Living with a… Toyota Aygo X (Final Report)

Small cars are increasingly difficult for manufacturers these days, with many abandoning them completely to focus on more profitable models. Ford’s decision to axe the Fiesta is one example of this, the death of the small car bad news for younger drivers in particular, given it cuts off a supply of affordably priced and economical to run choices both in the new and used markets. Credit to Toyota then for sticking with them and spicing up the Aygo with this Aygo X, combining small car simplicity with the crossover style modern drivers seem to love. That means no hybrid option like that on its Yaris big brother, power (such that it is) coming from a basic 1.0-litre petrol engine driving through a five-speed manual gearbox. Which is a rare thing in this day and age. You can have an auto if you prefer, but it adds quite a bit to the cost. With its angular styling, two-tone paintwork and that slightly raised stance the Aygo X (apparently you’re meant to say ‘Aygo Cross’, not ‘X’) this little Toyota balances city car cuteness with just enough attitude to stand out. Does less-is-more motoring add up in the modern age, though? Time to find out.
Skip to: Month 1 – Balance and chaos at the wheel of the Aygo X Month 2 – Better than a Bentley? Month 3 – Banish the bongs Month 4 – A celebration of the cheap and cheerful

Mileage: 860
Fuel consumption: TBC

You might think the life of a motoring journalist is all Ferraris and fast living but, hand on heart, some of the most fun times I’ve had behind the wheel have been in small city cars like the Hyundai i10, Kia Picanto and this, my new Toyota Aygo X long-termer. What on earth is there for a red-blooded road tester to get excited about, though? After all, a buzzy non-turbocharged, non-electrified petrol engine and five-speed manual gearbox look pretty outdated, while while on roads packed with XXL SUVs and crossovers this little Toyota looks more like a toy car than the real thing. Maybe that’s why I love it, though. That and the fact the challenges of building small cars like this often bring the best out of the engineers creating them. Think back to the original Fiat 500 or Mini, both masterpieces of less-is-more ingenuity and creative packaging. And both huge fun to drive in their way, even with little danger of socks being blown off or underwear ignited going by the numbers. But small cars like this are the joy of independent mobility stripped back to the bare minimum. Well, they used to be at least. As a top-spec model my Undercover Edition (more on this in a sec) comes loaded with big car tech, from the wide range of driver aids included on all models of the Aygo X to things like wireless CarPlay, a wireless phone charger, reversing camera, heated seats and more besides. But it still weighs less than 1,000kg (about half that of my previous Cupra Born electric hatch) bringing benefits from everything from efficiency to ride comfort and all round agility. Honestly, I’d take fewer kilos over more horsepower any day of the week. Yes, yes, you’re saying. All well and good. But what the hell is going on with the graphics and why does it say ‘Balance’ on one side of the roof and ‘Chaos’ on the other? Fair question. And unless you’re up to speed with Japanese street fashion brands (won’t surprise you to hear I’m not) this will all go over your head. But, on the basis everyone who sees it is going to be asking me about the stickers, so I did some swotting and found a press release on the Toyota site explaining how this particular Aygo X is a collaboration with a Japanese fashion label called Undercover, and apparently expresses founder and chief designer Jun Takahashi’s “creative philosophies of non-conformity and breaking stereotypes”, among other things. The Balance/Chaos thing is apparently Underground’s catchphrase and, while I can take the rest of the package of unique two-tone grey paint with red flashes, part-leather upholstery with Underground logos and the rest, I could probably leave the graphics. The exclusive grey-on-grey colourscheme looks a bit understated compared with the spice-inspired colours I like so much on the standard Aygo X, too. Maybe if I was half the age I am – and considerably more trendy – this would all be super cool. Or maybe not. Let’s park that for now and get on with enjoying what is otherwise a lovely, free-spirited little car. With some silly stickers on it. Back to top

Mileage: 2,014
Fuel consumption: 52.6mpg (measured)

