Toyota Aygo review
In the Aygo, Toyota has pulled off that rare thing: a budget conscious car into which plenty of thought has gone to make it fun, roomy, safe, economical and stylish.
Available with either three doors or five, this simple-to-use city car is the result of a lot of hard work and clever technology to create the biggest cabin possible into a car that’ll still squeeze into the smallest car park space going.
The key is lightness. The Aygo weighs an almost impossible 890kg, a figure that recalls a time when cars didn’t have the array of safety equipment and super-tough construction methods applied by today’s carmakers.
For a start Toyota engineers used high-strength steel for 50 per cent of the body. That means it could be used thinner, not only freeing up space but also cutting the weight.
So with less kilos to pull, the engine could be smaller too without being at all sluggish. The three-cylinder one-litre petrol unit might have just 67bhp, but this soon proves more than adequate to shift the flyweight car at a respectable lick.
It also brings very impressive economy too, recording an official combined consumption of 61mpg. That also means low CO2 figures of 105g/km, enough to drop the Agyo into the one-from-bottom VED band, attracting tax of just £20 a year. With so little fuel being used, Toyota could also shrink the petrol tank without effecting range. Filled to its 35-litre capacity, the Aygo will theoretically travel 473 miles.
A small engine and small tank means more room in the cabin, which will seat four six-footers much more comfortably that you might imagine looking at its exterior dimensions. The boot is decent too for a city car. Accessed via its glass hatch (another weight-saving measure – no heavy steel frame), the 139-litre space can be expanded to a massive 751 litres with the rear seats folded down.
In all but the base model, the seat back is split 50/50 to give extra flexibility when loading. And if you need more space, if you add up the room available in all the cubbies and cupholders around the cabin, there’s another 25 litres of stowage.
It’s not stingy when it comes to cleverness and kit. Toyota figured out right from the start that many Aygo buyers will be dedicated music lovers, so every car comes with an auxiliary socket to plug in a portable music player. If CDs are more your thing, every model has a slot for them, and of course the elegant, flush fitting stereo has a radio built in.
All come with power steering to get the most of out its agility round town, and all have an engine immobiliser to make sure no-one unauthorised gets to have a go. There’s remote-operated central locking on all but the base model, and if you’d rather the gears changed themselves, there’s an auto option to replace the slick five-speed manual. That adds another £1,100 to the price, but what it won’t do is cost you any more money in fuel. Unlike conventional autos it returns the same economy at 61mpg.
Another space saving piece of design is the way the wheels have been stuck out at each corner. That frees up more cabin space, but as an added bonus it also means the Aygo handles brilliantly.
Plenty of sports saloon driving males have been known to appropriate the second car in the household because it’s just so much fun to drive. Toyota has sensibly kept a nice balance between ride comfort and corner ability, and the result is a car that’s genuinely fun to chuck about.
You don’t need to be too precious about using it either, because the Aygo has proven to be a reliable car. In the 2010 JD Power survey, the Aygo was rated by owners as the highest regarded city car. Delving into the survey results, it became clear it won that spot because drivers were impressed with both the low running costs and its dependability. In fact they reported fewer engine and transmission faults than any other city car.
Safety could be a concern in a small car, but Toyota has made the Aygo pretty tough. A four-star score from crash testers EuroNCAP has proved its protection ability, and this is backed up by four airbags in all but the base model (which has two). In the event of a smash, the car’s shell dissipates energy throughout the structure, reducing the force of the smash and working to prevent cabin intrusion. What the Aygo certainly isn’t is just another cute city car.
