Had It For Three Weeks : Rob's Review

April 12, 2007

I have an 07 plate Chilli Red 3-Door Aygo+. Chose it over the 107 and C1 because I thought the exterior looked better, and the Toyota dealership was a far more impressive and helpful outfit than my local Peugeot and Citroen dealers. Also, I got the car on finance and Toyota's deal was more reasonable on the monthly payment and deposit front.

So, anyway, the car. The long dash took a bit of getting used to because I have only ever driven cars without much of a dashboard, but it is great and gives the car a very spacious feel up front, in fact, it is very spacious up front, it's only when you look behind you when reversing do you realise you are actually driving a small car. I am 6 foot and have no problems fitting in at all, passengers I have had in the front passenger seat comment on how much leg room they have and how they can stretch their legs out comfortably, which of course gives scope to allowing one passenger in the back a bit more legroom because it is a bit cramped back their usually.

The doors close with a satisfying clunk and even though the plastic trim on the doors feels a bit tacky the rest of the interior isn't and feels very sturdy. The sound system is good value for money, especially with the iPod/mp3 player point as standard, although you do have to buy a cable to connect your iPod/mp3 player to it. I have an iPod and for the best sound quality you really need something which connects to the auxiliary socket from the docking point - this cost about £20 from Maplins. The + (which is worth the extra £500 from the basic) has all the features you could need from a car. OK, it would be nice if you had dual controls for the windows on the driver side, and you didn't have to press the remote twice to lock it properly but these are niggles you get over very quickly. I considered paying £500 for A/C but decided against it because I am not that fussed about it really, although now the blocked out button for it is irritating me!

The drive quality is good, although it takes it time getting from 50-60 on the motorway and changing gears can be a bit sticky sometimes. Once you get it up to speed it is surprisingly very able on the motorway, it isn't very noisy and very smooth, so you will have no problems making motorway journeys. It is nippy around town and corners very well. Parking, as you would expect for a car this small with power steering, is an absolute doddle. Fuel economy is out of this world, I am only looking at a petrol budget of about £40 a month when I do a lot of driving in traffic, to go in-line with the insurance price cut because it is only classed as Group 1. Big savings!!!

The boot is small, but enough to get your shopping in, if not, the rear seats fold down extremely easily at just the pull of a cord in the boot and the parcel shelf just slips off so getting that extra space in the rear is a simple 5 second fool-proof job you could easily do in the Tesco car park.

It is an excellent, excellent city car for anybody on a budget or just not wanting to spend a lot on a car. Yes, it skimps on a few things you won't miss that much like the dual controls like I mentioned above, just a glass boot door, no light on passenger entry to cut down on manufacturing costs but that is what this car is all about. It's designed to be low-cost from the drawing board, and what is taken out is replaced with quality in the things that do matter to you like safety making it good value for money in my opinion. If not having the 'little ditties' is a problem for you, please don't buy this car and then moan about it, if you just want a good value for money, low cost and efficient car for getting from A to B with all the essentials, I can't recommend this car highly enough.