I HADN'T investigated the new Renault Twingo before it arrived and was astonished to find that it is rear engined and rear wheel drive.

Every other car in the Renault range is front wheel drive so they had to be sharing production with another maker and it turned out to be smart.

The latest smart forfour is identical under the skin, but much more expensive.

The four seat Twingo is neat and agile, nippy and fun, reasonably comfortable and very easy to drive.

This car was fitted with the company's excellent three cylinder turbo one-litre also used in the Clio and Captur.

It sounds lovely and gives sprightly performance with plenty of smooth urge.

The ride is very good for a small car and, while road holding is great, handling is spoiled by rather inert steering.

That said, the turning circle is the tightest in the class by a mile, making parking in tight spaces a doddle.

The funky, well-designed cabin is a good place to ride and there's decent equipment in this range topping model.

The boot is smaller than most, but when the rear seats fold, that's not really a hardship.

The main problem is the level of noise at speed which really makes a longer trip quite hard going.