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RENAULT TWINGO | |
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| Year of release | 1993 |
| Dimensions | Length: 3.43m Width:1.63m |
The Twingo project was deemed so daring that it almost stayed on the shelf. This new 3-door single box concept with its offbeat styling revisited the very fundamentals of automotive design. A deliberately minimalist car with a strong character, Twingo made its mark.
Nevertheless, choices were limited: a single engine, a restricted range of colors with one type of fabric, an extremely simple plastic dashboard and absolutely no options! Twingo was a completely new concept on the car market… and a great way to attract young customers unwilling to spend large amounts of money on a small car. This unique car had an equally unique price tag of just FF 55,000. An excellent deal for a car that reached new heights in original and functional design.
Over the years, a range of special series with alluring names – Air, Sari, Jungle, Elite and Emotion – attracted an even wider public.
Resembling a friendly frog with twinkling eyes for headlamps, Twingo had instant appeal. It notched up 174,259 happy owners in just nine months of production! Buyers liked its strong character – Twingo does things its own way – and light-hearted approach to life. More than a new car, it was a new lifestyle. Public enthusiasm was such that a French weekly reported that the Twingo ranked among the vehicles preferred by… car thieves!
A few years after Twingo was launched, the “Le Monde” newspaper wrote: “Its original single-volume shape, a concept previously only found in large MPV sedans, conceals above-average manoeuvrability, the character of a close and conniving friend (each headlight resembles a winking eye) and a range of exterior and interior colours that are deliberately eye-catching.” Some cars inspire conventionality, but Twingo is deliberately different.
The first-generation Twingo enjoyed an exceptionally long career of almost 14 years. In June 2007, the second-generation Twingo replaced its venerable predecessor on European markets.
Twingo II, entirely manufactured in Slovenia at the Novo Mesto plant, was first presented at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show as a show car. The market version adopted the same platform as Clio II and featured major upgrades.