Should Get An Aygo?

[hobnob]

As per my other thread i am trying to get a good price trading in my avensis for an aygo.

The avensis is my car and the better half has a Clio 182 so the plan with current fuel and tax prices is to get rid of mine then share both cars, a week of aygo driving then a week of Clio driving.

So my question is how many other people have done the same thing? I will be driving about 16 miles each way to work about half on a motorway and half on country / b roads. now the avensis is great really smooth (especially after the new engine due to the known issue with the 1.8's) and being the T3-x has a reasonable spec inside, the down side being that it's costing more to insure / tax and fuel. I have driven the aygo and it seems a really fun and involving drive, yes granted it's not that quick but I think on country roads it would probably be rather good fun but as always you can never get a really good feel for a car just by having a 10-15 min test drive.

Oh and I'm 26 so not exactly a yound driver anymore so would also appreciate feedback from any older males as to whether you feel like your driving a girlie car?

[JustinH]

My 2p's worth

I'm 32, male, and love my Aygo, which I've had for three months now. I personally think it's one of the few truly 'uni-s*x' cars, and definately doesnt feel girly. Nor, I'm guessing, does it feel too masculine for the ladies around here that have one (my other half also enjoys driving it).

I can testify that it's definately great fun to drive on the narrower roads, of which there are quite a few around here, and it also holds it's own on the motorways suprisingly well, albeit if it takes a bit longer to get up to speed.

I've only a few niggles with mine, the most apparent at the moment is an annoying trim rattle that I cant pin down, but who hasnt. Overall I would recommend it, and I'm hoping it'll give me a good few years of happy motoring.

[hobnob]

My 2p's worth

I'm 32, male, and love my Aygo, which I've had for three months now. I personally think it's one of the few truly 'uni-s*x' cars, and definately doesnt feel girly. Nor, I'm guessing, does it feel too masculine for the ladies around here that have one (my other half also enjoys driving it).

I can testify that it's definately great fun to drive on the narrower roads, of which there are quite a few around here, and it also holds it's own on the motorways suprisingly well, albeit if it takes a bit longer to get up to speed.

I've only a few niggles with mine, the most apparent at the moment is an annoying trim rattle that I cant pin down, but who hasnt. Overall I would recommend it, and I'm hoping it'll give me a good few years of happy motoring.

Thank you, that's the sort of feedback I was hoping for... Trim rattles don't bother me too much as all cars get them and at least with how easy the trim is removed in the aygo even me being a complete DIY numpty could stick a little felt etc in places to fix it..

[sky0000547]

I'm 32 male too and the GF bought an Aygo MMT 2 weeks ago. I have not driven it many times but do get an itch wanting to drive it. Not sure if its because of the car or the MMT gearbox. Have to admit it is a fun and nice looking little city car. Your commute involving motorways so I would suggest you have a decent long motorway test drive before committing yourself to the Aygo. I had it on the motorway after picking it up from the dealer and have to say the Aygo struggled at times along the route. As a driver who owns a 2.5L V6 going to a 1L Aygo I suppose my driving style have to change. I usually poodle along doing 70mph in my V6 and rely on the torque to pull me uphill and overtaking without down gear and it does it with ease but in the Aygo once a slight incline approched the speed immediately dropped down from 70mph to 60mph in 5th and have to go down gear to get some umph back. Momentum is the key I guess so really should be doing 80mph (not condoning speeding) in the Aygo on the motorway to carry the speed through. I don't see much problem with the Aygo going through fast A and B roads.

[daveyjp]

Did a trip in ours a couple of weeks ago on the A65 from Skipton to Kendal and the car coped admirably. The route gets a lot of caravan traffic, but overtaking wasn't an issue as long as it was planned - 3rd gear is very flexible.

If yours is a busy motorway at rush hour you don't need to go fast anyway. As it's only 8 miles going 60 will take 8 minutes, doing 80 will only take 2 minutes less, but at 60 you will be getting 60+mpg!

Paranoia about what other people will think about me due to the car I drive left me some years ago! Driving round in smarts for four years probably cured me of that!

[Unklian]

Oh and I'm 26 so not exactly a yound driver anymore so would also appreciate feedback from any older males as to whether you feel like your driving a girlie car?

Even older.....45

I've always driven large cars, V6, V8s etc.

A few years ago, I decided to bite the bullet and buy small due to tax, insurance, petrol prices.

I bought a Smart ForTwo and loved it but there was always the reliability issue nagging at me.

I bought my Aygo 15 months ago and have NEVER regretted it.

It's no Lotus, but grips well for a small fwd shopping car, turn in is really good.

As somebody mentioned, motorway hills do show it's small engine size but if you MUST

keep your speed up, change down and it's perfectly happy being thrashed.

We recently went to the Ardennes in Belgium and were happy to take the Aygo rather than my wife's

Leather clad Civic. It returned over 60mpg mainly on motorways at 65-75 mph. Aircon on most of the time.

