Funky Motoring On The Cheap

[PaulT]

In an exciting development, Toyota have delivered my Aygo a week earlier than planned :D

It was absolutely mint when I picked it up, couldn't find a mark on it.

Of course, for this car the overriding design parameter for the manufacturer is cost, so it is quite interesting to see what bits of the car have had money spent on them and which parts are made more cheaply. Looks to me like they have mainly done a good job on the outside of the car. There are some nice touches like the light fittings which weren't obvious to me in the promo photos. What's going on with these rocket-shaped headlight and indicator clusters? :D

The rear light cluster also looks like some effort went into the design.

To sportify the car a bit, the lower side edges mimic skirts which extend to the wide-body-style wheel arches. I quite like the thought, but I think there is too big a gap under the standard car for these to actually prevent a lot of air being sucked under the body.

Looks like the person who designed the petrol filler flap was eating pringles at the time :D This is a metal part, whereas the one on my old Yaris GS was plastic. There are other places too where you can see improvements on the older design.

Alas the paint job doesn't really stand close scrutiny. There are no chips and the colour is uniform, but the finish just isn't as smooth as that you would get on a luxury car costing a lot more.

Having said that, the Toyota red is a good one. It stands out a mile in the car park, and I was surprised to see people staring at the car yesterday while I was stuck in traffic in the high street. Haven't seen anybody else around these parts with a red one.

The single wiper on the front is a bit of an oddity. Haven't had a chance yet to drive in the rain, but it seems to sweep a reasonable amount of the windscreen for its size.

There's something a bit odd about the A-pillars, as the windscreen is actually recessed about 3/4 of an inch at the bottom and this feature continues to a lesser extend onto the roof line and back.

You would think this would increase the drag coefficient, as air is being sent over the roof of the car instead of slipping around the sides. I can only guess that it is for aerodynamic stability, as the Aygo is quite tall and I guess may suffer from shedding vortices off either side without it.

Or maybe it is meant to help reduce or smooth the airflow past the side windows. Whatever, the door seals are pretty good and although I have not been above 60mph so far there is very little wind noise from the top of the door seal---well, over the rumble of the tyres anyway. This is a fault in the Corolla which develops a whoosing noise at motorway speeds from the top door seal.

The engine is truely miniscule. To put it in perspective, that is the smallest Battery I have ever seen, being about 2/3 the size of a normal one. There is space in the Battery mount for a full-size Battery which perhaps is needed by the diesel engine?

The radiator is on the left-hand side of the car only, in front of the battery. A side mount :D It too is tiny, about as big as the smic in my Soarer :D

There is actually quite a bit of spare room in the bay for a larger power plant, again for the diesel I suppose. But for some reason the engine is a long way forward in the bay. It could feasibly be moved back as there is quite a bit of space under the front of the windscreen, but I guess the transmission doesn't allow that to happen.

That bonnet prop on the right is also a bit trick compared to the old one on my Corolla or Yaris. It's a bit difficult to quickly say how it works, but the bonnet opens nearly vertically and is very light so could be blown open further by the wind, but the prop won't come out if pulled by the bonnet that way.

It's a very cheap bit of smart design which seems to typify the thinking which went into producing this car.

Paul.

[PaulT]

Moving on to the back of the car, I'm definitely a fan of the all-glass boot. You would think it would be a bit flimsy, but it feels much more solid and shuts with a much more satisfying whump than the one on my Yaris, which was a bit tinny.

This car has no central locking, so you open the boot by turning the key in the lock below the glass and it pops open. I guess that people who have been complaining about the push-button on their boot lid have + or Sport where the mechanism is different?

It all seems very solid. The build quality in general seems really good, so I would say the move to the Czech Republic has been a successful one.

(BTW, I have heard that the Aygo 1KR-FE engine is built in Japan. Does anybody know if this is true?)

Another useful feature in my view is that you can flip up the boot cover so it sits vertically. It was a bit annoying that the ones in the Yaris or Corolla opened up to about 45 degrees which meant you leaning under that to put stuff in. On the Aygo it just flips back and stays put so you can get stuff in over the quite substantial sill and behind the light clusters.

