[00:00] You get this little gadget when you buy a new Renault Twingo but what does it do? Well it's actually a key which unlocks this panel here that then gives you access to
[00:12] the windscreen washer fluid bottle so you can fill it up. If I pull a lever underneath the rear seat I can slide them back then if I push a lever on the front passenger seat I can fold the back down
[00:24] and transform this car into... Indian and Neen If you open the boot and look inside you'll see not only has this got a false floor but it's actually a split false floor
[00:36] that added flexibility The new Renault Twingo is a bit like... a Sranc So actually my words, that's Renault's words and they've spent this could be for a few splashes to illustrate the point
[00:48] You see the original was affectionately called Le Sranc and as this is a retro version of that car car which you never actually got in the UK they've given me this collutor to take part in the review but I think this is a load of nonsense. It's a car isn't it?
[01:05] The new Twingo is based on the same platform as the excellent Renault 5 only it has slightly more basic rear suspension to help keep the costs down. It also has a smaller battery just 27.5 kilowatt hours which Renault says is good enough for 163 miles of range but I'll find out the
[01:21] the reality a bit later in this video. Like the Renault 5 it's front wheel drive but its motor produces less power just 82 horsepower so does that mean it's slow? Now the original Renault Twingo would be 0-6 in about 13 and a half seconds. Has there been much progress? Let's go 3, 2, 1, go for it.
[01:40] Initial pick up is pretty decent at 13. The weight and the light, then it tiles off after 13 quite considerably. Oh here we go, oh that's 16, 11.07 so round it up to 11.1 seconds, definitely quicker
[01:55] than the old Twingo because that initial pickup is good. Now then I actually claim it does not 16, 12.1 seconds so that is an improvement over claimed. So yes progress has definitely been made.
[02:07] Well that's it, let's do a quick brake test from six miles an hour. We're looking for a distance 35 metres or under, what will it do? Here we go, going to the braking zone. Now, 3, 2, 1.
[02:21] Panned on 35 metres. But the best thing about this car is the way it looks. This car just has so much character. Just look at it and fall in love. It's all about these eyes, isn't it? That they've done with the daytime running lights. It's really clever how they've achieved that.
[02:34] And it's just so faithful to the original. But feels so modern at the same time. Even though we didn't have this car in the UK, People probably won't even know the original Twingo. They're going to look at this and go, I want one. So cool. And it can be affordable.
[02:46] Renault is going to start under £20,000. This is a Range Rover, though. So you've got 18-inch alloy wheels on this small hatchback. And I'll go through this feature as well. When Range Rover launched the current version of the Range Rover, they made a big new horror about the fact they didn't have a seal where the window was.
[03:02] And Renault's done the same thing on their little entry-level model. Bravo, Renault. Bravo. Then when you move around the back, the character continues with these taillights which mean at the front and they've got these little bits on them there which you think that's just there for design isn't it but actually they do improve the aerodynamics of the car which will
[03:18] help improve the range and make it quieter when you're traveling at speed i like it i could see this on my driver also i've got to hand it to renault they are designing cars which look good in bright colors i mean every other car in the car park is either gray white or black but not
[03:32] renault's thanks for bringing color back into our lives and it's the same story on the inside As you can see there's colour coding here on the dash, on the doors, and if you look at the floor mats there's more colour coding as well. These shapes which are mimics in the roof lining.
[03:45] I like that. I actually like the overall design to tell you the truth. The only thing that's a bit odd is the fact that the dash is quite a bit higher than the window ledge is off. Now obviously the materials in here are all plastic and budget let's say.
