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i think we will be getting one in the not too distant future - wonder who will get the short straw and end up with it as their demo.
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The Aygo featured on a motoring programme here in France at the weekend. The French are watching it closely because it comes from the same joint-venture factory as the forthcoming baby Citroen (C1?) and Peugeot (107?).
The forthcoming Citroen & Peugeot versions are talking about a starting price of barely UK 6 grand, so presumably the Aygo won't be a huge amount more. 4 door, 1 litre engine (3 cylinder?) with a very sporty exhaust note to appeal to the young was the gist of the tv review. Standard fit CD player with MP3 plug-in too.
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Yes the Aygo, 107 and C1 are all effectively the same car - they are built in the same factory in the Czech republic.
As for the starting price i would imagine the Toyota will cost more than the other two due to the high level of discount given by the french manufacturers.
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I think the Peugeot version looks marginally nicer than the Citroen, which looks miles nicer than the Toyota. The new VW Fox looks better than any of them.
Cheers, SS
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I wonder how many people will choose an Aygo rather than the equivalent Peugeot or Citroen because they think Japanese cars are better made. (Choosing it because the Toyota dealers are better is a more valid point.)
In the 60s / early 70s, someone at British Leyland told me, there were people who always drove Austin Cambridges, and wouldn't dream of owning a Morris Oxford - "rubbish cars" - which of course came off the same production line....
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I wonder how many people will choose an Aygo rather than the equivalent Peugeot or Citroen because they think Japanese cars are better made. (Choosing it because the Toyota dealers are better is a more valid point.)
I am already wondering if the citreon and pug will be built to toyota standards or will the toyota drop it's standards.
I agree that the Aygo is not the prettiest of the three.
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I'm sure that the quality of a new model from a new factory will be fine, but Toyota might struggle to price their car a lot higher than the French clones and get away with it?
I see the real competition for these cars being the Fiat Panda, which seems to be pretty unrivalled at present?
The VW Fox is presumably only a 3-door, and VW will demand their usual price premium...
Interesting to see if a 5-door Citroen C1 will cannibalise sales of the 3-door C2, or even the C3?
Presumably the Aygo will permit Toyota to make the next-generation Yaris a fair bit bigger (& pricier)?
And all of the above cars should kill off the loss-making Smart Forfour?!
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Yes the next generation Yaris will be bigger and quite probably more expensive.
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Not just the Smart Forfour ...
I wouldn't be surprised if this new wave of tiny cars with their economical pricing, practicality plus ease and cheapness of servicing will spell the demise of the entire loss-making Smart car business.
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They´ve already announced that the Smart Coupe/Roadster is to be canned. ?800k loss a year was the figure in the German press over here. Smart ForTwo has never made any money. FofFour surely going to go the same way - they cost so much to make.
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>>I wouldn't be surprised if this new wave of tiny cars with their economical pricing, practicality plus ease and cheapness of servicing will spell the demise of the entire loss-making Smart car business.
Even more of a threat is the simpler, 'conventional' very small 2 seater car, like the Suzuki Twin
See entry in car by car breakdown on this site.
As far as I know, it's not available here yet. Also a hybrid petrol / electric version is available. I read too that Smart is talking about supplying engines for the Twin. Another threat to the Smart is the French style microcar like the Aixam, which is lighter and slower and qualifies as a quadricycle.
If I was in the market for a very small car I'd only want it as a town runabout or country lane pootler, so I wouldn't be interested in a high cruising speed.
Cheers, SS
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