A ‘granny car’ with a double-bubble roof. What on
earth is happening?
In 2005 when the original Toyota Aygo was
launched, it had just nine competitors. This year, Toyota reckons it will go up
against 20. That shows a) how old the Aygo is, and b) the fight the diddy
Toyota now faces.
Funkier
styling with crisper handling means the new Toyota Aygo is shaping up to be a
competent Volkswagen Up rival
Lucky then, that new Aygo is a Japanese
manga super-robot! No, seriously. The car’s chief engineer –David Terai – told
us he grew up watching Astro Boy, and wanted to create a car as iconic and
simple as his boyhood robot hero. If this isn’t brilliant, we’ll eat our comic
books.
That smart new X face represents Toyota’s
emergence from beige conservatism, manifesting its new-found philosophy to
stand out from the crowd without fear of scaring off the elderly. Toyota wants
its sexy back. There’s even a double-bubble roof, for goodness’ sake.
Interior
trim panels can be quickly removed and swapped for new items in different
colours
There’s more funky playfulness inside, with
customisable interior trim (the rear bumper insert and X on the front are
customisable too – yes, really), and a touchscreen that’s quick to respond and
is compatible with Android and Apple phones.
Underneath, it’s less radical, with the
Aygo carrying over the front suspension from the outgoing model. The springs
and dampers have been retuned front and back, though, and the antiroll bar
rigidity has been increased to help it ride and handle more sweetly. The rear
torsion beam set-up is also 3.3kg lighter than before.
A
range of alloy wheel options are on offer
The first thing you’ll notice about the new
Aygo is the ride comfort and calmness. At motorway speeds, you’ll no longer
require a megaphone/hearing aid to conduct ordinary conversations, nor a visit
to an osteopath after repeated B-road excursions.
And on those B-roads, you’ll still have a
blast, because the Aygo is fun to throw around. The steering is quick (in fact,
the electric power steering is now 14 per cent quicker), and the chassis moves
around predictably underneath you, front tyres gently squealing ‘Nope, not
gonna happen’ during heavy cornering. It’s hilarious.
Despite
minor changes to the external dimensions, the Aygo is still usefully small
The 1.0-litre 3cyl engine is still a
characterful little unit, chuntering along at its own pace. It remains
unchanged, and features stop/start, exhaust-gas recirculation, a low-friction
timing chain and a touch more torque. Economy and emissions are both a fraction
better (around 3mpg more and 4g/km CO2 less in the manual).
A
1.0-litre three-cylinder engine producing 69bhp is the sole unit on offer
It’s a great car, the new Aygo –
dynamically the same as the C1 and 108 with which it shares its base (Toyota
told us it did all the drivetrain and chassis engineering) and, with a
predicted four-star NCAP rating, safer too. But competition is fierce. Forget
all 20, there’s only one the Aygo should be concerned about, and that’s the
rear-engined, rear-drive and cute-as-hell.
