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Our "own" car reviews - Toyota Aygo

Our "own" car reviews - Toyota Aygo

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I spent a week on the Greek island of Rhodes, and I had a 2008/2009 Toyota Aygo 1.0 City 5-door in my use. Having covered 600 km in it, I figured I could share a couple of photos and thoughts about it.

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The Aygo in question was a likeable shade of metallic blue, it had 3600km on the clock and most importantly, it had air condition and a cd-player with an aux jack. The island bathed in temperatures around 35'C in the shade at mid-day, so it was absolutely necessary to be able to cool the Toyota quickly after having it sit under the baking sun for hours; and since the Greek airwaves don't play much of anything to my taste, I plugged my Philips player into the dash and proceeded to roam the roads with Reach the Beach by The Fixx blaring (yes, the album with Saved By Zero on it. It sort of suits).

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The Aygo is pretty much what I consider to be a modern/newish car. It's very bulbous and very plastic, even if the dash materials have had some thought to them; they aren't miserable at all and the steering wheel feels good in your hand. There is a lot of painted metal inside, but since the car is light by appearance, the lightweight-looking interior grows on you. The looks are cutesy and contemporary, and as "Aygo" means "rabbit fish" in Japanese, the name makes sense. It's a shame, then, that the underbonnet bits and pieces don't make it as darty as it should be.

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Starting it up, you're greeted by a characteristic thrum from the three-pot one-litre engine. It's said to produce 68 bhp, but in all honesty I never felt I had that much in use. True, when driving on the island you're very often negotiating considerable inclines, but it's not difficult at all to have the pupukalatoitsu to run out of puff. Overtaking attempts were better not thought about; going up the hill meant having the pedal rammed into the carpet and changing down just meant the noise changed, not speed. Getting going from a standstill wasn't very eager either; the 1KR-FE engine has 93Nm of torque, but there wasn't much available in the lower rev range. I also didn't have a rev counter, so I pretty much changed gear by ear.

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Speaking of sounds, the rear suspension was very clunky when the car was unloaded. Having the suitcases in the back (a large one had to travel on the rear seat, as it couldn't fit into the small, small boot that is accessed through the glass hatch) had the Toyota ride pretty smoothly, but we had to have a pack of 1.5-litre water bottles in the boot at all times as even asphalt seams made it let out a clunk. Dirt roads weren't even considered.

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Prasonisi, a windy corner of the island.

The island has kms and kms of excellent, freshly-surfaced twisty roads, and as we spent most of the week on the southern part, the Toyota encountered some very nice routes. The handling was very predictable, sometimes even chuckable (my favorite word), but having the roads climb up hillsides meant I was changing gear more often than direction, and not being rewarded by spare oomph left me unsatisfied when charging the bends. Of course, going down the Aygo performed better, but understeer then raised its ugly head very quickly.

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Stonking great workhorse, loads of useable torque... and a blue Toyota on the left.

So, to wrap it all up: everywhere you would need a car to go around, the engine hampers the Aygo's progress. It's a light, frugal commuter, but the 1.4-litre turbo diesel option just has to be the engine to get - otherwise you're left cursing at the car and unable to see its better sides. For such a small car, it's well-packaged; the boot is small but the rear-seat and especially the access to it were absolutely serviceable, even to my man-sized brother. The Aygo is light at 890kg, but has most of the equipment you need - including two airbags. And: it's excellent to park, but I would hate to have a car that I could only praise when getting out of it.
 
So, to wrap it all up: everywhere you would need a car to go around, the engine hampers the Aygo's progress. It's a light, frugal commuter, but the 1.4-litre turbo diesel option just has to be the engine to get - otherwise you're left cursing at the car and unable to see its better sides.

On the other hand, an Aygo is mainly built to get you from A to B in the cities, and frankly you don't need a 1.4 diesel for that.
If you drive many miles a day, or on a lot of mountain roads, you would be better off getting a whole other car anyway.
 
