Twingo

The Renault Twingo Open Roof is a remarkably odd vehicle even by European standards. Sure, it has the thin sheetmetal stampings and toyish looks that we have all come to expect from the continent responsible for the Isetta and the Fiat 500, but the Twingo has a number of additional characteristics which really does make it stand out.

Most importantly, in my opinion, is its utilitarian "Civic meets minivan" shape which provides not at all unreasonable interior room but with a very short front overhang. It's goofy and tiny and really useful.

This front overhang came in very handy when we visited the castle in Salobreña, which required is to navigate a sortof ascending maze with passageways only slightly larger than, say, my fist.

No, seriously, it was quite a squeeze. Pictures (and maybe another post) will follow.

Edit: As you can see, pictures have been added inline. No followup post on the Twingo, though.

The second odd feature is the roof which cracks open with a latch and slides all the way back. This was quite neat when we actually used it—almost half of the way from Nerja to Granada.

Edit: That was all the time we used it. The other two drives occured at night and very at night, respectively.

And as far as I can tell, the roof didn't really add any excessive noise when closed. Every convertible I've even been in has whooshed and hissed and creaked like mad at speed, but the rag top on the Renault didn't complain much at all. I suppose this is because the top is made of thick layers of hard and soft plastic instead of one or two layers of canvas or vinyl.

Other neat features of the Renault Twingo Open Roof include:

• Digital centrally mounted dash
  
• Really really tiny tires
  
• Power windows and door locks
  
• Rear fog lamp
  
• No odometer
  
• AM/FM tape deck (with removable face!)
  
• Grey. Lots of grey.
  

Edit: The Twingo has one other feature which had me stumped originally. There exists a numbered scroll wheel beside the steering wheel labeled with a headlamp. I had guessed—much as you probably would—that this adjusted the gauge brightness.

Not so. It actually adjusts the angle of the headlights! HOT! There is video of me spinning the lamps up and down in a parking garage here. The video isn't really clear and it's difficult to tell what's going on and, admittedly, it's sortof böring. But hey, tilty headlights!

I've never driven a car with such easy controls (especially the clutch), but at the same time, everything has sufficient tactility. Hats off to the French, they really know how to engineer look and feel.

It's also a fairly zippy little car, and something that hauls its way up to speed pretty easily. It's certainly faster than a number of cars I've owned (4Runner, Volvo 240) and it really shows in the acceleration and handling. It's a very tossable vehicle.

Every once in a while, somebody discovers how to make a damned good little car. The Volkswagen Rabbit GTI, Honda CRX, and a few others come to mind. Now, the Renault Twingo isn't really as great a vehicle as though, but it's still really damned fine. Very, very cool car.