Aston Martin Cygnet

The Aston Martin Cygnet is a practical, reliable and luxurious city car with good fuel consumption. But the Cygent comes at a very high price. It costs well over £30,000, something that many road testers found hard to swallow, with one going do far as to write: “If there were a prize for the daftest car to be launched so far this century, the new Aston Martin Cygnet would have to be a strong contender.”

The Cygnet is based on the Toyota IQ, though a lot of work goes into changing body panels and of course it goes through the Aston Martin paintshop

Interior

Nothing to quibble about here. It is genuinely Aston Martin-like in its execution. The leather is hand-stitched, and owners can choose from an unlimited palette of colours; apparently matching it to your full-size Aston is popular. Everything that you touch has the Aston Martin stamp.

Driving

It’s “nippy” to drive, with impressive acceleration from 0-30mph, which is exactly what you want from a city car. It is, in short, remarkably like the iQ to drive, funnily enough. The refinement on motorways is surprisingly good, although most owners will have a bigger car for that sort of journey…

Engines

Just the one engine is on offer, Toyota’s 1.33-litre, 97bhp petrol unit. It’s economical, returning 54.3mpg and offers decent acceleration, reaching 60mph in 11.6 seconds. The Cygnet’s raison d’être, CO2 emissions, are just 120g/km, helping drag the Aston Martin average down considerably. You can buy the car with a manual gearbox, or the CVT automatic, which most feel suits the car better.

Value for money

It’s the “smallest, slowest, cleanest and oddest Aston ever made” but the purchase price reflects the time and effort that Aston Martin put in. There is a six-month waiting list, so AM aren’t struggling to sell them; some obviously think that the Cygnet is worth every penny.

Worth noting

Rolls-Royce produce an ultra-exclusive MINI Goodwood and Fiat have their 500 Ferrari Tributo, so the market for über-expensive city cars is thriving, so don’t limit your thinking to just the Cygnet.

Conclusion

The Aston Martin Cygnet is, when all is said and done, a tarted-up Toyota iQ, cynically contrived by AM to meet CO2 emissions targets – and to fleece wealthy clients who own a ‘proper’ Aston and want a cute baby brother to match.

The main reason Aston Martin made the Cygnet is to comply with EU laws around average CO2 emissions for their products, so we can forgive them to some extent. Grin and bear the Cygnet, just don’t feel compelled to buy one!