Toyota Aygo
Toyota encourages you to ‘go fun yourself’ with its famous Aygo city car, one of the most distinctive machines of its genre.
Though it has a Toyota badge, the popular little Aygo is really produced by a company that came about as a result of a joint venture between Toyota, Peugeot and Citroen. Together, Toyota and ‘PSA’ – the company in charge of Peugeot and Citroen – each put 50% into the venture and combined efforts to come out with an affordable small car that growing urban populations were forming such an appetite for.
The venture was named ‘TPCA’ – meaning ‘Toyota Peugeot Citroen Automobile’ – and is headquartered in the Czech Republic where it produces the Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 108 and Citroen C1. Essentially, all 3 of these machines are the same car but each carries distinctive parts of the brands they are sold under. In the case of the Toyota Aygo, its bold look and sturdy interior build a sure sign of a model from this famous Japanese brand.
Under the Aygo’s little bonnet is a compact 1.0-litre 3-cylinder engine with around 72bhp available with 5-speed manual or automatic gearboxes. Whether you prefer to swag cogs yourself or allow the automatic to do it for you instead, CO2 emissions remain under 100g/km which helps keep road tax bills towards the lower end of the scale. Efficiency is also very impressive – 60mpg is easily achievable in an Aygo. Though not a powerful engine in isolation, the Aygo’s small size and low weight (840kg) means that the little unit is perfectly suited, and it doesn’t struggle to get moving even if this is by no means a fast car.
The Aygo has a pretty youthful look to it and is available in a variety of bold colours with some customisation options also there for Synergy customers to make their chosen Aygo more individual. In the higher levels of trim, you’ll find features such as reversing cameras, smartphone integration, climate and cruise control, increased levels of personalisation and stability control and pre-collision assistance systems.
If you like the Aygo, you’ll almost certainly like the Peugeot 108 and Citroen C1, so the choice comes down to which design and features you like the most between the 3. Whichever you choose, you’ll be at the wheel of a great little city car.