Toyota Aygo Review (TheTruthAboutCars)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Martin Schwoerer
June 8, 2007 - 40,753 Views



What does ten thousand US dollars buy an automobilist these days? How about ceramic brakes for your Porsche 911 and a bit of pocket change. Or a more-or-less acceptable used car. If you want a new set of wheels, ten large buys you a generic-Asian small car with wooden-feeling controls, a depressing interior, lousy ride, asthmatic engine and poor dynamics. No image, no resale, no fun. You might as well take the bus. Alternatively, if you live in Europe, you could buy a Toyota Aygo. But should you?

The Aygo’s makers pronounce their car’s name the "I-go,” evoking the idea of, wait for it, mobility. From the outside, the little city car shares a noticeable similarity with its automotive antonym, the Yugo. Like Ye Olde Zastava Koral, the Czech-built Aygo is teeny-weeny. In fact, at 134”, the Aygo’s the shortest five-door vehicle on sale in Europe, and the second-shortest car overall (after the Smart). And that’s where the similarities end.

Whereas the Yugo was a two-box Golf clone pummeled with an ugly stick, the Aygo is a one-box mini-minivan (complete with severely raked windscreen) that fits within the Japanese car-as-Pokemon design theme. The Aygo sports short overhangs, inoffensive proportions and nice details, such as artfully sculpted headlights and semi-concealed rear doors. It’s an aesthetically convincing answer to a difficult question: how the Hell do you fit four adults into a shoebox-on-wheels?
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The Aygo’s designers followed Colin Chapman’s dictate: to make a better-driving car, add lightness. The Aygo’s three cylinder 1.0-liter mill is the lightest engine on the market today, weighing just 67kg (the Lexus LS460’s transmission weighs 95kg). The tiny Toyota’s powerplant cranks out 68hp, pushing the automotive microlite from zero to sixty in 14 seconds and all the way to 100mph. (To achieve this performance, Colin and I recommend removing passengers.)
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The Aygo has plenty of competition: the FIAT Panda, Ford Ka, Suzuki Alto, Kia Picanto, Getz (a.k.a. Hyundai) Aica, and the Aygo’s badge-engineered brethren (the Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107). Other than its stylishness, the Aygo’s trump card is money. The car that puts the toy back in Toyota has been designed to be cheap to buy and run (e.g. the engine has a timing chain). Toyota predicts service and repair costs of about $600 for the first 60K miles.
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more: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/reviews/toyota-aygo-review/

For mileage, I checked wiki:

Emissions & Consumption

Petrol / AYGO 3 & 5-door 1.0 VVT-i 5-speed Man & M/M

* Urban: 56.5 mpg–imp (5 L/100 km / 47 mpg–U.S.)
* Extra-urban 68.9 mpg–imp (4.1 L/100 km / 57.4 mpg–U.S.)
* Combined: 61.4 mpg–imp (4.6 L/100 km / 51.1 mpg–U.S.)
* CO2 emissions: 109 g/km

Diesel / AYGO 3 & 5-door 1.4L Diesel 5-speed Man

* Urban: 53.3 mpg–imp (5.3 L/100 km / 44.4 mpg–U.S.)
* Extra-urban 83.1 mpg–imp (3.4 L/100 km / 69.2 mpg–U.S.)
* Combined: 68.9 mpg–imp (4.1 L/100 km / 57.4 mpg–U.S.)
* CO2 emissions: 109 g/km

more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Aygo

Um, SIXTY-FREAKING-NINE mpg??? Isn't Detroit having a hissy fit about how it's "not possible" to get over 35?

[Captain Angry]

1. They can't get fleet mpg over 35.

The argument out of Detroit is that they can build a 70mpg car, but nobody will buy it. And that 70 won't help when compared with the 20mpg cars that people continue to buy. The manufacturers have to try and get fleet up to 35mpg, and they sell many many more pickup trucks than cars. Like a 4x spread. Look at the top 10 vehicles by sales every year. 6 are trucks, not SUVs, but trucks.

To be fair, if it was entirely a matter of people wanting efficient vehicles, all cars would be Priuses and there would be no Mustangs or Dodges on the road. But that's not the case. People are actively choosing to spend their money on the 15-25 mpg cars over the 45-60mpg ones.

And it's depressing as hell.

[papau]

2. no trunk space and only 1 adult in rear seat - but still neat

(trunk) won’t accommodate anything larger than a couple of loafs of bread (provided they’re not extra long baguettes)... Combined with a complete lack of lockable storage space,

zero to sixty in 14

a ride that’s hard and bouncy

but it is hard to fight 60000 milies on $600 gas/oil/maintenance/repair costs - for $10,000