Toyota Aygo Test Drive Review

Toyota’s Aygo city car has been completely overhauled for 2014.

The new model couldn’t look much more different to its predecessor. Gone is the round exterior in favour of a jagged, manga-style body. The same goes for the interior, which is much more outlandish in its presentation. As part of the bid to be trendy and appeal to younger customers, there are numerous personalisation options too.

The small car formula essentially remains the same, though. There’s only one engine: a 68hp 1.0-litre
three-cylinder unit with an official 68.9mpg and 95g/km.

The Aygo is slightly bigger than before, but numerous measures have been made to keep the weight down. It’s also more spacious: the 168-litre boot is 29 litres bigger, and while you wouldn’t call it large or class-leading (the VW Up and its siblings all manage 251 litres) it seems deeper and easier to access than before. Rear legroom however, is in short supply, but Toyota has carved out a lot of headroom.

The Aygo is a pleasantly old-fashioned small car in the way it drives. The little engine responds well to a good revving and Toyota has fashioned a sporty exhaust note. It’s surprisingly quiet and comfortable for a city car, too.

The company says this model is its second-best seller in the UK after the Yaris, but even so it won’t make a huge dent in the fleet sales chart. Around 20-25% are expected to go through corporate channels, many of which will be destined for the public sector and pool fleets.

As with the first generation, the new Aygo shares its underpinnings with the Peugeot 108 and the Citroen C1 (see opposite page), both of which have almost simultaneously hit the market. Both French cars have slightly lower P11D values, but the Japanese car’s strong RV counters that, which brings it out marginally on top in terms of costs with 27.9ppm next to an equivalent C1 Edition’s 28.2ppm, but there’s very little in it. The Toyota isn’t available as an 88g/km model in the UK though, whereas the Peugeot and the Citroen are.