Aygo Style & Design

[silvio]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and am an Aygo owner. Got it 15 days ago after a 19 week wait. I have a Red Aygo+ with A/C and MmT. I used to drive a 14 year old English import second hand Vauxhall NovaVan with a 1.5l diesel engine which was made by Isuzu.

Obviously the jump in smoothness of the car: the easier ride, the electric assisted power steering, the a/c (we have a constant 33 or more in Summer - May to October), is incredible. I love the way it drives and the MmT is a blessing in my country. Considering there are some 250000 vehicles and around 400000 people on an island the size of an English town!

Changing from 1st to 2nd does leave you a bit out of power when you want it to go, like when you're entering a roundabout or crossing some junction. Though I found that using it on manual and revving it up a bit on 1st gear helps.

The seats are really ok and keep you firmly rooted without feeling too "spongy".

The missing passenger door switch is also an inconvenience. How much would it cost TPCA to install one. A couple of Euros, I think. I know the whole concept of the car is to be cheap: to produce and to run, but a couple more switches....Would they break their bank by installing them?

The engine is very responsive and since there are only a few roads where one can drive at more than 50k or 80k, 5th gear is only seen a fraction of the time. Although when driven in M mode it can be used without any complains from the engine.

All in all, I am one very satisfied Toyota customer. My wife drives a Japanese import, a 1998 Starlet with a 1.5l diesel engine. I chose Toyota from the French competition for some valid reasons. Namely some nagging from people I know who drive Peugeot in Malta. They say the after sales sucks. Citroen have good aftersales but I did not like the C1 design. The front looks like a shark without teeth. Jeremy Clarkson and co also contributed to my decision, namely by saying that, "people by Toyota's because they never break down", or something to that effect.

I paid Lm5870 for my Aygo in Malta. Roughly converted to 9000Stg. I think we are charged the most Registration Tax in the whole Europe. But anyway.

As a conclusion, I recommend it. It is cheap, yes. But not made cheap. It was designed that way. So I cannot complain about the single gas strut that lifts the tail glass. I think it would put too much stress on the glass if there was two of them. And it would have been nice if the hood/bonnet was sprayed from the underside as well.

[SMW]

In the UK your car would have been around £7800 (Lm4900) so you paid about Lm970 (£1500) more than us

And we thought our cars were over priced !

BTW - are you British ? If not your English is excellent !

[silvio]

In the UK your car would have been around £7800 (Lm4900) so you paid about Lm970 (£1500) more than us

And we thought our cars were over priced !

BTW - are you British ? If not your English is excellent !

Thanks for the compliment! No, I'm not British. I'm a pure bred Malteser (Someone even name the chocolate for us :P ). The vast majority of Maltese can speak English because of the close association with the Britishg Forces. Malta was a British colony until 1964. English is our second official language and there are still many a soul that as soon as they hear QE II they start to melt. Seriously. I've a friend who used to work for the RAF up to 1972. When the terrible news about Lady Di came out his sister creid fro 3 days and couldn't sleep or eat either. There's even a pub in one of the towns called Lady Di. We have quite a few football supporters clubs namely Liverpool, Man U, ubiknal, Tottenham, WBA, Leeds....who else...ah yes QPR and SUFC!!!! Apart from the Italian teams' clubs and one for Bayern Munich!

A little history served.

We are probably charged more because of the registration tax which can be from 55% to 68% of the value of the car!

[SMW]

Well welcome to TOC anyway - the Aygo seems popular in Malta !