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The Real Tuesday Weld is a modern antiquarian. Bolton-bred, Clerkenwell-dwelling Stephen Coates is an urban romantic (the recording alias, borrowing the name of a culty, second-rung Hollywood actress, came to him in a dream), who hears film scores in his footsteps, and lives his life in epigrams ("my heart is an exit wound") The Real Tuesday Weld is a modern antiquarian. The Aygo would suit her to a tee.It's a Classic: Toyota 2000 GTTo prove to you that Toyota really can do cool when it locks its marketing men in a cupboard and gives its engineers and stylists free reign, I thought I would show you a picture of the 2000 GT from 1967. You might recognise it from films such as You Only Live Twice and... well that's it actually, but the specially built convertible Bond car (legend has it Sean Connery couldn't fit in the standard coup?so they had to chop the roof off) can easily hold its own against an Aston Martin DB5 in 007's garage as far as I'm concerned. Predictably this is all intended to imbue the Aygo brand with a hipfunkycoolfluxvibe (as it was almost certainly described in the marketing meetings) to appeal to the "iPod generation" (that is, anyone who has ever tried to download Coldplay from the internet but given up after half an hour).The skateboarding-DJ-graffiti-artists from Hoxton who Toyota is hoping to snare with the Aygo might well approve of its group-one insurance, 61.4mpg combined fuel consumption and £75-a-year road tax, but young 'uns can also smell a cynical marketing ploy a mile off My elderly aunt Grace, on the other hand, can't.
She's not so hot at parking these days, she spends most of her pension playing online poker, and could do with a small, cheap, light-handling shopping car that people are going to be able to see coming. Not in an intriguing, witty way like a Smart, but in a plain old ugly way. It looks like a Mercedes SLK with its faced mashed up against a window It's not very practical either. There's no hatchback door, just a hinged rear window, and the boot is the size of a fish kettle, which is useless for anything except, I suppose, steaming fish. The three-cylinder engine is shouty over 40mph; the roof lining looks like it's made from nappies; and, infuriatingly, the front seats on the three-door model don't return to their original position after you move them to let people climb in the back.When it goes on sale in July, the standard car will be available only in Chilli Red - you have to pay extra for the two other colours on offer - but waiting in the wings are other Aygos with wacky trim and paint combinations, due to hit the streets twice a year thereafter. However, should you ring up the Czech factory in Kolin to complain, I suspect you will barely make yourself heard for the cracking of Budvar ring pulls and bellowing of Soviet-era marching songs.But at least with costs split three ways, the Aygo should be two thirds cheaper than its rivals, right? Wrong. You can - and probably should - buy a Daihatsu Charade for £5,995, or, if you're brave, even a Panda for around the same (with readily available discounts).And, good grief, the Aygo is ugly.
According to Toyota UK, the Aygo will start at about £7,000, but most buyers are expected to go for the Aygo+ with air-con and electric windows, which will sell for closer to £8,000 The Frenchies will cost a bit less, but only a little. The models will be marketed separately as rivals, but in fact the only differences will be their faces and backsides.I don't know about you, but if I buy a Toyota I want to know it has been built by dedicated Japanese workers who would resign in disgrace if quality control spotted so much as a wonky parcel shelf. I have been to the Toyota factory just outside Tokyo and seen the production line for myself: it is like a mechanised ballet staged in an operating theatre. The Aygo shares 92 per cent of its parts with the forthcoming Citro?C1 and Peugeot 107 and the three companies are threatening to build 100,000 of each every year at a factory in the Czech Republic. SPECIFICATIONS Price on the road From £7,000 Maximum speed You know those blue plastic invalid cars? Combined fuel consumption 61.4mpg For more information 0845 275 5555 SPECIFICATIONS Price on the road From £7,000 Maximum speed You know those blue plastic invalid cars? Combined fuel consumption 61.4mpg For more information 0845 275 5555 You can be forgiven for thinking platform sharing - where manufacturers spin off different body styles from the same basic car - reached its apogee with the VW/Skoda/ Seat/Audi chassis love-in, but the new Toyota Aygo takes this sly economy of scale to a new level. She is now on its waiting list."I want to stay in the area but don't want to go on putting money into nothing by renting," she says.