Bad news? The stickers are sturdier than they look and survived a vigorous jet washing. So, I guess I’m stuck with them for the duration of the loan. Other than that the giddy enthusiasm for this little Toyota you may have detected in my introductory report hasn’t diminished one bit. Yes, it’s a bit tinny in places – the clang of the rear doors feels especially flimsy– but I don’t mind that, on the basis it’s a reminder of how light this car is. Which, for the avoidance of doubt, is a good thing. Forgive me going all petrolhead roadtester for a moment but light cars are better for so many reasons, be that handling to efficiency. Small wheels and skinny tyres like those on the Aygo X mean much better ride quality than you get on most modern cars, so the car can be both comfortable and fun in the corners. It also means the steering feels more natural in your hands and is faster to respond, the little Toyota as fun around town as it is on a twisty country road. Which may or may not matter to most people. But the efficiency benefits will. The lack of power means you have to absolutely wring the Aygo’s neck to make any progress at all, but even driven like that it steadfastly refuses to dip under 50mpg. With a small engine and five-speed gearbox you might think it would suffer on motorways. But, no, even here it sips the fuel and the pump always clicks way earlier than I expect when I come to fill up. Meaning a grin not a grimace when checking the scores on the doors before reaching for my wallet. Given how noisy the engine is most of the time I’m stunned at how quiet and relaxed it is on a cruise as well. True, having to shift down to fourth or even third for hills on the motorway is a bit of a rude awakening at times. But for a small car it can do miles with surprising ease. Which it did the other day en route to a Bentley event, and opportunity to drive the incredible Batur coupe with more than 10 times the power of my little Toyota. Not that I could really appreciate that on the public road, the idea I spend more time on full throttle in the Aygo X than any Batur owner likely ever will making me chuckle as I drove home. More on this next time as well but I’ve also been fiddling round with one of my Aygo X’s more unusual features, this being a quick-release tow hook concealed under the rear bumper. Obviously, you’re not going to be pulling a trailer or caravan with a car like this but it does mean you can fit bike rack a for a bit of lifestyling, something I intend to explore once I get around the compatibility issues with the supplied hook and my Thule rack. True, it’s hardly going to be a substitute for my Transit for family days out with the bikes. But for solo trips I think it’ll be a brilliant combination, and if I can make it work I reckon it’ll make a pretty awesome park’n’ride commuting solution when paired with one of the products I’ve been testing out recently for Auto Trader’s new e-bike hub. More on this next time, though. Back to top

Mileage: 3,487
Fuel consumption: 50.3mpg (measured)

You’ll likely have got the memo by now that I rather like this little car. I’m showing my age but one of the biggest reasons is that it feels a bit old-fashioned to drive, with its buzzy little engine, minimal power and old-school five-speed manual gearbox. Which takes me back to that teenage excitement of borrowing your mum’s shopping car and tearing round getting up to mischief with your mates. All of which feels like a refreshing throwback to a more innocent motoring age. For all that back-to-basics charm the modern, tech-driven world still makes itself felt, though. I’ll welcome that in the form of CarPlay and the ability to dial up music, podcasts and more for keeping me entertained and on the right road to wherever I’m going. But the safety ‘aids’ are another matter, the lane keeping having a violently disproportionate effect given how light the Aygo X is and only too keen to fling you back at the kerb should you dare edge out to the white line to improve your view round corners or try and give parked cars or cyclists the space they need. At least you can turn this off with a single button press on the steering wheel, which has become a reflex at the start of every journey given it resets every time you turn the car off and back on. Worse is the Pre-Collision System that flashes ‘BRAKE!’ at you while unleashing a cacophony of bongs and making me jump out of my skin, usually because I’m already steering around the parked car it’s detected around and/or in absolutely no danger of hitting the vehicle coming the other way on the opposite side of the road. It’s just way too sensitive and like driving with a really, really panicky passenger who screams any time another vehicle comes into view. You can turn this off as well, but it’s a faff going into the menus to do it and it’s back on every time you fire the car up again. It's a recurring theme in many of the cars I'm driving now and while these systems are all well-intentioned the ones on the Aygo X feel so intrusive they’re more likely to make me have a crash than save me from one. In happier news the modifications to the tow hook mean my Thule rack now fits and I’ve been able to test my theory of combining Aygo X with e-bike for what could be the ultimate park’n’ride commuting solution. This on the basis it costs about £15 a day to park in the city centre but I can park for free a couple of miles out, jump on the e-bike and scoot past all the snarled-up traffic. While a bit of a cycling purist the fact I’m on an electric bike – in this instance a rather fancy BMC 257 AMP I’ve got on test – means I can get to the office without getting too much of a sweat on, so don’t need to shower or change when I get there. And on the return journey I again get to whizz through the stationary city traffic, sling the bike on the rack and then jump straight onto the motorway home, smug at the time and money saved by doing the last bit of the journey on two wheels rather than four. So goes the theory. While it’s definitely saving me money I’m not entirely sure it’s any quicker point to point, and in the middle of winter any bike, even an electrically assisted one, is a more committed form of transport than sitting in a nice warm car. I’ve got further ideas for how this Aygo X and bike combination may yet prove itself, though. More on that next time… Back to top

