Wannabe Aygo Owner.

[10pence]

Hi all, first post here and wasn't sure where to slap this, so if wrong please move it.

Basically, I'm after some advice and hints'n'tips. Having read several reviews on this site and searched some key areas I do have a few question before I take the plunge and place an order for a new Aygo.

I've been rather lucky in one respect as I've had the pleasure of both a test drive with the local Toyota dealer and also was able to rent/hire an Aygo Blue for one full Bank Holiday weekend: took the car to Wales and surrounds from the Liverpool area and did over 400 miles on £35 of petrol! The Aygo handled itself impeccably on the twisty country roads - even 'egging' me to drive faster. The girlfriend absolutely loved it, spending most of the weekend 'patting' her 'ickle Aygo.

And so, after that weekend off I went to my local Toyota garage to discuss a purchase: I have no trade-in but can place a deposit upto £2k though only told the dealer £1-1.5k. The dealer was too eager to sell off an Aygo Blue - the car I had rented - as since the trouble in Japan they cannot guarantee anymore stock for a few months. I read that as 'we have to shift this one we brought'. And, so this leads me to some of the questions;

1] The deal was for a Blue at £9500 (approx), but after looking more on Toyota I can get an Aygo Go! AC (AirCon is a must) for £9,495.00 and it has a far better spec too. So The Go! is the one to go for, yes?

2] SupaGuard - read here that not much faith is placed in it and I found can get it off eBay for about £15 for AutoGlym kit. Anyone actually done this or know if a valeting company can do it for me cheaper than the £500 Toyota want?

3] GAP Insurance: A must in my opinion. Toyota offering it at £500, found it online for a lot less. Anyone recommend a trusted source for this.

4] Fog Lamp: I know not a 'must' but I do rather like them. Anyone got them fitted or fitted themselves? As Toyota do seem to sell them a tad expensively.

I know this is a lot to ask for a first poster, but this is going to be my first 'brand new' car purchase and I tend to over research and think these things - I spent 3 months deciding on whether to buy an iPad2 or not - which if u ask me is a no-brainer.

Anyway, thanks for taking time to read and hopefully respond.

[Jan&tone]

First of all welcome to TOC

As to your questions, the following is my opinion only and others will no doubt out in their two penne'th in due course!

1) I believe the blue is now discontinued. It has aircon and bluetooth as atandard (or at least ours did) the Go is a good alternative and has Satnav standard.

2) supagard. Why? Wash the car regularly and keep it well polished with a good quality polish. Imo supagard is more trouble than it's worth.

3) gap insurance. This has got to be your choice. I have never had it on any of my many Toyotas over 25 years and never felt the need for it.

A decent comprehensive policy will give you new car in the first year should you be unfortunate enough to write yours off, so you only get 2 years anyway with GAP insurance.

4) fog lamps. Legally you should NOT use them unless visibility is restricted to 100 metres. If it's that bad, imo you shouldn't be driving anyway!

I've had them standard fit on my last 4 cars and never used them other than to make sure they work! If you do get them PLEASE do not drive around with them on all the time, it makes you look a right plonker!!

Hope above helps!!

[Geriatric]

It is tthe end of this range and prices will fall. It is no secret about the new models due out in the autumn.

The new generation of the three city models build jointly by PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Toyota will be launched in 2011, at Frankfurt Auto Show.

Citroen, Peugeot and Toyota will launch in 2011 the new generation of the city triad we first saw at Geneva Motor Show in 2004. We are talking about the C1, 108 and Aygo “triplets”, models which will be presented with their new look within the Frankfurt Auto Show that will be held in 2011′s fall.

Unlike the models already sold on the market, the new generations will be a bit different as design and customers approach. So, even though there are no details about the final design lines of the three “brothers”, the French publications claim that the roof’s line will no longer be identical, as C1, 108 and Aygo will exclusively share the platform and the engines

[Dinky_05]

saveyour money on the polish and get proper fog lights if you must. personally i have never found fog lights any use as by then its so bad they make little difference.

the polish, as mentioned, there's a lot out there and you can get a detailer/valeter to do it for way way less. for half that money you can have it professionally detailed (i just picked ours up this morning) and it will look great.

GAP insurance....up to you but i wouldn't bother.

[Nick Brown]

First of all welcome to TOC

As to your questions, the following is my opinion only and others will no doubt out in their two penne'th in due course!

1) I believe the blue is now discontinued. It has aircon and bluetooth as atandard (or at least ours did) the Go is a good alternative and has Satnav standard.

2) supagard. Why? Wash the car regularly and keep it well polished with a good quality polish. Imo supagard is more trouble than it's worth.

3) gap insurance. This has got to be your choice. I have never had it on any of my many Toyotas over 25 years and never felt the need for it.

A decent comprehensive policy will give you new car in the first year should you be unfortunate enough to write yours off, so you only get 2 years anyway with GAP insurance.

4) fog lamps. Legally you should NOT use them unless visibility is restricted to 100 metres. If it's that bad, imo you shouldn't be driving anyway!

I've had them standard fit on my last 4 cars and never used them other than to make sure they work! If you do get them PLEASE do not drive around with them on all the time, it makes you look a right plonker!!

You are ale to get gap insurance for up to 5 years at directgap on the web.

Hope above helps!!

