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 French carmaker Renault last month unveiled the fruits of a development partnership with Daimler’s hitherto struggling Smart offshoot that is widely acknowledged to ultimately benefit both partners to a near equal extent. Its all-new Twingo, sharing its DNA with Daimler’s imminent new generation of two and four-seater Smart city cars, is the result of a mutually beneficial joint-venture to develop from scratch a rear-engined baby car that for cost reasons neither Renault nor Daimler would have chosen develop on their own. A true clean-sheet creation, distinguished above all by a novel rear engine, the new 5-door Twingo was conceived chiefl y to do battle with affordable range-entry cars like the Volkswagen Group’s new Up family, Toyota’s new Aygo and its Peugeot and Citroën twins, and also Fiat’s hugely successful 500. In the UK, where new Twingo goes on sale this month, on-the-road prices start at £9,495 for the 70PS 3-cylinder version. That’s not cheap. Roughly the same money, £9,010, will buy the 5-door 60PS range-entry version of the more substantial VW Up...more The ubiquitous Nissan Qashqai 09 September 2014 > ROAD TEST | Vantastique – Renault’s new Trafic 31 July 2014 > ROAD TEST | Late to Crossover party - Suzuki SX4 S-Cross 17 June 2014 |
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