A large part of the Renault stand at the Rétromobile show is devoted to the Twingo, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, before soon to bow out.
After the Clio in 2020, it’s the turn of the Twingo to celebrate its 30th anniversary this year at the Retromobile show. The big meeting of more or less old cars has indeed just opened its doors this Wednesday, February 1 at Paris-Porte de Versailles until next Sunday, the opportunity to immerse yourself in the history of one of the the most famous of the tricolor automobile creation. Bouille, which can now officially claim collector car status, for the very first models released in 1993.
The Twingo, worthy heir to the 4L
The stand of the diamond brand thus celebrates the first generation of the Twingo, which began its commercial career in February 1993, after a presentation at the 1992 Paris Motor Show.
“We tend to forget it, but the Twingo replaced the 4L, whose production stopped at the end of 92 in France, after more than 30 years of career”, recalls Hugues Portron, director The Originals Renault (the new name of the diamond heritage, hitherto “Renault Classic”)
For him, we find in the Twingo the philosophy of the 4L, unlike the R5, released in the interval in 1972.
“There is a historian Jean-Louis Loubet who summed it up by saying ‘4L was the car for everyone’: we make a car, with three versions, but very little diversity, everyone has to like it, that it meets all needs. The R5 is the opposite, it’s ‘the car for everyone’, we’re going to invent the range within the range and it’s going to go from the 5L to the 5 Turbo via the Alpines, the GTLs, the TXs, etc. This logic will continue between the R5 and the Clio, which came out in 1990, and Twingo will perpetuate this approach of a car for everyone”, explains the director of The Originals Renault.
A car imagined in… 1973
At its launch, the Twingo does not deliberately display any diversity: the color is chosen from among four and with only one option, the sunroof. “All the interiors are the same, with a single level of finish, only left-hand steering, no right-hand steering wheel for export”, continues Hugues Portron.
A stripping that we find on the oldest Twingo exhibited this year at Retromobile, a pre-series released from the Flins factory in 1992, with small details different from the version which will be released in concessions a few months later. The opportunity to recall that the genesis of the project dates back to 1973, with the search started for the model that will succeed the 4L which had started its career in 1961. First objective: to limit costs to offer a cheap model.
“Renault was looking to follow up the 4L in a program called VBG, for ‘low-end vehicle’, shelved because either the car was still too expensive to produce, or they had cut back on everything so much it was awful. “, specifies Hugues Portron.
Space in a very compact version
But another model will finally revive the project in the 80s.
“In 1984, Renault launched another icon, the Espace, and finally the genius idea, a little later, was to make a small monospace: to apply the logic of the Espace to the entry level”, underlines our historian.
“We therefore have all the characteristics of the category, with a windscreen in the continuation of the hood and the largest possible passenger compartment in a vehicle under 3.50 meters, and modular with this famous sliding bench seat and the front seats which can unfold completely to form a berth”, adds Hugues Portron.
Renault would have gone so far in terms of savings – in particular with an antenna housed in the rear view mirror to limit the length of the cable connecting it to the car radio – that the city car-minivan will finally be able to afford a few “splurges” for an entry model of range: a pantograph mono-blade wiper, tinted windows or even rear window defrosting.
An interior that is still modern today
The interior also recovers a very modern element for the time: a central and digital counter. Behind the steering wheel, there is simply the display of lights. Other striking elements of the first Twingos, this steering wheel and the dashboard moved forward as much as possible to increase the space on board or even the Warning button in a clown’s nose style which surmounts a very refined dashboard.
The colorful seats also participate in this very 90s spirit: no choice at this level and therefore a design that should stick to all body colors, hence this color patchword.
“The idea also remained to make people forget that we were in a car that was intended to be very affordable, especially compared to its competitors of the time such as the Fiat Panda and Ford Fiesta”, underlines Hugues Portron.
To realize, the Twingo was launched in 1993 at a starting price of 55,000 francs, which represents a little less than 13,000 euros today taking inflation into account. The current budget to afford a Dacia Sandero with some options. The Dacia Sandero is ultimately the vehicle that took over from the 4L and Twingo to embody the Renault group’s entry-level.
Collections, like in fashion
When the Twingo was launched, success was immediate. The city then faces a new challenge: constantly renewing itself to bring change, without upsetting its entry-level positioning.
Clearly, the Twingo will change little: we recognize the models of the first years by the indicators separated from the lights or the shields which were not yet in your body. But Renault will innovate by offering collections, as in fashion, by introducing new colors. There will be seven in fifteen years and three facelifts, in 1998, 2000 and 2004.
“One of the Twingo’s slogans was ‘it’s up to you to invent the life that goes with it’ and that’s kind of what we find in this diversity that will follow its early career.”
The Twingo also had the right to special series, of which you can discover a few examples at Retromobile, such as the one designed by the specialist in high-end cars Lecoq in 1995, with less than fifty copies produced. An ultra-luxury Twingo treated like a Bugatti, whose design on the sides and design of the rims it takes up. Or that of Benetton, which dates from 1996, with a very colorful fabric inside. There are more than 60 over the entire career of the Twingo, the first of the name.
In total, this first generation of the Twingo sold 2.6 million units, mainly produced in Flins (Yvelines), but also at the Valladolid plant in Spain, which enabled Renault to respond to the strong request. A success mainly in France, but also in some European markets and around the world, with production in Colombia and Uruguay for South America.
