I'm kind of into 1 series at the moment.

"Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell." (oppisitelock)
08/24/2015 at 15:13 • Filed to: None

A friend of mine has one similar to above and we’ve been car pooling recently. Really nice place to spend time and the seats are some of the best I’ve ever sat in. Not a huge fan of the exterior styling but the rest of the car is pretty great. Only problems he’s had with it are fairly minor; leaky tail light seal and damaged undertray from our awful speedbumps. The engine (2 litre diesel) is silky smooth and has more than enough punch. Overall very nice.

Hmmm...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/adv…

DISCUSSION (25)

Laurence > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 15:38

When these first came out, I wasnt a huge fan of them, but recently I spent some time in one (a 118d I think) and liked it. Can’t speak for driving experience but they seem good cars and I think are one of the only modern RWD hatchbacks

Cé hé sin > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 15:43

Not a fan, I must say. The earlier ones often look quite tatty and problems, often expensive ones, aren’t exactly unknown. Anyway they look weird.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Cé hé sin
08/24/2015 at 15:50

I’ve heard good things about them reliability wise. They definitely do look weird though. The one my friend has is post facelift and has a few options on it so it’s a bit nicer than the boggo early ones.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Laurence
08/24/2015 at 15:51

I still think the early ones are weird looking, but to drive they seem really nice. I think it’s the only RWD hatchback now.

KirkyV > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 15:59

I periodically develop some interest in these, but the idea of going from old French supermini ownership costs to BMW ownership costs in one step, on a student budget, does give me pause.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > KirkyV
08/24/2015 at 16:01

Yeah my friend works part time alongside uni and frequently struggles. It has been reliable but normal service items cost waaay too much. Air filter on the Twingo: £4.50, air filter on the BMW: £40. At least the tax, insurance and fuel expenses are low.

Laurence > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 16:02

The newer ones are definetly better, and I think they were the only new RWD hatch until the twingo, but I'd forgotten about that until now

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Laurence
08/24/2015 at 16:05

Yeah I forgot about the Twingo too. If they finally get off their arses and make an RS version of that, I’ll switch to wanting one of those.

KirkyV > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 16:06

That’s my concern. I just quit my job at Sainsbury’s - with the possibility of coming back as a temp during Uni holidays - so going from what is possibly the cheapest car to run in existence to, as you say, £40 air filters just doesn’t feel like a good idea. It doesn’t help that, thanks to my diesel prejudice, I’d want one of the petrol options.

Unfortunately, all the cheaper options that might actually offer some excitement tend to cost an utterly insane amount to insure, even after almost three years of driving.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > KirkyV
08/24/2015 at 16:10

Yeah the petrol cars running costs are much worse, the tax on the 118d is only £30 but I think it’s closer to £200 for the 118i.

Insurance is shockingly cheap on the BMW, my friend’s last car was an old 1.2 Punto and the BMW actually reduced the cost of insurance. I priced it and it was slightly cheaper than my Twingo (which is in a stupid high insurance group for a 60hp car).

Laurence > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 16:34

Oh man... A rear engined twingo RS would be absolutely nuts. I don't care if it exists or not, I still want one

RWS Motorsport > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 16:36

Someone at work has a petrol version (2.0 maybe, my memory after a few beers is hazy) and he had a catastrophic failure of a cam belt tensioner which grenaded the engine. Sadly BMW did not accept a design flaw despite this being a common problem. I’m sure forums will find what specific engine this was on, but suffice to say the mark 1 1 series is not bulletproof.

MultiplaOrgasms > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 16:36

Well a relatively reputable german car magazine did a long term test of an 130i of that generation, and the car scored zero faults after 100.000km, making it the most reliable car to absolve said test, tied only with a first gen Mazda 6 and a BMW F10 528i Touring of all things.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Laurence
08/24/2015 at 17:31

Yeah it’d be pretty great if they did a good job of it.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > RWS Motorsport
08/24/2015 at 17:31

Ouch, did they end up having to foot the bill for it?

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > MultiplaOrgasms
08/24/2015 at 17:33

Not bad.

duurtlang > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 17:47

tax on the 118d is only £30 but I think it’s closer to £200 for the 118i.

Per month or per year?

Insurance(...)

That makes no sense. Are old Puntos and recentish Twingos that much more likely to cause damage to other vehicles/people than a 1-series BMW?

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > duurtlang
08/24/2015 at 17:54

Per year.

Apparently so, I assume it’s just based on statistics of how many of them crash.

duurtlang > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 18:21

The tax part is moot then. 130 punds a year shouldn’t stop you. I pay about €1100 in tax for my 406 coupe 2.0L. The 306 convertible and E30 Touring would be €600 each, the 205 GTI is €240.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > duurtlang
08/24/2015 at 18:40

I’m accustomed to paying low for my tax though. Last two cars have been £30 and £110 a year.

MultiplaOrgasms > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 18:49

To be fair it was a stripper model with about zero electrical systems on it. And the 130i had the turbo-free N52.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > MultiplaOrgasms
08/24/2015 at 19:12

The 130 was a seriously fast car to boot.

MultiplaOrgasms > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/24/2015 at 19:36

Dat RWD manual hatchback life.

RWS Motorsport > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
08/25/2015 at 04:05

Yeah, Completely new engine so I think 3/4000 from memory. As you can imagine he wasnt that impressed.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > RWS Motorsport
08/25/2015 at 06:24

Yeah that doesn't sound fun.