No regrets..... When the Civic is due to go, I'm sure it will be a second Aygo to replace it.

Oh.....My mates don't take the *****, they all moan about tax, insurance, petrol just like I used to do.

I just have a smug grin....you know it makes sense.

Ian.

[hobnob]

Thank's for all the feedback, certainly think I will try and get one, especially since you can retro fit a rev counter and also colour code the interior easily and get one of those scangauge things.

Only problem now is getting a dealer to find me a decent seond hand one and give me a good enough trade in from the avensis for it to be worth doing

[froopy]

I'd certainly echo all the above - I've never regretted downsizing from a 2 litre turbo. If all I did was sales-rep motorway cruising then I know which would be more relaxing, but for a commute like yours I expect you'll find the benefits outweigh the change in horsepower. After a little time, using the gearbox more becomes a no-brainer. As for machismo, I think driving an Aygo in the first place suggests you realise there's more to being a man than the size of your alloys B)

[zakelwe]

As per my other thread i am trying to get a good price trading in my avensis for an aygo.

The avensis is my car and the better half has a Clio 182 so the plan with current fuel and tax prices is to get rid of mine then share both cars, a week of aygo driving then a week of Clio driving.

So my question is how many other people have done the same thing? I will be driving about 16 miles each way to work about half on a motorway and half on country / b roads. now the avensis is great really smooth (especially after the new engine due to the known issue with the 1.8's) and being the T3-x has a reasonable spec inside, the down side being that it's costing more to insure / tax and fuel. I have driven the aygo and it seems a really fun and involving drive, yes granted it's not that quick but I think on country roads it would probably be rather good fun but as always you can never get a really good feel for a car just by having a 10-15 min test drive.

Oh and I'm 26 so not exactly a yound driver anymore so would also appreciate feedback from any older males as to whether you feel like your driving a girlie car?

Well I am 40 and have gone from driving a 306bhp V8 Mercedes AMG C43 to my new girlie Aygo car and really what you lose in one area you gain in another. You do have to relearn to drive though to some extent by conserving momentum and getting back up to scratch judging gaps and spatial awareness so you are not stuck behind a lorry for miles. On the other hand it's light weight means it grips pretty well on it's standard tyres and if you go for a set of macho after market alloys with wide tyres then the grip is amazing. Far more so than my Merc which was too heavy on most corners. Yep, it rips b roads apart. Small roundabouts can be done at 40mph, large ones at 70mph believe it or not. Now there is always some slow coach on the roundabout in a Merc slowing me down.... it reminds me of the old XR2 from years ago when cars were light like the Aygo.

Watch out for the van drivers if you are a blonde Iron Maiden fan with long hair, that's not the after market rev counter you have fitted they are trying to stare at ;)

Regards

Andy

[PaulT]

Oh and I'm 26 so not exactly a yound driver anymore so would also appreciate feedback from any older males as to whether you feel like your driving a girlie car?

I've had a Corolla T Sport, Soarer, MR2 and now Celica as well as the Aygo. The Soarer (or maybe the Celica?) is probably the quickest, but only two seconds faster than the Aygo round Barkston Heath.

But the thing about the small car is that, provided the chassis is sound, it is cheap to make the grip and handling really good.

As far as being girlie, well if you are bald and wear dark glasses like me, nobody calls you girlie

Paul.

[aygo-bloo]

52 years old and after a couple of Golf GTi's I have no regrets, (least of all my bank manager!), but I have to admit I still have an old MK1 GTi cabriolet lurking in my garage for sunny days. ;) :D

[Musky]

Downsized from a Hyundai Coupe SIII 2.0 a week ago on probs a really FUN car to drive

[Guest]

Downsized from a Hyundai Coupe SIII 2.0 a week ago on probs a really FUN car to drive

I bought my Aygo after my F2 Evo Hyundai coupe got munched by an artic in March. Little cars arent new to me though having grown up on little fiats and lancias, I also had a Smart 4-2 for a year.

Given the current fuel/road tax/insurance market i decided that my 6 mile crawl up the M62 into leeds everyday wasnt worth wasting a load of money on and bought my platimun after having had an aygo as a hire car while the insurance were deciding to write my coop off.

Plan is to keep it for a year or so, then gift it to the missus and get something a little more fun (but still economical to run on limited miles) like an early S2 elise or an S2000. I would highly recommend the Aygo if you are wanting to not give Gordon Brown more of your money ontop of income tax etc..... Also the Aygo is much quieter and smoother than the coupe was on the motorway so really apart from about 100BHP i dont feel like i have lost out on anything!

Im 28 by the way and i do get a fair bit of stick from my work mates who all drive BM's mercs and audis but when i tot up my motoring bills i couldnt give a stuff what they think!

[hobnob]

Well thank you for all your feedback,

Unfortunately Toyota were just not interested in Part ex'ing my Avensis for a reasonable amount and I was looking at having to get a 3 year old Aygo with over 20,000 miles, no alloys, no air con and no rev counter.