[03:58] And there are places where things feel a little bit cheap. I mean look at this plastic, look at that. That's not ideal. and I've noticed this as well the noise of the electric window when it goes off
[04:12] what a thud I've got that regulator's breaking as well and I'm also a bit concerned that it could chop your finger off so we're going to see if it will guillotine Pierre splashing
[04:26] ready Pierre you've been very bad but vive la revolution Anti doesn work fortunately for that guy Sorry that was just a bit of nonsense Now I should point out that the infotainment screen is right in your line of sight that great and it quite bright easy to use you got Google mapping on it as well and it logically laid out
[04:50] the best thing is though is that Renault listens to drivers and that's why you've got proper controls for your climate though on the entry-level model you don't have digital climate control I'm afraid there's no one air conditioning. Digital driver display has some cool little graphics it's very easy to read and see what's going on
[05:04] One thing I do find is that the steering wheel is a bit on the large side and then there's the whole kind of Renault octopus thing going on with too many levers and stuff here. Like you've got your controls for your stereo, you've got your windscreen wipers and then your drive select is all the way up here.
[05:17] Now I like a drive select on the steering column but I've found myself accidentally activating the windscreen wipers thinking that the drive select... There's too much going on. Get rid of this, put these buttons on the steering wheel and then move all of this down right now, OK?
[05:30] However, I do think the damp feeling of these controls is quite nice. Much better than a far more expensive BMW to deliver to. In terms of practicality, there's quite a lot going on here. So you've got this ledge here.
[05:42] There's a ledge there. And you don't have wireless charging. But, look, that's the perfect place here with mobile phones. So it's at an angle so you can see it if you need to. Then there's this weird storage solution thing going on here.
[05:54] This is a bit silly. You've got a lid on it and you can't quite open it very easily until you get on the way there. Then there's the cup holder. you only get one and it's not really great holding a bottle see it can just fall over quite easily then there's this other storage solution thing going on here
[06:13] and there is a 12-volt socket as you're wondering there's your usb c's as well actually there's a box it's fine and the door bins will they fit a large bottle come on reno get in there come on Now, just normal sort of stuff. That's a shame. Hopefully there's some decent door bins in the back.
[06:30] Bizarrely, there are no door bins here. There is this sort of storage tray there, but it's not quite the same. Another issue I have with the back seats is this. Tends to be like to when I was a kid, going in my mum's original Mini. Look, you don't have windy-down windows, just bones. Just again, don't you?
[06:46] Now my five-year-old daughter would not like to travel in the back of this car, because she always likes to have the window down. down. New person though? I'd be fine. So new is pretty decent. Headroom is quite tight but I can get away with it.
[06:59] However people over six foot will struggle because look you sit back a bit as you want to you can end up banging your head on this bit that's not ideal really. If you need to carry a baby though it's better than you might think so the ice kick anchor points are easy to get to the door opens wide
[07:13] enough and there's enough space back here for even a bulky rear facing seat so that is good. What's Well it's not so good though with the USB-C's for people back here and this is the top spec car, the Ronald You do have some decent sized pockets on the seat-backs though
[07:26] Hooray! Oh and there's this look There's this writing here in French which relates to adverts to the old Twingo or something like that and there's various other ones throughout the car I think there might be one in the boot so let's find out
[07:39] So if I open the boot If you look up here you'll see Ouvrette Desprit Got a brilliant French accent That means open mind apparently Big puss tea. Men are claimed 360 litres.
[07:51] That does not look like 360 litres. If it was 360 litres, I should be able to get a Tommy into the boot. Can I make him here? You can sit in there. Um, I don't think so for now. No, you won't be able to shop it. Right, but that 360 litres is taking into account the underfloor storage.
[08:07] So let's remove these panels and remove all the cables. There's a lot of cable. I can well believe that this is deleted underneath there.
[08:28] It's got a lot of stuff. Now Tommy do you think we can get in here now? Try a bit. Or... Maybe.
[08:40] No. No. It's more this really than this. Right, so I've got a solution Tommy, so if you just hop out, I'm going to remove this load cover. It's quite like this, simple, flexible, light, but does the job.
[08:57] Let's just put this down and now I'm going to move the seats into their boot capacity position. There you go Tommy, can you now fit in the boot?
[09:11] A bit more lighter, isn't it really? There we go. And do you know what there enough room for there you go aww aww lovely
[09:30] it's not bad now these things I know where I'm going to put those in the front boot hey Tommy can you open the front boot please aww there's no latch there's no latch that means there's no front boot
[09:42] it makes total sense now that's why you have this little hatch for the windscreen washer fluid that's annoying Actually I've just noticed this as well, the place where you put the key in to unlock it is a bit worn So if someone's been out there with a screwdriver, do you know what?
