What are you driving?
The Toyota Aygo is the smallest car in the company's range, coming with just the one engine option - a 1.0-litre petrol - and is tested here with a five-speed manual gearbox. An automatic version is available in two of the four specification grades. As with most cars in this segment of the market, space for both passengers and luggage is tight. The Aygo is available as a three- or five-door, though we'd recommend the latter purely for practical reasons.
It does share much of its mechanical underpinnings with the Citroen C1 and Peugeot 108, but the Toyota gets more distinctive styling. When it was first launched it featured a pretty edgy looking 'X' in the front, but this mildly updated version sees this toned down slightly, which is no bad thing.
Name its best bits
The large colour touchscreen mounted high on the centre console puts it within easy reach, and doesn't require you to take your eyes too far from the road while driving. You can also connect your smartphone via the Android Auto or Apple CarPlay systems, which should be a plus for most people.
The driving position isn't bad, offering decent visibility of what's going on around you, while the short overhangs make the Aygo easy to guide into even the tightest of parking spaces.
Having 71hp at your disposal might not seem much, but it serves the Aygo well as it clips along nicely once up to speed. It's not quite the final word in acceleration, but in urban traffic the Aygo is fine, and you aren't endlessly working the five-speed manual to keep up with traffic.
Anything that bugs you?
More likely to bug rear passengers than the driver, when sitting in the rear you can't put down the windows. Instead, they pop outwards at the back end, something that was more common years ago, but is now almost only seen in this segment of the market. At least you can specify air conditioning.
And why have you given it this rating?
Higher spec five-door models start to get expensive; spending more than €17,000 in this segment of the market doesn't represent good value for money, especially when the next car up in Toyota's range, the Yaris, looks and feels far more grown up and doesn't cost that much more. Also, unlike some of its rivals, the Aygo can only accommodate four people.
What do the rest of the team think?
I like the visual updates to the Aygo and they arrive at the same time as subtle improvements to the way the little Toyota drives. It's quite a perky and fun little thing to steer around town and nip in and out of traffic in. However, even in a class of tiny cars, the Aygo's cabin, in particular the rear, just isn't quite big enough.
Shane O' Donoghue - Editor
