be starring in a kids’ book about “Timmy the Car’s Big Day in Town,” or something similar.