We had one in Denmark when we were there last year. I had it for about two months, and it was a great little city car. Extremely frugal (compared to what I'm normally used to) and fairly lively for a three cylinder. Not great on the motorways, as it was too buzzy, but that's not its intended function.

Yes it was cheap inside, and didn't have any nice surprises inside, but hey, it beat the freaking train.

The second time I had a Focus estate, which was too annoying to park in the city.

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^thanks for that... i'm actually (still) considering swapping my diseasel Astra for one (don't really need the size, space, big engine, etc)

so basically if you want to get a good one, get the diesel one because it has a bit of torque and the petrol one doesn't?
 
Yeah, that was what I implied. If it had a 1.3-litre or a 1.4-litre petrol, it would be much more capable.
 
My sister has an Aygo since a couple of days. She likes it.

But she does come from a first generation Renault Clio and is happy about having a working heater. Yes heater.. not aircon, a freaking heater!
 
From that point of view, yeah, the Aygo succeeds very well in being a small French hatchback (Czech-built, of course).
 
Another review:

Drove a friend's 2000 Volvo V70 2.4 20V cross-country yesterday after a trip to a summer cottage; he wasn't feeling well and handed me the keys. So, after 400+ km:s I felt I could describe it with a few words.

The car in question had the 140PS version of the 2.4 engine, so it was rather sluggish. Admittedly it had four people and all our stuff, but putting the pedal to the metal in fourth or fifth gathered speed very, very slowly. The clutch was a bit iffy as well, but I liked the gearchange. I'd say, though, that an automatic would suit a car like this a lot better. And despite being a 2000 model, it was still the old shape, and for some reason I do prefer them to the newer ones, since they're a lot more classic.

The Volvo was also very maroon, which is a surprisingly common colour for them around here. Fitted with a tow bar, it looked a lot like your average Finnish family wagon; so it's kind of odd that the guy actually owned it and it was not on loan from his folks. The reason was, of course, that it was a hand-me-down car from his folks, bought with a token sum. Otherwise, a 197 000 km 2000 V70 would fetch 7000-8000 euro, IIRC.

Spec was very good, as the Volvo had supportive part-leather seats which had worn the km:s well. Automatic climate control, big stereo with both CD and a cassette deck (classic late '90s Volvo style), useful info readout which gave 7,5l/100km as the average fuel consumption, and that's really not bad at all for the car.

So, how about the handling? There simply wasn't any. Negotiating the journey in the rain, with water flooding the roads, I had to drive extremely carefully as the tires had little tread left, and I wanted all of us to reach Helsinki in one piece and the wheel didn't provide me with any feedback whatsoever. On drier sections, the steering still felt completely asleep, but at least I didn't have to be worried about aquaplaning.
Later on, we hit the motorway, and the Volvo found its perfect element. 140 km/h, 3000 rpm, Hindu Love Gods on the stereo (classic blues by R.E.M, Warren Zevon standing in for Stipe), and the car just ate the miles. This was where it was at home. It could've done with better headlights, as the darkness and the black asphalt sucked all the light out in such a way that I kept wondering whether I had my lights on, but otherwise no complaints with the motorway section.

Reaching Helsinki, I felt like the enormous car had shrunk down to size. It didn't feel unwieldy like in the beginning, and I wasn't any more tired than when leaving the cottage. I'd happily drive one as a load hauler, if only with a bigger/gutsier engine and something done to the handling.
 
Audi S5

Audi S5

Last week I spent 3 days in carhalla, thanks to Audi. :D

Audi has a special program that allows people to drive around for several days in a car of choice (limited to all Audi models currently produced).
I liked the sound of this, so I decided to trade in the Astra for a few days. After carefull deliberation I decided to chose a 3 day program, and an Audi S5 as my ride.