It's a bit unfortunate that you can't quite utilise all the boot space sometimes without putting the seat back down, filling the boot, and then putting the seat up again if you have a bulky item. I went to the dealership with my mountain board, as I wasn't going to buy a car where that wouldn't fit in the boot. It does fit comfortably in the Aygo, but it's a squash without popping the seat back a few inches first.

That is slightly odd, because it fitted about the same in my Corolla, but the Aygo is supposed to be 10cm narrower.

Looking inside the three-door car, you can see that quite a lot of effort has been put into thinking about the dash, but behind that you are basically looking at a few simple seats in an empty box.

The basic Aygo has wind down windows and manual door mirrors, but they are pretty much as good as these can be. There's no loose floppy handle on the window like you might get on a Fiesta. It's all tight and smooth. One complaint is that the knob on the end of the window handle is a little flat and sometimes your hand slips off when you are trying to adjust the window while driving.

The handle is also a bit too far towards the front of the car, so when I have the seat where I like it I have to stretch slightly.

The knob attached to each of the big M3-style wing mirrors is a nice rubbery thing rather than being smooth plastic which is unfortunately the case with the locking mechanism. I guess that is a security feature, though.

Another improvement over previous Toyotas that I have owned is the multiple position door. Instead of just being fully open and halfway open, it sits in about five different partly-open positions, so you can rest it easily to get out without clattering against another car or a wall.

I find the front seats to be quite comfortable, although haven't gone more than 50 miles in one go yet. Definitely think the built-in sporty head rests are a major safety and style improvement over the usual adjustable ones.

The seat back adjustment handle is just strange. It seems to be designed to be easy to use by someone sitting in the back seat, whilst feeling very odd to somebody driving. How are you supposed to hold it?

As mentioned elsewhere, the seats are a bit high and do not adjust for height. I am 180cm tall and I would rather be a little lower in the car, although there is still plenty of headroom.

The steering wheel and dash materials are a big improvement over my old Yaris. I wouldn't go for a leather wheel when the rubber/plastic is this tactile. The dash covering is similar, looks and feels so much better than the old Yaris plastic.

The speedo and dash lights are all in a central round container which sits on top of the steering column and therefore moves as you adjust the rake ... just like in the Daihatsu Sirion. With Daihatsu being a Toyota partly-owned subsidiary it looks like the Sirion was the test bed for a few of these things including the three-cylinder engine. Like the Skodas getting new VW bits a year before they make it into the Golf.

It is easy to see that the funky air vents have been pretty much copied exactly from the Ford Ka, although the Toyota ones are slightly larger from what I remember the last time I drove a Ka. They were one of the best features of the Ka dash and they work really well here too.

In general the other controls are pretty good to the touch. Those weird heating and air sliders work better than you would expect, and there is a good strong puff to be had on maximum throughput. No recirculate option on this model, though, so the only way to avoid the diesel lorry fumes in front is to turn off the airflow completely.

Driving at night is a treat. The lcd display and speedo illuminate in red, as does the air flow control panel---makes the inside of the car glow as though somebody has lit a camp fire, very cool, really nice effect.

I have to say the radio is a little bit of a disappointment in all this. It does feel a bit plasticy, and the buttons are not that great to the touch. The reception is fine, and the sound from the two small from Speakers is quite clear if not that great otherwise. However, it is badly in need of a volume knob because as mentioned in the FAQ the level on the aux input is way too low.

I find myself listening to Radio 1 on a volume level of say 10-12, then you have to whack it up to over 50 to hear your portable MP3 player which is obviously only supposed to drive earphones. What else were Toyota thinking we were going to plug in there?

Then you flick back to Radio 1 and get deafened, and have to wait as you hold down the volume minus button before things get reasonable again. That would be a pretty stupid way to have a crash which could have been avoided with a bit of thought.

Moving back from the dash, we are into cost-cutting and weight-saving. There is no central elbow rest/cd storage and the bolts which secure the handbrake unit to the floorpan are clearly visible. Same with the seat belt attachment points. There is also no cigarette lighter, just the 12v socket covered with a rubber flap.

This doesn't especially bother me. The designers have saved money here and spent it on exterior detailing and mechanicals, which is probably why quite a lot of us buy Toyotas anyway.