[09:56] I think that those little keys are going to be too easy to lose and people are going to end up like trying to leave it off with a screwdriver and leave a mess in the front of their car like that And that brings me to five annoying things about this car When you shut the door it sounds really cheap
[10:09] Also pretty hard enough, the back door wobbles So listen to this one That sounds even more flimsy And when you do that one, the boot wobbles. Depending on where the sun is, the reflection of the dash in the windscreen is terrible.
[10:24] I mean, how distracting is that? Now, I've figured out why the reflection in the dash is so bad. It's because this flash that they use on the top of the dash is quite cheap and so shiny, so it's reflective. Another thing I've noticed is there's lots of reflection in the orange panel on the dash.
[10:39] It looks cool, but when you're going underneath trees and stuff like, you get this flickering effect and it's also distracting. The position of this seat relative to this pillar means that sometimes when you're driving along and you want to relax or you get a mood, you can do that and get your funny bow.
[10:54] Don't things happen in other cars? I know this is a budget car but the definition of this reversing camera is just so poor. Also there's no wash and it's low down so it gets covered in grime. Look at that, that bit's been cleaned in already.
[11:06] That's a bit of a mess now. A car for the life of me understands why electric cars that have keyless entry and go insist on having a power on and off button. an off button it should be that you just get in the car with your key put it into drive and away
[11:19] you go like in many cars such as teslas and volvos but not here right also even though we have a button there which we think is parked there is no park function in the drive select it's reverse or drive or neutral that means that if you have it in neutral but you don't have the parking brake on
[11:33] it will roll away thankfully this car has plenty of cool features to help make up for all this you can use these paddles on the steering rod to alter the amount of regen braking from coasting to heavy regen braking and if you have the top-step techno you have full one pedal
[11:47] drive as well there's these little modules dotted around the car they're called wide clips the idea is that you can buy accessories which will just latch onto them you can even 3d print them out this is the best button in the whole car
[12:00] so you can configure it to automatically turn off all your annoying safety beeps and bonks the tweeter has one of the coolest welcome animations of any car
[12:12] It's just so happy Another good thing about the Renault Twingo Is the price It should be affordable
[12:24] They haven't confirmed the pricing in the UK yet But Renault does say it should be under £20,000 So depending on when you're watching this Head over to CarWow to find out the pricing on it And the savings through CarWow
[12:36] There is one thing though You see also through CarWow you can buy used cars And I found this Tesla Model 3 it's like four years old 30,000 miles for similar money to this Twingo and that's a lot more car
[12:48] for your money but there is a risk in buying a used car you don't always know their history and that's why I highly recommend that if you're buying a used car do a car vertical history check on it before you part
[13:00] with any cash because here's a car vertical history check on a Tesla Model 3 that has a shady past look you can see from the photos that it's been involved in an accident so you probably wouldn't want to buy that car so if you're buying a used car
[13:12] Do a car vertical history check, find the link in the description of this video, or send me a QR code on screen now, and use the code CARWOW for 20% off. Question is though, what's this new Twingo like to drive? This should be the environment where the Twingo really excels.
[13:26] If it doesn't perform here, then forget about it, right? And this is something that surprises me a little bit, and not in a good way. So I just call it small, compact. But it doesn't feel quite as easy to spread through traffic as I might have thought originally.
[13:38] and the main reason is the dash being so high and these A pillars are quite big means that it's a bit harder to judge where the main front corners of the car are it's not terrible and it's better than larger cars but it's just not quite as easy as I thought it would be
[13:52] here's a perfect example without getting to the here I'm not sure where my front wheels are I don't want to curb them this car doesn't think I have the surround view cameras to help me out either what makes matters worse is the difference between the bottom of the mirror and the top of the dash because you got this part of all your sensors in it it just eats into the space which is one of the key areas that you look through
[14:12] There you look through there. Well, I can't criticize those, the suspension. So, it might be an affordable car, but the suspension does not feel cheaped out at all. It deals nicely with bumps, so it doesn't seem all floppy either. That's so quite a challenge.
