Renault Twingo: Twingo takes on Panda

While much of the attention at Geneva was focused on the exotic and the preposterous, there were more than a few launches of real-world fun cars, among them the Renault Twingo GT.

Although the new Twingo’s styling is something of a disappointment for fans of the original, it still has at least three things going for it: it’s less ugly than its predecessor, in GT form it has a 1.2-litre turbocharged engine that generates 99bhp, and it’s likely to cost less than £10,000 when it goes on sale in the UK in September.

Actually, there’s another reason to be cheerful: the Twingo will have the excellent underpinnings from the old Clio 172, and from mid-2008 a 140bhp Renaultsport version will join the range.

If you’ve decided the Twingo could be loveable, you’ll find plenty of nice touches to coo over, including an optional USB connection to link MP3 devices to the sound system, slide adjustability for all four seats, and a ‘rubber grass’ storage system to prevent your phone and iPod from flying around the cabin through high-speed corners. Finally, if you must, there are four decal sets with which you can self-vandalise the exterior, or ‘add artistic individuality’ as it’s called in the marketing literature.