Renault Twingo (2007 - 2014) 1.2 TCE GT 3d Owner Review

A fun, quick(ish), characterful warm supermini. The Twingo GT is a great all-round supermini with some warmish characteristics as a bonus. I know looks can be subjective, but I really like the look of the Twingo GT with the little sporty touches dotted around. It isn't too bubbly and has some minor hints of aggression like the crease in the centre of the bonnet and silver accents near the fog lights that make it stand out. However, I know some people dislike the cars look and normally make comments such as "Pff nice van" etc, and yes from the side it does look a bit van like due to the flat sides and the vertical hatchback boot, but, I believe this to be the reason why it has excellent rear passenger space compared to other cars in its class. The GT gets a number of sporty styling changes over the lower trim levels, such as larger 15" alloy wheels, silver mirror caps, a roof spoiler of such disproportion to make any boy racer blush, an oval chromed exhaust tip, tinted rear windows and body coloured exterior door trim. These all add up to make the GT look more aggressive over the base models. The Twingo GT also gets 1.2 litre turbocharger TCE engine making 100 bhp at 5500 rpm and 107 lb ft at 3000 rpm, because of this quite late surge of torque there is some noticeable turbo lag, but this isn't a complaint, in fact it’s quite fun, it makes it feel like you're accelerating at much a higher rate than you actually are. This TCE engine also quite likes to rev and never feels like it can be bothered, but near the top end it does lose this talent to rev, but this is typical of the turbo charged engines. Another great point going for the Twingo is the weight, stepping on the scales it doesn't even hit the 1-ton mark, This is evident from the fact that even though it only puts out 100 of your finest French horses it accelerates to 62 in just 10 seconds. However, it still feels faster than this as the lower gears especially second is geared for acceleration and is quite torquey and often I have spun a wheel in this gear when accelerating. So, 0 to 40 feels quite brisk. The gear change is overall a good experience almost feeling like it has a lightened flywheel fitted; with very little rev hang. I wouldn't say handling is at the top of Twingo's résumé, instead it’s probably in a smaller font near the bottom hoping that no one will really ask about it in depth. However, it's not dreadful it’s just not its strongest point. The GT trim has quite firm springs compared to a car focused more for comfort or pottering around in. This and the fact it isn't very heavy means on quite a bumpy road it can skip a bit over the bumps and loose some traction. Albeit, overall the springs aren't too uncomfortable, and I have never found them unbearable. The steering isn't the best but this car isn't even the full fat performance version, so we can't expect tight precise steering like you would find in the RS, so for this halfway point the steering isn't bad even though it sometimes feels like the tie rods are made of elastic. The car is fun to pitch into a corner quickly due to its sub ton weight and slightly playful behaviour, however, as predicted if you push hard you will find the front end will push out into under steer but this is probably exaggerated by the poor tyre compound fitted by the previous owner. I have had the back end step out before with some lift off over steer, which shows it does have a playful side compared to other competitors. It is a bit annoying you can't turn off the traction control although, it seems like most of the time it isn't working for me anyway so it’s not all bad. The pedals are just about close enough for relatively easy for some heel-toe action. The main downfall of this car is the cheaper interior with lots of scratchy plastics and peculiar design, but it's quirky so I’ll let it off. The seats annoyingly don't go down very low, so you feel a bit top heavy when driving fast. But for the price point there are not many negatives. Overall a great car and especially good for a new driver covering all the points a young car enthusiast like me would want from a car.