Luckily for me there was a renault garage nextdoor to the last toyota garage I went to and I got an excellent deal on a 9 month old Twingo with 1,600 miles on the clock that had everything I wanted and they gave me a really good price for the avensis.

it's a shame to leave the toyota camp but the other car is a full fat Clio 182 so having another Renault isn't too bad.

[Lister2020]

a twingo? Nooooooooooooo!

[hobnob]

nowt wrong with the twingo... although I would have to admit its an aquired taste so not everyone is going to like it, but I'm a big renault fan despite their problems.

[crisskro]

Renault... yuck. Sorry but that's my oppinion.

[hobnob]

Any reason?

[Guest]

Every french car i have ever owned was a complete steaming pile of excrement. If it could go wrong it did. Granted the 306 drove nicely (until the head gasket went boom at 60k) and the xantia was smooth (when the suspension wasnt playing up) but otherwise there is no way on gods green earth that i will ever buy another French car.

My sis has got a Clio 172 Cup which goes pretty well, but rattles like a bag of nails. Good luck to you Hobnob, however given you have got onion transporters on your drive i reckon you are drastically increasing you chances of dissaster!!

[Jan van de Wouw]

there is no way on gods green earth that i will ever buy another French car.

You do know that the Aygo is a good part French too? The engine is

Toyota, but a lot of the electrics and such are definately French (PSA)

[Jeffrz]

As per my other thread i am trying to get a good price trading in my avensis for an aygo.

The avensis is my car and the better half has a Clio 182 so the plan with current fuel and tax prices is to get rid of mine then share both cars, a week of aygo driving then a week of Clio driving.

So my question is how many other people have done the same thing? I will be driving about 16 miles each way to work about half on a motorway and half on country / b roads. now the avensis is great really smooth (especially after the new engine due to the known issue with the 1.8's) and being the T3-x has a reasonable spec inside, the down side being that it's costing more to insure / tax and fuel. I have driven the aygo and it seems a really fun and involving drive, yes granted it's not that quick but I think on country roads it would probably be rather good fun but as always you can never get a really good feel for a car just by having a 10-15 min test drive.

Oh and I'm 26 so not exactly a yound driver anymore so would also appreciate feedback from any older males as to whether you feel like your driving a girlie car?

I have a 37 mile drive to work including A roads and Mway, and I have had my Aygo for about 4 months. Previous car was a GTV V6 so am getting over double the MPG from my previous car. Do I really miss the performance on a daily drive to work ? Nope. Hardly notice it. Also other bonuses like isurance and TAX and servicing costs no timing belt to worry about. Our other car is a FRV diesel which is also getting less miles put on it as the wife drives the Aygo too. Sounds like a car ad but it really has been a win win situation for us.

[hobnob]

I understand you opinions on French cars and to be honest would partly agree with you, however my Avensis was obviously japanese and in a year has had 2 new headlights clusters as they were melting due to the heat generated from the toyota bulbs that were in, it has also had a partial engine replacement as the car was drinking over 1.2L of oil every 1000 miles which resulted in it running low and causing a really nasty bottom end rattle in the engine. Both of which I might add were known issues with the model so nothing to do with neglect etc.

Before that (well a few before I'm averaging a new car a year at the moment :( ) the 02 plate corrola was riddled with bad rattles (sound apart from that though)

Where as the 182 other than a few tinny rattles (which you can forgive on a car that is one of the best handling hot hatches) we haven't had a single problem.

So at the moment my track record with French cars is far better than with Toyota's .... However I may still have gone for an Aygo but when I was looking at 3 year old with 28,000 miles, no air con, no alloys, no rev counter for the same price as the Twingo there just wasn't a choice. The Aygo unfortunately is just too strong of a car second had for it to have been worth me downsizing, I was looking at paying over £3000 on top of the trade in to get an ex demo for example, that just wouldn't have saved me any money and I wouldn't have been happy not having the required options.

[aygo-bloo]

Every french car i have ever owned was a complete steaming pile of excrement. If it could go wrong it did.

Are you sure it wasn't a Fiat in disguise? Surely there is nothing worse than an Italian car? <_<

[miss_d_bus]

Are you sure it wasn't a Fiat in disguise? Surely there is nothing worse than an Italian car? <_<

I have to agree. Only Fiat would produce a car (Bravo) that has a rubber hose with some proprietary clip thing on each end that fails because the car has not been driven for a few weeks and so it perishes (according to the garage). Fiat parts cost a fortune too!

[Guest]

there is no way on gods green earth that i will ever buy another French car.

You do know that the Aygo is a good part French too? The engine is

Toyota, but a lot of the electrics and such are definately French (PSA)

I was under the immpression that the Aygo/C1/107 was designed by Toyota and has a Daihatsu engine. Its the designed by Toyota bit that interested me. Also mine is new so the Warranty will keep it honest if it decides to through up any issues.