The Twingo’s cabin has plenty of colour and visual interest, as well as some novel storage solutions, but there’s a bit of sleight of hand going on in here: eye-catching features intended to cover up for a cabin that isn’t as practical as it should be.
The driving position is sound, but you don’t get the reach adjustment on entry-level models, and neither do you get ISOFIX child seat anchorages for the front seat as standard, which could be an issue for parents with child seats that are too bulky for the back. Adding ISOFIX points to the front requires that you opt for the 'Seats pack', which also adds front seat heating.
There’s decent room for your extremities up front but headroom in the back is poor. Most adults will struggle with only 860mm of it. An Up gives you 920mm and most family-sized cars at least 950mm.
Up front, we like the pragmatic universal mounting clip for a smartphone, which fits neatly into the centre of the audio control console. Less impressive is the gimmicky storage box, which doesn’t fit so neatly into its dock ahead of the gearlever and sticks out sufficiently proud of the fascia to foul your left leg. There’s a pair of cupholders underneath it, but they’re small and shallow.
The seats are comfortable and the front passenger’s seatback folds flat to allow through-loading. But the boot is only averagely large for the class. Our biggest disappointment, though, is not to see more imagination in the layout of the instruments and secondary controls.
The original Twingo had centrally cited dials, vibrant upholstery and handy storage cubbies crammed into every corner but it was also a car introduced before the widespread adoption of airbags. But despite having two extra doors and a sunroof, this Twingo still isn’t flattered by the comparison.
In a fairly obvious bit of marketing, Renault has identified that this car will be bought by the smartphone generation so it has provided a handy universal mount to hold said hardware. It fits neatly into the fascia, has its own USB connection and power supply and it’s standard equipment. Genius.
Download Renault’s free R&GO app to your phone and you’ll also instantly endow your Twingo with navigation, extended communication, multimedia and trip computer functions. The nav is provided by CoPilot and the mapping is downloaded with the app, so using it doesn’t eat into your data allowance.
Renault’s R-Link touchscreen multimedia set-up is optional on Dynamique spec cars. it has a 7in screen, voice control and surround-sound audio by Arkamys. It’s part of a Techo Pack, together with a reversing camera. We can’t imagine that many will go for it, though.
