Renault Twingo GT

Road Test

Your Say

Test date 03 October 2007 Price as tested £9,790

For Fun to drive, clever interior packaging, performance, agility, low kerb weight

AgainstNasty steering wheel, tame styling, coarse engine, unsupportive seats

The original Renault Twingo of 1993 was one of the more ground-breaking designs of the ’90s, but it was never officially sold in the UK because it was never engineered for right-hand drive. Even so, it still sold in massive numbers throughout Europe and eventually found its way onto some 2.4 million driveways.

This new version is quite different from the original, not merely for the more predictable way in which it is styled but also because it’s available in right-hand drive. Based on a modified version of the previous-generation Clio platform and available (as tested in £9995 GT guise) with a punchy 1.2-litre turbocharged engine, it is much more sophisticated technically than its predecessor, not to mention significantly more expensive.

Renault claims this is a car for the iPod generation, hence the various different ways in which you can download and play your tunes in the car. Whether this is enough on its own to tempt buyers away from the likes of the excellent new Mazda 2 and Fiat 500, both recently road tested by this magazine, only time will tell.