Toyota's improved Aygo city car has sharpened up its act in the face of tough competition. Jonathan Crouch gets behind the wheel.
THE urban environment is tough on small city cars, but few are better equipped to deal with it than Toyota's Aygo. Around since 2005, it's been much improved in recent times, with a fresh range of models and the usual sharp running cost efficiency. In short, there's plenty of life in it yet.
First impressions are promising. You sit fairly high in the car, all-round visibility is good and all of the controls are within reach. Pop the key in, fire up the ignition and the 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine settles back to a modest background thrum. Toyota reckons this is still the world's lightest production engine, and the whole car weighs in at just 800kg, which means that the 67bhp you have available to you doesn't feel as underwhelming as it looks on paper.
The spec sheet will tell you that this car will reach a top speed of 98mph and get to 60mph from standstill in 14.2 seconds. What it won't tell you is how nippy the car feels off the line, how it can change direction so quickly and how easy it is to park. It genuinely does feel idiot-proof and if you specify it with the optional MultiMode semi-automatic transmission, you won't even have to worry about a clutch pedal.
It's in town that this car excels. The turning circle is just 4.73m, so throwing a sneaky U-turn to bag a parking spot is simplicity itself. It also means you can nudge into the very meanest parking spaces.
This car may have been around since 2005, but it still looks reasonably fresh. As ever, the wheel-at-each corner proportions look just right and the facelifted front end isn't trying too hard either. These and other tweaks – a wider front bumper with integrated foglights at each corner and a big trapezoidal air intake, a more slender upper front grille and a revised bonnet design – makes it look less cutesy than before and a little more grown-up.
There aren't many companies that are as pragmatic as Toyota. It seems to come up with an eminently sensible solution to any challenge and in the Aygo, it has a city car that for years was the best in its class. And today? Well, it may not suit you if you're a city-car buyer always after the latest thing. If, though, you research your buying decision, then this is a little runabout that starts to make all sorts of sense.
It isn't perfect of course; there could be more room, both in the boot and for those on the back seat. But buyers will be more interested in running costs that are still top class in this segment. And it'll be a nice bonus that the Aygo is fun to drive. The 1.0-litre engine still has real character, the interior looks appealingly cheeky and residuals remain right up there with the best.