There has been a useful trim improvement on the aft part of the door frame, where in my Yaris people getting in and out would brush past and tug at a poorly-designed bit of trim. This was a horizontal plastic strip which joined the upper and lower interior trim and which was getting bent out of shape on the passenger side where it got the most contact.

This area has been tidied up and looks much neater, more solid and less snaggable.

It's fair to say at this stage that Toyota have produced basically an attractive car without wasting what little money there is on needless frivolity. It's a car that will look right with either a him or her at the wheel. Functionality-wise, it covers all the essentials comfortably.

Paul.

[PaulT]

Just been out for another potter round this evening, trying to get a few miles on the engine as soon as possible :D

This is a fun car to drive. Every time I get in I'm struck by how stiff the body and suspension seem. It doesn't give like some small cars when you sit down in the driver's seat. This is despite quite a large gap between the wheels and the arches, as though it rides quite high off the road.

I presume since the Aygo is a fairly tall car Toyota have had the same problems as Mercedes had with the A-class, which originally had quite a soft comfy suspension. Then somebody leaked a bit of video of the car rolling over on the elk test and Mercedes had to take it back and give it a good stiffening.

The Aygo body roll is quite well contained unless you really push it. I feel that with the stock 155 rubber it tends to drift when getting near to the limit. Even so, because the wheel base is quite short, it turns in pretty well and with the low inertia in the lightweight body it holds the line nicely.

The steering rack is quite aggressive with 3.5 turns lock-to-lock if I remember, but there is a trademark Toyota dead zone around the central position. It does tend to wander if you aren't paying attention, though, and this is not due to any play in the steering which feels really tight. It's just the combination of short wheelbase and longish rack gearing which makes the car want to turn.

Compared to the old Yaris GS, it seems like quite a lot of the understeer has been tuned out in the design of the Aygo. I haven't really pushed the car yet, but I gave the demo car a good run down a twisty B-road and it was a lot of fun.

The gearbox takes a little getting used to. At first it seems to be a bit vague---the action is very light and easy and you almost think it isn't very positive selecting gears. However, what becomes clear after a while is that each gear slots home very nicely but the neutral position is somewhat loose and floppy. I have a habit of selecting neutral a lot of the time when slowing down rather than flicking down through the gears and it takes a short while to satisfy myself that it really is safely in neutral.

The clutch is light but otherwise just like any other modern Toyota clutch. It only takes a dab on the pedal and you can flick the gear lever quickly between slots without any grinding. I always enjoy that, it just seems effortless compared to other cars where you have to dig the clutch right in on a gear change.

At the moment, having only done 100 miles or so, the engine is a bit stiff and doesn't like getting into second before 20mph, third at 35, fourth at 45, fifth at 55. But if it's like my CTS this should loosen up over the first few thousand miles and feel happy in gear 5mph below those speeds at least.

As other owners have mentioned, second is quite long and it needs a bit of revving in first to get there. Feels strange to be running in second at 30mph when in the Yaris and CTS I would select fifth at 30, but the Aygo gearbox is long. I imagine when it is run in the Aygo will be fine at 30 in third. Happily the box is not as anal about changes down into first as the other two. You can select first below about 20mph without blipping the throttle and it will let you, whereas the Corolla would not have allowed you into first above 5-10mph without some accelerator action.

Like all the modern Toyotas, the brakes on the Aygo are sound. Enthusiasts might say the abs cuts in a little early, but the pedal action feels solid and there's no doubt the car will pull up quickly on a long stop. I'm not 100% convinced of the stability of the tall car when braking hard from 70+mph, but I'm not going to really hammer the brakes for a few hundred miles yet until they have bedded in.

I also want to see how it copes with hard braking and cornering. There is some limited stability control mechanism on the front brakes, so we will see how that works once things have been run in. I'll report back after then, and maybe a track day or two.

Paul.

[Red Yaris 54]

Thats a very comprehensive review Paul.....................glad you are enjoying your new toy

[PaulT]

Purely in the interests of scientific analysis, I took the Aygo for a spin round Donington Park today :D

Well in a field composed of the usual suspects, Scoobies, Evos, Civics and also at least one Gen 7 Celica and RX8, you are not going to be overtaking anybody in a car with a 0-60 time of 14 seconds.

