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Aygo Platinum Review


zakelwe
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I bought the Aygo to replace a 10 year old AMG Mercedes C43 which was a fantastic car but all told cost me £17000 in 2 years, the last straw being a £3000 gearbox rebuild. With the cost of petrol seemingly increasing by the day it was time to go for something cheaper. I had previously run a 1 litre Yaris for 5 years and so the obvious choice was to go that route again; sadly the Yaris has lost it's cheeky charm and also put on the pounds, both physically and financially. So an Aygo it was to be....

I went for the Platinum spec. Interior ambience is boosted by what is termed Alcantara and leather seats but what actually looks like holed velour and man made leather, but they do bring the cabin a less plastic and metal feel so well worth while. They are obviously comfort rather than sport orientated of course. Apart from that with the Platinum you get a leather steering wheel, some none descript alloy 14 inch wheels with standard 155/65 Conti Eco tyres, air conditiioning which works well at least up to 20C in the British summer :cough: and some other odds and sods that I can't remember so must be fairly non-descipt.

Ok, so what's it like as an ownership prospect?

Well really quite good actually. You have to approach it with the right kind of mind though. As you will be about to save money so have Toyota before you. If you can accept that then you can appriecate a cheeky little car with a lot of personality.

Interior.

This is really built down to a price. One string on the rear parcel shelf, the comedy cheap tool box stylee glove box handle, the lack of seatbelt height adjusters etc, but in general it gets away with this as all the basics are spot on. There is good visability, the seats are comfy, the steering wheel and pedals are just right, the dashboard and controls are all logical. Utilitarian but well disposed would best sum up the interior. Space is fine for 2 adults and 2 kids (without their multitude of cheap Chinese made plastic toys).

But now some nitpicking. Why is the bonnet release on the passenger side? Why are the electric window controls not in the middle behind the gearlever so you can do both easily? Why no rev counter as standard when the gear ratio's are not ideal for general driving?

Driving

Engine - Slow of course but the 3 cylinder engine has a lot of character. When started from cold it sounds like a diesel but once going it can really sound like a minature Porsche 6 cylinder at the upper reaches - on a reduced scale of course. The rest of the time it growls along but thanks to some interesting gear ratio's, ie far too long, it really struggles in 4th and 5th. On the German Autobahn, M-fünfundzwanzig near Siebenoaks, it will hit 104mph no sweat.

Transmission - I have the MMT gearbox due to an old biking accident. This is an automated manual using auto or push pull for manual changes. It's very logical to use but in auto mode is the SLOWESTTHINGONPLANETEARTH. How long did it take you to read that? Multiply that by two and you can judge how slow it it. Think I am exaggerating? My wife started War and Peace just as it went up from 1st and was half way through Gone with the Wind before it hit second. However, the manual part of the MMT gearbox is completely the opposite. I think an icon is needed here :toast: Yep, fast as you could wish and no judder. Faster than a manual? Probably. And if you let it go down to a crawl then it goes down to 1st on it's own just so you can go 1-2-3-4-5 again. As Tele Savalas would have said "Who loves ya baby"

Steering - very fluid but dead around the centre, takes a fair amount of movement to get a change in direction and then is fine with moderate feel and accuracy but nothing to shout home about. Considering what this car is made for though it works very well it has to be said, if they ever made a sporting one though this is the first thing that has to be sorted.

Ride - Very plush. However I have just come from driving a German tuned AMG from the 1990's which is probably not the ideal base to judge a standard car. The road reports say it is a bit jiggly and crashy though. Take your pick.....

Refinement - Interestingly at speed on the motorway it is pretty refined. Not much tyre noise or engine noise, it feels like a bigger car. The rear windows do let in noise though so you can hear cars overtaking, quite a good safey point if you forget to use your mirrors.

Handlng- Not really determined the handling limits yet. The low frontal weight leads to good front end grip considering the skinny tyres and they will eventually start making noises as the limit is approached. I have not discovered understeer yet but I would imagine it is much like my old Yaris where understeer happens and can be readily trimmed by letting off the throttle. If it is the same then at the very edge it will rapidly go into lift off oversteer due to the short wheelbase. If this point is reached I doubt the sloppy steering will be able to recover it but judicial use of throttle should do the job before too much counter steer is needed.

General driving - small turning circle, excellent visability from the side mirrors and narrow width makes a car that is excellent in the suburban environment.

In summary my entire family, from age 5 to age 80 love the Aygo, far more so than my old AMG Mercedes that I loved and hated in equal measures. However I do feel the need to make it more my car than theirs and so very wide tyres and perhaps a supercharger will be on order at some point.

The Aygo, the 21st Century car with character.

Regards

Andy

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A very nice review and the comment about the MMT is also interesting. I am on the lookout for a MMT so it is very useful information. I only had a test drive in the MMT so can't make enough judgement on it. On my test drive found the initial pick up from stationary is slow in 'E' mode so is abit hair raising coming out of roundabout. Not sure whether that is affected by the 1.0L engine or its the MMT. But the overall drive is very nice in 'E' mode.

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  • 4 years later...

Thanks for a great review, we got a 2 year old Platinum MMT 5 door model 3 weeks back fast in town if you want it to be, and surprisingly fast and stable on the motorway!!! and that's all in auto I haven't mastered the manual mode yet, I'm glad you mentioned that the 3 cylinder engine sounds diesel like for a bit until it warms up I was getting a bit worried once warmed up it's very quiet.

Comfortable & massive inside for such a small car + the bonus of five doors, a nicely proportioned car that's got loads of character and fun to drive.

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