In 2007, Time magazine listed 25 so-called ‘Crimes of the Century’ – jewel heists, Rembrandts going walkabout, that sort of thing. But it forgot the biggest crime of all: Renault never sold the original Twingo in right-hand drive. Truly, the Sea of Galilee has seen less turbulence than the fury this caused among Britain’s francophile car nerds.
Would it have sold here? Hard to say. We might love to bang on about French eccentricity, but when it comes to parting with cash, Brits generally prefer sensible superminis like the 5, 205 and AX. Packaging and price usually trump personality. Which is why the frog-faced little Twingo was both a risk and a revelation when it appeared in Paris in 1992.
Conceived under Renault boss Raymond Lévy and designed by Patrick Le Quément, it was cheap (unpainted bumpers, ancient 1.2 engine, clown’s-nose hazard switch), but also clever. Sliding rear seats gave Renault 25 levels of legroom, the interior was bright and cheerful, and the whole car looked like something you’d want to tuck under your arm and place by the fireplace. Not that market research liked it – 40 percent of people actively hated the thing. Which, naturally, made it perfect.
Of course, Renault never bothered to tool up a right-hand drive dashboard, so officially the UK never got a Mk1 Twingo. A few left-hookers sneaked in, but otherwise we were left peering jealously across the Channel while continental buyers snapped them up in their millions.
Today, the Mk1 Twingo is rightly celebrated as one of the happiest, most characterful cars of the 1990s – part amphibian, part family pet, and all charm. Proof that sometimes the real crime is not what was built, but what wasn’t.
You can read the full in-depth story in issue 32 of Classic.Retro.Modern. magazine; it’s a tale of assassinations, design battles, sumo wrestlers and sliding seats.
