If I had a euro for every 'Wind' joke I heard while testing this car I'd be rich!
Renault has added a cute, slightly odd-looking car to its range of competitively priced machines. It's called the Wind, and is a coupé roadster powered by a 1.2-litre petrol engine. It is a two-seater and has an electric hard top. The roof mechanism is very easy to use and really fast too, taking just 12 seconds to open or close. Generally boot space can suffer when a drop-top's roof is down but not so in the Wind: when stowed it sits in its own slot above the relatively large 270-litre boot area.
It's a very compact machine at 3.8 metres long and has a unique look that is unlikely to be copied. How you feel behind the wheel is what really matters and, with that in mind, I took every opportunity to drive with the roof down. The Wind does induce a grin, although with the cold weather we've been having my smiling expression was due more to wind-chill! The heater is sadly not up to the job of keeping the occupants warm on a cold day and the lack of directional centre air vents on the dash is very noticeable.
In the cabin you will find a speedometer that in my test car was designed for the UK market (like the old days pre km/h) with large MPH numbers and smaller km/h indicators. The wipers were also designed for left hand drive cars, so on rainy days this can become annoying for the driver. The interior plastics used are not great and any sense of high quality is missing, but for €24,990 you still get a decent bit of kit. There is just one specification, 'Dynamique', but an extra €1,000 gets you two leather seats. They're simply too soft for long journeys but very comfy for shorter hops. Bluetooth audio and phone connectivity features as does cruise control and speed limiter.
Wind is not a sports car despite being based on a Renaultsport Twingo platform. The revy engine sounds wrong and doesn't encourage you to press on. Wind may have highly credible Renaultsport DNA but I never found myself taking the long way home or the coastal road in it. Wind likes a more sedate pace on twisty roads and is a car for urban use and the odd trip to the beach or into the mountains for picnics. The 1149cc turbocharged engine is noisy and not that green either, with 160g CO2 (band 'C'). The engine is Euro5 compliant, however. With 100bhp powering through the front wheels and the wind - sorry, breeze in your hair - few drivers will notice that they aren't actually breaking any land speed records. To go from 0-100km/h takes 10.5 seconds, which in truth is respectable for a supermini-size car. The Wind has an average fuel consumption of 6.3 litres per 100km, so again nothing to write home about there.
Wind is still a fun car in a niche market that certainly will get you noticed - whether it is the right kind of attention depends on how comfortable you are in your own skin.
Michael Sheridan
