End clap for a mythical car! The Twingo is like Capri, it’s over. Renault confirmed this last week. Next year, the French car manufacturer will put an end to a saga of more than thirty years: the first Twingo appeared on our roads in June 1993.
An iconic template, offering a basic transport service at a low price, it is also a certain idea of the car for the generalized middle class which disappears with the end of its production. And it’s a heavy trend: more and more brands are abandoning their catalog of small entry-level city cars.
This little frog-like car with its two big eyes ready to blink, Chantal De Raedt is attached to it like the apple of her eye. “She is not beautiful ?“, defies this sympathetic Brussels retiree by telling us.
In her street in Forest, you can recognize her among a thousand: forget-me-not blue, parked in front of her building, she fits in with the big current models that all look alike. No central locking, from her driver’s seat Chantal reaches out before lifting the little latch to open the passenger side door for us. “It starts in a quarter turn!“.
What led him to this little racing car at the time (in 2007) were the brand’s two promises: maneuverability and sobriety. “As I live in the city, it is not very big, it parks beautifully, and it has good brakes. And then I often go to Brittany and so I transform it, I fill it up to the roof, and believe me or not, it becomes a real little van!“, she explains to us.
Indicators, wipers and a motor, it’s not bad, right?
Impression of space, readability – a single small electronic screen at the top of the console – and basic comfort: standard radio but only two options, sunroof and air conditioning. “When you say basic, does that mean I feel like I’m dragging a backpack over my shoulders?” quips Chantal, who is very satisfied with the equipment: “It has airbags, electric windows, I have indicators, wipers, an engine, it moves forward, it even has a fourth gear. It’s not bad, is it ?“
At the time of its launch in Belgium in June 1993, it cost 325,000 Belgian francs list price, or 8,000€ (12,000 adjusted for inflation). This is undoubtedly the recipe for popular success: 2.5 million copies sold, even if we are still very far from the eight million 4L, 5 million Citroën 2 CV and 21 million Volkswagen Beetle.
