RENAULT TWINGO GETS A NEW FACE RENAULT says the refreshed Twingo will be the first production vehicle to show the brand’s new design identity. The updated Twingo gets a new front end with a larger Renault logo and it will go on sale shortly after being shown in Frankfurt. The Twingo upgrade is a “quick and dirty” mid-life face-lift rather than an all-new vehicle, said Renault’s new design chief Laurens van den Acker. “We’ve tried to give the car more personality, so that you feel you’re connected with it,” he said. Changes are limited to improvements of the front and rear end, “because the investments are otherwise too high,” van den Acker said. The Twingo will be replaced in 2013 by a new model based on a new rear-wheel-drive platform shared with Smart’s future four-seat model. Sales of the 4-year-old Twingo fell nearly 20 percent to just below 70,000 in the first half, according to market researchers JATO Dynamics. IAA 2011 POCKET GUIDE 79