After four years on the market, the second generation of the Twingo received a well-deserved update and regained some of its customers.
While the first generation of the Twingo was more or less an experiment for the French carmaker, the second generation was a hit among the supermini vehicles. This time it had the correct dimensions to accommodate four people inside, and not just four skinny dwarfs, and it showed something more about its customers. It was a “tres chic” car.

For the second generation, the facelift worked like a charm removing all the wrinkles that showed on the older design. Its new auxiliary lights installed inboard of the main headlamps transformed the little Twingo into an easy to recognize vehicle in its class. Like its predecessor, it was available only in a three-door version. Its door handles remained the same, half-buried behind the rear side of the doors. At the back, the taillights marked another unique design element, with an additional set of lights on the tailgate.

Inside, the car sported a fresh design with the instrument cluster placed on top of the center stack, tilted toward the driver. In front of the steering wheel, the carmaker put a storage compartment excellent for a phone or a small purse. Another significant improvement was the new phone-holder installed instead of the audio system. That transformed the owner’s phone into a navigation system or an MP3 player via a dedicated app.

Under the hood, Renault installed a choice of three gasoline and two turbo-diesel engines. A particular version, named Gordini, paid homage to the genius engineer that built race-versions for Renault in the late ’60s and early ’70s, with blue cars and two white stripes over the bodywork.