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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.