[14:24] I find it really tight when we go in Christian in Munich. As for the rest of the visibility, these pillars do play a big old blind spot. Also, while the view out the back window is good, the rear three quarters is terrible because of the huge rear pillar.
[14:36] Tell you what though, the steering is light enough without being overly light. The brakes, they're smooth for an electric car. I prefer the brakes in this than on the Renault 5. I tell you what I really prefer to most cars is this. The turning circle is super tight.
[14:51] Check this out right, less than 10 metres. No worries at all. Where you going mate? You can't park there? Ok then, just stopping, hanging out over the junction.
[15:03] Couldn't find a better place to park. I'm going to try the self parking here. There we go, press the button on here. Select which way I want to park. I want to park in here. Should be looking for spaces.
[15:15] There we go, stop. Fix it, found a space, hit park. Select reverse gear. It should park here. here. It should park me into the space.
[15:29] So it'll turn the steering wheel but one thing you have to know, you have to control the speed in the brakes. Okay? When I first tested this car I didn't realise that. There might have been some warnings on the screen that I missed, I don't know. But anyhow, I was just
[15:43] like puking along, it was reversing and it was accelerating. I almost hit the car behind. I didn't though because I hit the brakes in time. So be warned, to have this car, the The auto-bar is good, but you have to do the throttle and the brakes.
[15:55] Okay, so, let's try the bike on the motorway. This is where small cars can really fall down. So, accelerating at the motorway speed, so that's in dual carriageway. So, 40 miles an hour to 70. 3, 2, 1, go.
[16:11] For an electric car, it's quite slow, but it's definitely quicker than the original Twingo would have been. Right, now let's see what's it like. So it seems a little less settled on its suspension now as you're going quicker, but it's not bad.
[16:24] You do get quite a bit of road noise and whizzle from around these big pillars. So I can still even price the car. It's getting acceptable. Now while the seat might not be the most supportive, I do find them quite comfy. So you're very capable miles, isn't it?
[16:37] Well as many miles as the range will allow. Speaking of which, what is the real world rate I'm getting from this car? According to the car's trip computer, over 250km I've driven this car, I can see that it's getting 14.5kWh per 100km which translates to 4.3 miles per kWh
[16:55] When you multiply that by the battery's capacity to 27.5kWh You end up with a real world range of 118 miles Which is quite a lot shorter than Renault's Cade 1.63 miles
[17:07] And interestingly it's pretty much the same real world range that I got at the Honda Street Racket Hmm... That's not quite as good as I hoped the final touch of this car is the pushy road so its bigger brother the Renault 5 is actually
[17:19] very decent front to side is this as well obviously with long length performance so that is going against it so what about the handling right its in alright good to road really well it doesn't need that much of the bends its
[17:33] quite the fact that its got nice rock compliant suspension yeah so the FI does have a little bit more about it but this is good this is definitely one of the best driving small electric the steering is accurate but you don't feel connected to the car through it
[17:48] I understand what you do with a Honda Super M but there's just something about that car just the way it steers the way it goes around corners the way it accelerates and the way it has great gear changes as well which makes it just on another level so well I can see a lot of people will like
[18:02] this car me personally I'd rather drive a Honda Super M in fact if you want to see my fun video review of the Honda Super M click on the pop-out banner too now I'll put the link in the description of this video but this is still pretty good In fact it's better than some bigger more expensive electric cars to be fair.
[18:17] So then what's my final verdict on the new Renault Twingo? Should you avoid it, consider it shortlisted or just go right ahead and buy it? Well I think you should just go right ahead and buy the Renault Twingo. Looks cool, feels like a bigger car to drive than it actually is and it's affordable.
[18:31] I hope you enjoyed the video, if you did give it a like. Let me know what you think of my verdict in the comments below. Actually, Pierre made a good point. He said you know what Matt, for not much more money you could have a Renault 5, but would you? Watch my in-depth overview of the Renault 5 to make your decision.
[18:45] Anyway, thanks for watching. I'll see you next time. You won't be invited back.