In stark contrast to most rental cars, this one was full option (fyi almost 40% of this car's value were options (taxes not included))

I got goose bumps everytime I started the car. The deep growl when the V8 awakes is quite something.
This is a car that is easy to drive fast, I really had to concentrate to drive slowly. Obviously I had to try it out on the Autobahn...
130km/h ... 190km/h ... 250km/h ... holy sh*t that was awesome! :mrgreen:

The car was outfitted with the Bang & Oluson sound system and an Audi exclusive leather interior (the seats were very comfortable). A perfect interior for a proper GT, excellent for cruising long distances :cool:.

The navigation system worked very good, but there were some kinks. Due to a detour (road works), it managed to trick me into driving in circles. Also, the Dutch version sounds appaling, and the English pronounciation of German city/street names is just gibberish ("turn right into the whgilgghelmstragsbe" :?).

The biggest issue I had with this car was the driving range. Approximately every 400km I had to pull in into a gas station to fill her up. I knew about her drinking issues (I averaged around 14,5l/100km), but this low range was new to me.

I guess I should also mention the storage room for chihuahua's, also known as "rear seats" ;).

Final thoughts:
Please note that this is the first car I have ever driven which had a +150hp engine; more then 4 cylinders; 4WD; +20k? pricetag
Therefore I can only conclude that this is the best car I have ever driven.
Would I buy one? No. This isn't the type of car you only drive in the weekend, it's a proper daily driver and it would be a waste not to use it like one. Hence you'll have to buy fuel, lots of fuel,...


Some pictures:

Exterior
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Interior
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Television (Why?)
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Rear view camera
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PS:
Like some of my friends you might wonder why I didn't chose the R8, which would have been a more logical choice (fyi the choice of car has no effect on the pricetag of the package).
The reason why I chose the S5 is quite simple: I wanted a comfy GT, to cruise around Germany while staying low-profile (R8's have a tendancy to attract quite some attention) + I wasn't quite sure whether the R8 could swallow my luggage.
 
^erm that's a good review and all, but... you had the chance of driving an R8 and turned it down because of luggage???? :?

does not compute
 
Does the TV work at speed?
 
^erm that's a good review and all, but... you had the chance of driving an R8 and turned it down because of luggage???? :?

does not compute

I would have taken the R8 in half a heartbeat and just tie the luggage to the rear bumper and drag it with me. Still, he did choose a S5 not an A2. Didn't they have RS6s?
 
The reason why I chose the S5 is quite simple: I wanted a comfy GT, to cruise around Germany while staying low-profile (R8's have a tendancy to attract quite some attention) + I wasn't quite sure whether the R8 could swallow my luggage.

You dumb bastard.
 
Audi has a special program that allows people to drive around for several days in a car of choice (limited to all Audi models currently produced).
What's the name of that program and what does one have to do to get into it?
 
^it's called Audi Drivers Day (link)
Like most car rentals there are some conditions concerning age, liability, ... nothing out of the ordinary.
More information can be found on the website, or you can just ask them.
 
So, to wrap it all up: everywhere you would need a car to go around, the engine hampers the Aygo's progress. It's a light, frugal commuter, but the 1.4-litre turbo diesel option just has to be the engine to get

When I went and looked at an Aygo a year or so ago the guys from Toyota told me not to go for the diesel because it's shit. However, you do get the ability to write 'TURBO' in huge green letters on the side.
 
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That's because they know it's a PSA engine, but I haven't heard bad things about it. Also, wiki says this

Wiki said:
The diesel engine option has been discontinued from the Aygo range
 
PS:
Like some of my friends you might wonder why I didn't chose the R8, which would have been a more logical choice (fyi the choice of car has no effect on the pricetag of the package).
The reason why I chose the S5 is quite simple: I wanted a comfy GT, to cruise around Germany while staying low-profile (R8's have a tendancy to attract quite some attention) + I wasn't quite sure whether the R8 could swallow my luggage.

Become a nudist?
 
^^^^^

That brings a whole new meaning to "swallow my luggage"!!
 
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