Mileage: 3,910
Fuel consumption: 49.6mpg (measured)

And just like that it’s gone! By long-term test standards it was a relatively short and sweet time with the Aygo X but the fact I did a smidge over 3,000 miles in four months despite having various other vehicles around is testament to how hard it worked, and how happy I was racking up miles in what most people (me included) would probably assume was little more than a city runabout. How wrong I was on that score! You’ll have got the gist already, but I remember thinking in the first five minutes we were going to get along having been instantly won over by the raw simplicity of its basic, non-hybrid engine and eagerness to make every single one of its 72 horsepower count. Mrs Trent said she felt bad about having to rev it so hard all the time, and a little self-conscious. But I reassured her that was all part of the fun. And it even when driven this way it used naff-all fuel, so running costs have been very keen. The real shock came on the long motorway journeys that are a big part of my motoring life. Given its behaviour around town I was bracing myself for this being a bit of a chore, given the lack of a sixth gear, the modest power and the vocal nature of that little engine. Actually not a bit of it. Sure, the need to knock it down a gear or two for hills or overtakes was a bit of a rude awakening for anyone accustomed to more powerful cars. Which is to say pretty much anything else on the road. But at a steady cruise it was actually impressively quiet, comfortable and refined. And even those late night runs back up the M1 from Heathrow to home didn’t hold too much dread, though I’d have appreciated the optional JBL speaker upgrade in those situations. For a little car this top-spec version had a surprising amount of ‘big car’ tech as well. The heated seats were on the fierce side but warmed up quickly on cold days, radar cruise control took the sting out of boring motorways and wireless Carplay (and charging) were also appreciated, if a little flaky to connect sometimes. And, with apologies for banging on about it, but the lack of weight was appreciated in everything from the ride quality to the unexpectedly agile handling. The Aygo X is by no means fast. But it is fun in pretty much every driving situation, and I’ll take that over 0-60 times or pointless top speed bragging rights. That it could even haul a couple of heavy e-bikes about on the tow-bar bike rack installation was another unexpected benefit. Complaints? Not many. I’ll accept the cheap and cheerful feel for the fact it’s a cheap and cheerful car. But while I appreciated being able to switch off the intrusive lane-keeping with one button the panicked (false) alarms from the pre-crash alerts were a pain in the backside. Once in a blue moon you’d forgive. But two or three per journey in common real-world situations like having to slalom between parked cars and traffic islands, or simply for oncoming vehicles minding their own business in the opposite lane, was ridiculous. And no matter how hard I jetwashed the roof those stupid stickers resolutely refused to peel away! Other than that I’d have no hesitation recommending one. Indeed, while it (thankfully) feels like a way off there will come a point where the household needs a small car for younger Trents to learn to drive in and then use as an affordable runabout. As and when that moment comes I know what will be on the top of the shopping list. This may not be the last time there’s an Aygo X outside the house… Back to top