But putting the power deficiency aside, I was very impressed otherwise. The cornering at track speeds is not at all bad, from the positive turn-in, stability mid-corner and throttle adjustabilty. The Aygo front end is much better planted than the old Yaris and it only takes a small lift-off to get the nose to hug the line a bit more tightly.

If anything, you get the impression the back end is helping you out with a bit of oversteer. It's pretty solid accelerating out of a corner too, although there's not enough power to break traction or send the nose wide. But driving down the Craner Curves today you could get halfway through (these are right and left corners on the crest and at the foot of a hill), see the exit and floor the throttle. I always made ground on people in front of me through this section. I guess the light weight and low rotational inertia makes the direction change less of a trauma for the Aygo than for some of the fatter cars.

This was pretty noticeable in the chicane too. I could easily hang on the tail of the more powerful cars through there until the straight when they powered away. Lovely handling as you turned hard right then hard left, didn't twitch once. Didn't require armfuls of lock either, was pretty relaxing to drive the line.

There's some quite neat trickery going on with the brakes. Didn't have any nasty moments at all in the braking zones, all really predictable and plenty of stopping power. I must have done six laps or so with no obvious fade---didn't need to cane the brakes either to keep in the zone with everybody else. And this is with drums on the rear axle. Of course the fact that the car weighs 790kg helps the stopping distance.

Under hard braking at 70-80mph I actually got a squeal from the tyres. That's quite unusual with ABS as the electronics normally bottle it before then, but this system seems to work really well. There were no stability problems when braking hard and the car was quite happy with a chunk of trail braking to help the turn in.

So a pretty good day out then. I definitely recommend driving anything around Donington if you get the chance---great circuit.

Paul.

[PaulT]

And now we move on to testing an essential Aygo accessory for me: the Roof Rack.

It's a lot like the one of my old Corolla, and like that one they have supplied a torque-measuring allen key which shows you when you have over 6nm of torque on each securing bolt. As I have the three-door model, I get a fixed front bar and then two fixings on the side bars with the back bar just resting on the car roof. It's all pretty sold when it's properly tightened.

I thought when I traded in the Corolla I would have to give up transporting my sculling boat by car, but in fact it is safe and legal on the Aygo. Result!

Paul.

[BadBoyVTEC]

Oh my lol that is very funny. Shouldn't you tie a brightly coloured cloth on the back of the boat though?

[Fizz]

Just seen your boat pictures Paul... thats just !Removed! insane!

How on earth is that road legal?

If bullbars are considered a risk ro public health then a spear on the fron of your car at head height i would have said is a tad worse!

[Jeff McCrory]

Moving back from the dash, we are into cost-cutting and weight-saving. There is no central elbow rest/cd storage and the bolts which secure the handbrake unit to the floorpan are clearly visible. Same with the seat belt attachment points. There is also no cigarette lighter, just the 12v socket covered with a rubber flap.

Well i have to say that in my Mini Cooper the bolts for the seat beats are also visible and there is no lighter either, just a 12V socket, unless u order one with the car. You dont even get a spare wheel with a Mini unless you Shell out more cash! I think an Aygo is looking more and more attractive all the time.

One of the favourite things about my mini is the lighting pack which lights the cabin up orange at night, that was a £160 option with BMW! and I see with the Aygo it comes as standard :) lol. Thats what I like about the Aygo, you get lots of little attractive quirks included without having to Shell out a load of cash!

[roadiadi]

Good all round review !

Thanks !

[Cidersurfer]

Good review that, I don't think I could be critical of any of it. Bonkers boat pictures though, I was wondering how the Aygo would cope with my surfboard and that's only 9 ft! :P

[PaulT]

The rules regarding sculling boats are that you can have 3m overhand front and rear. The boat is about eight metres long, so well within the rules.

I do put red and white streamers on the front and back when on the road. Don't worry, Fizz, the boat has a rubber ball on the front so it's not going to clobber any unsuspecting pedestrian :D

Paul.

[zakelwe]

If you turned it sideways it would make the Essex Corsa drivers really jealous of your rear downforce...

Excellent write up Paul

Regards

Andy