Newbie (To Aygo's And The Forum)

[TetsuoEightyThree]

Howdy, my name's Brian and I'm from Ireland... registered a few weeks ago but said I'd wait until I actually had my Aygo before I posted.

A month or two ago my MKIV Golf GTI had an ECU failure that would have cost an arm and a leg to repair and still would have left me with an 11yr old car that I cant really afford to run anymore thanks to this wonderful economy and the loss of my job a while back. So I decided it was time I gave up my fast petrol guzzlers in favour of a runabout hatchback. I took the government up on their scrappage scheme (which I spent the months prior to this complaining about :D) After test driving a few of what's available on the market It came down to the Aygo and the new Ford Ka, but being 26 and male I couldnt get passed the flower patterned seat trim, pearl dash, and abnormally tall and skinny a*s on the Ka so I went with the Aygo. Mine's an odd one... I didnt want electric windows (it's the one thing thats failed in all 4 of my prior cars) which meant I had to give up central locking too, but I did want an alarm and absolutely wanted the rev counter. So mine is a basic model but with the fancy piped car mats with the Aygo logo, a Rev counter, and an alarm system... Anthracite metallic grey, but with the regular 14" steel wheels because I always pick my own set of alloys for each of my cars (sometimes 4 different sets for the one car), I have a few ideas as to what shoes it might be getting sometime soon.

On to my opinion on the car itself, coming from the torquey world of turbo charged hot hatches like my MKIV GTI and little fliers like my old 6N2 Polo GTI, I really wasnt expecting much from this car... it was meant to be a little runabout that will get me from A-B and have a warranty so I wont have to worry about any parts costs while I go back to college next year. Well I gotta say I'm genuinely surprised by this car; the bad part first, as I expected it's utterly gutless on the motorway, noisy and really needs to be pushed, I wont be doing a lot of overtaking. Now the good parts; I did not realise how light and chuckable this little thing would be, country roads are great fun, it absolutely loves to be revved (I don't believe in a soft break in period), it's really quick off the mark in city traffic and the turning circle and size just make urban driving a lot more fun than I used to have.

I'm gonna miss going fast in a straight line, but that gets old... right now I'm enjoying corners. I also plan on fitting he TTE springs myself asap (going with those so the warranty wont be effected). So since I'll probably have this little car for the next 4 years I just thought I'd introduce myself since I'm sure I'll be poking around these forums for a while.

[+Steve]

welcome to TOC mate :)

[arbs]

welcome :) - my own last car was a 6.1 425bhp SRT8 (17mpg on a run) so from that to the Aygo (my wifes car) is somewhat a contrast too! (owned ours a couple of weeks now)

i'm also genuinely impressed with how fun it is to drive, not in terms of pace or outright grip but as you say, chuckablke and agile - brings a smile to my face if i take it out on my own and drive 'spiritedly' :)

I'd like some alloys on ours soonish - interested in what styles you are looking at? i'm thinking some BBS CH / BK299 style rims but they are a bugger to clean!

[Raistlin]

Welcome to the club

[TetsuoEightyThree]

Thanks for the friendly welcomes :)

@ arbs: You're coming down from a LOT more power than I've ever even had beneath my feet, so now I'm slightly embarassed at my "Golf GTI ooh the powah" willy waving... but hey, you got what I meant :)

CH's are lovely wheels but I'm not crazy about multispoke designs on cars with little drums and discs, top of my list at the moment is trying to find somebody who's selling a set of 16" Daytona's from a BMW mini, 16"x6.5" 4x100 ET35-45 and with a machined set of spigot rings I can close the gap in the centrebore 56.1 - 54.1. I really think they'd suit it, star spoke design with a closed face in the centre to hide the brakes, might even leave the mini badges on the centrecaps:

[arbs]

haha yeah know exactly what you mean :)

My wife used to have a mini so know a rather good mini forum...

just checked the classifieds and at the top (as i type) is a set of 4 for £70 - (need a refurb and 4th one sounds a bit worse for wear)

These alloys are also called 5-star and/or star-spoke as well as Daytona.

http://www.mini2.com/classifieds/showproduct.php/product/7563/cat/12

worth having a look through the forum...

Do you know if the offset is compatible?

[TetsuoEightyThree]

Thanks for the link, Irish mini forums are mostly aimed at Austins and Rovers, Bini's are frowned upon so finding them there is next to impossible, ive been going through the classifieds. Couriers are pretty reasonable these days, and if it came to it I wouldnt mind a quick spin to england to get acquainted with my new car anyway :D

The offset should match, most mini wheels are 45, and according to the FAQ on this site the Aygo is 35-45 with 38 being ideal.

[arbs]

ahh i didnt notice your location :)

check this link too

http://www.mini2.com/forum/faq.php?faq=faq_wheels_tyres#faq_faq_factory_wheels

it says the offset is 48mm so if i'm thinking the correct way round this means that a 10mm spacer would bring it to a 38mm equiv?

need a photoshop :)

[TetsuoEightyThree]

Yup that'd be about right, might even get wider spacers for the rear... utterly pointless on a fwd car, but it looks great :D

I'm actually gonna photoshop them on later and see how they turn out.

[AygoIronman]

Welcome to the forum. Like yourself, I downgraded but not with that much power. lol. I had a Peugeot 106 but gave up after adding up my finances, MOT, insurance, fuel and road tax. I gave up after paying another year for road tax but not always using the car.

The Aygo is now only £20 for road tax, and like some people on here. The post office clerk actually asked what kind of car I drove for that low a road tax.

Yes, just like with everything in life. Where theres and advantage theres always a disadvantage. The Aygo is a cheap car. I reckon I can lower the decibels in the cabin by sound proofing the car more. Theres a guy on the 107 Blogspot who stripped his car, and sound proofed it. As for motorway driving? Well I dont do a lot if motorways, as the Aygo was really meant for the city.

Okay, not alot of power but loads but bags of fun!

[T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.]

Welcome Aboard!

[arbs]

well if fitted ok and find some rings and spacers and suitable bolts then do let us know k would mean loads more choice! I quite fancey the bullet wheels (A simple 5 spoke) which we had on our old mini. Think theyd look good too.