It's the smallest, slowest, cleanest and arguably the oddest Aston Martin ever. This is the Cygnet – the new city car that is set to take James Bond’s favourite badge where it has never been before.
If you think it looks familiar, that’s because it’s based on the Toyota iQ. The new baby serves two purposes: firstly to lower Aston’s overall emissions, and help meet new European rules (unlike rivals Lamborghini and Ferrari, it doesn’t have a parent firm to reduce its average CO2 output). And secondly, to draw new buyers to the brand.
Aston claims most of its
customers already have a small car for driving in town, such as a MINI, Fiat 500 or Smart, and it thinks there’s a valid gap in the market for a luxury city model.
But don’t dismiss the Cygnet as a rebadged Toyota. Apart from the roof, every exterior panel is new, and Aston even strips off the existing paintwork to hand-finish every panel. The front and rear, with obvious styling cues, are all-new and the interior has been removed and refurbished. Each Cygnet takes an incredible 150 man hours to produce – not far off the 200 hours required to build a DB9 from scratch!
Hand-stitched
Open the Cygnet’s door and it’s obvious where those man hours have gone – as any existing Aston owner will feel instantly at home. The first 200 launch editions will have the same paint finish and materials as the One-77 supercar, but even standard models come with hand-stitched leather and Alcantara rooflining. An iQ with every available extra would never come close to feeling this good!
The only Toyota giveaways
are minor controls such as the steering column stalks, door
mirror controls and so on, but
the baby Aston look has been achieved to good effect.
That’s just as well given the £30,995 price (with the launch cars costing a hefty £39,995);
the Cygnet carries an £18,000 premium over a standard iQ.
Not that this has deterred
people. Aston has taken 400 orders – three-quarters from existing owners, including every single One-77 customer. And there’s a six-month waiting list.
Most of these cars will feature the iQ’s CVT auto, even though Aston offers a six-speed manual box. As you’d expect, the Cygnet’s road manners aren’t far removed from the Toyota’s. The ride is firmer, as the new car sits lower and wears larger 16-inch wheels. In our pre-production model, the driver’s seatback could also be softer in the lumbar region.
However, the 97bhp 1.33-litre engine revs freely and gives the car a nippy feel, particularly from a standstill to 30mph – exactly what you want from a city model. The 11.6-second 0-60mph time isn’t about to set the world alight, but when most Cygnet owners are likely to have a supercar in the garage, that’s not so crucial.
What’s key is that the model attracts nearly as much attention as a standard Aston – perhaps more – and feels exclusive where a Mini, 500 or Smart do not.
Ultimately, this is what Cygnet buyers are paying for. You either get the smallest, slowest, cleanest and oddest Aston ever made, or you don’t. That six-month waiting list suggests many people do.
Read more:
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/firstdrives/268417/aston_martin_cygnet.html#ixzz1O3quZxpZ
