Renault has previewed the styling of their 2012 update for the Twingo.
Tag Archives: Renault Twingo
Renault-Nissan and Daimler announce partnership
Renault-Nissan and Daimler have announced a partnership today, in which they will cooperate on future vehicles and technologies.
Cheap Car of the Year: Revision
We have discovered that we made a bit of an error during the Cheap Car of the Year awards. Our winner, the Renault Twingo, was first released in 2007, not 2009 as we originally thought. This means we will move our runner-up, the Volkswagen Polo, into winner position, and will be deciding a new runner-up shortly. Sorry for this mistake, stay tuned for the revised results.
Cheap Car of the Year: Winner
Today it’s time to unveil our Cheap Car of the Year. As the title says, it has to be cheap but that doesn’t mean it has to be rubbish to drive or made out of old wheelie bins. Small, light, agile and fun was the thing we looked for.
And the winner is:
Car of the Year Nominees: Part 2
Continuing with Car of the Year nominees, here’s the second part. Family Car of the Year and Cheap Car of the Year are here.
Family Car of the Year
This is where we choose the ideal car for people with big families. Lots of space is an absolute must.
Fiat Doblo: Looks great, seats plenty of people, and it’s quite economical as well.
Toyota Sienna: The looks are a bit iffy in some places, but it promises sporty handling with a comfortable ride, great interior, and plenty of room.
Volvo XC60: A good looking car with a great, spacious interior. Very safe as well.
Vauxhall/Opel Insignia Sports Tourer: New Vauxhalls/Opels have said good bye to their old, conservative, ugly ancestors and buried them in the middle of nowhere. As a result they now make good cars and this good looking estate Insignia is one of them
Dacia Duster: A funky looking car with plenty of space, promising a low price tag.
Citroen C3 Picasso: Funky Citroen looks, with plenty of practicality and a reasonable price.
Cheap Car of the Year
These are cars for those of us who don’t want to, or simply can’t, spend too much money. Price range we set is $25,000 CAD and under.
Renault Twingo: A nice looking car with good handling and interior. Comes in a fantastic Renaultsport trim too.
Ford Fiesta: Ford has launched the new Fiesta hatch in 2008 in Europe but not in North America so we actually found an excuse to nominate it as it is a very, very good supermini.
Volkswagen Polo: This small, German hatchback has actually won the European Car of the Year Award, but that’s not important, as now it faces the most important test ever: Will it be our Cheap Car of the Year?
Renault Considering Return to North America
Renault, maker of all sorts of nice cars like the Dacia Duster shown above, is considering returning to North America, after a 22 year absence.
Talking to Wall Street Journal, Renault’s Gerard Detourbet, head of the entry-level vehicles division, said that the Dacia Duster is a car which will influence this decision. He says that if the car does well in Eastern Europe and South America, Renault would consider giving it a chance in the US.
They won’t be entering with just one car though, like they did in late 1982 with the Alliance. They intend to have a whole family of affordable vehicles. Besides the Duster, the Renault Logan is another car which could be part of this line-up. Both cars will likely be changed for the US market though.
Renault is also considering an appearance in Southeast Asia.
I’d love to see Renault here, providing that they bring cars such as the Twingo RS and Clio RS.
Source: Wall Street Journal via Autoblog
Renault Announces 2 Entry-Level Rally Cars
Renault has announced two Twingo based rally cars, meant to race in low-level rallying while still being good daily drivers. These are the Twingo RenaultSport R1 and Twingo RenaultSport R2.
They both come equipped with a four-cylinder 1.6L engine, putting out 160hp and 160nm of torque, 27hp more than the stock Twingo. The engine has been hooked up to a five-speed sequential gearbox with a dog clutch and wheel-mounted shifter (Not to be mistaken for paddle-shifters, the shifter is simply mounted to the steering column).
The exterior gets very little changes, just an optional roof mounted air intake as well as some new wheels.
The interior gets quite a few changes though. There are racing seats and harnesses, an LED instrument panel, roll cage, and racing wheel. There are also quite a few bits missing compared to the standard model, for the sake of saving weight.
The kit will cost about $40,000, but you need a standard Twingo to apply the kit to, which will set you back another $16,000 or so. Not too cheap if you ask me.
That’s why there’s the R1. The R1 is supposed to be a cheaper version of the R2 kit. They’ve removed some things like adjustable suspension and a limited slip differential to make it cheaper. Renault hasn’t released pricing on the R1 yet though.
Source: WorldCarFans
Renault launches first Gordini model
Well, as Igor wrote earlier, Renault was planning to revive the Gordini brand and now they’ve released their first model.
Renault Reviving the Gordini Badge
Peugeot may be killing off the GTI badge, but another French company, Renault, is reviving one of their badges, Gordini, and will be badging various hot hatches with it.
Rather than being completely new hot hatches, these will be Renaultsport cars, but with many personalization options, a bit like the Ferrari One-to-One program.
The first car to be released under this name will be the Twingo Gordini RS, based on the Renaultsport Twingo 133. This is presumably the car under the cover in the picture above. It will be revealed on November 25th, and will go on sale during the Spring of 2010. A Clio Gordini RS, based on the Renaultsport Clio 200 Cup, will follow a few months after.
Just a shame that these Gordini cars don’t come with some added performance.
Source: Evo