[MartyB]

I was under the impression that the cars are made in the Czech Republic so the Japan crisis has no effect on the Aygo. I would personally shop around and use the Citroen & Pug dealers to get money off your Aygo like I did. Dont bother with the gap insurance unless you really are likely to crash it. If you turn it around on the dealer and say that they are saying the seats are not up to standard otherwise why would they offer a valet, will get a large discount off this.

You wont regret buying an Aygo if its cheap motoring your after, now go and really haggle :-)

[Nick Brown]

Re GAP insurance

Return to invoice Pays the difference between motor insurance payout and the original purchase invoice price.

Vehicle replacement Pays the difference between motor insurance payout and the cost of a replacement vehicle

Finance gap Pays the difference between motor insurance payout and what you owe your finance provider.

Toyota wanted to charge me over £400 Found it for under £100.

[WAYNEOLEEDS]

Ok first of all, i am an aygo go owner ! really really like the car and yes its better kitted the sat nav is better than most systems if come across (unless your buying a jaguar xf) haha

Gap - i got mine from toyota (back to invoice for 160... salesman wasnt happy but just shows what figures from the net bring it down to.. DONT buy it off the net tho unless your really sure about the product.. as gap is an unregulated and generally misleading product.. id definitely get it but haggle toyota RIGHT DOWN they cant back out of any potential claims then! !!!

Superguard - overrated and pointless.. you spill.. you clean it...you scratch you t-cut. and the (FREE gift set) im assuming they "throw in" you can buy the bits separately and still pay a third of the price it "worth"

Autoglym is far better dont spend the extra cash. if you need to know anything more let me know !

[grinner82]

Hi, I also have a GO! I got the gap insurance and the super guard thrown in for free! Would not have paid for either. The idea is for cheaper motoring, and I did not need or want the extras offers. I have air con, as the resale value will be better with this and its nicer when its hot! Don't have fog lights, you can only use them in fog, and TBH I used them about twice on my old car, then made no difference, so save money.

Good car though, and no leaks yet!

[WAYNEOLEEDS]

Hi, I also have a GO! I got the gap insurance and the super guard thrown in for free! Would not have paid for either. The idea is for cheaper motoring, and I did not need or want the extras offers. I have air con, as the resale value will be better with this and its nicer when its hot! Don't have fog lights, you can only use them in fog, and TBH I used them about twice on my old car, then made no difference, so save money.

Good car though, and no leaks yet!

I think with regards to the air con its a nice thing to have.. Although it doest make masses of difference on resale.. literally pounds. thats why i wont buy extras in cars :)

[Jan&tone]

Hi, I also have a GO! I got the gap insurance and the super guard thrown in for free! Would not have paid for either. The idea is for cheaper motoring, and I did not need or want the extras offers. I have air con, as the resale value will be better with this and its nicer when its hot! Don't have fog lights, you can only use them in fog, and TBH I used them about twice on my old car, then made no difference, so save money.

Good car though, and no leaks yet!

I think with regards to the air con its a nice thing to have.. Although it doest make masses of difference on resale.. literally pounds. thats why i wont buy extras in cars :)

If you have a dark coloured car, a/c is more beneficial than fog lights imo!

[grinner82]

BTW I have the carbon metallic quartz colour ( grey) I loved white, went really well with tinted windows but think it would have made me look like a cheap footballer!

[10pence]

Quick update. Thanks for all the replies. With the information provided here I was better armed to tackle those pesky salesmen. ;)

Ordered a new Aygo Go! AirCon in carbon quartz on Sunday (29/05/2011) from RRG Salford, hoping to take pickup this weekend before I'm off to Oxford for work.

Didn't get driver lights, hadn't even thought about them; though might get some at a later date as will be doing some late night country road driving. Honestly, think I got a cracking deal: free tank of petrol and mats, but what shocked me was being able to get free Supaguard and Gap Insurance: considering the other dealer wouldn't budge on them I've saved nearly £1k!! Was able to pay for metallic paint upfront so it's not on the 'APR' so helps keeps monthly repayments down - even if a bit, plus, I hate paying for things on APR when I really don't need to.

So thanks again and I'll try and pop some pics on later too.

[grinner82]

Glad that it helped you inform your decision. You will love it!

[baza103]

Hi 10pence, here's my 2 pence worth.

1] The deal was for a Blue at £9500 (approx), but after looking more on Toyota I can get an Aygo Go! AC (AirCon is a must) for £9,495.00 and it has a far better spec too. So The Go! is the one to go for, yes?

Yes

2] SupaGuard - read here that not much faith is placed in it and I found can get it off eBay for about £15 for AutoGlym kit. Anyone actually done this or know if a valeting company can do it for me cheaper than the £500 Toyota want?

Supagard as it's officially known guarantees to protect your car against UV damage for 3 years (personally I doubt it lasts that long) but how many 3 year old cars have you seen with faded paintwork? A regular wash and quick polish will do just as much and save you a fortune.

3] GAP Insurance: A must in my opinion. Toyota offering it at £500, found it online for a lot less. Anyone recommend a trusted source for this. As with all insurance products be very wary.

Unless your car is actually written off GAP insurance to return to invoice as it's known (the difference between your insurance payout and the price you paid for the car originally) won't work and even then it's rarely worth it. IMHO If you really do want it £100 is far nearer the mark, just Google GAP insurance there's hundreds of suppliers, who seem to be thriving, possibly because they don't pay out that often?

4] Fog Lamp: I know not a 'must' but I do rather like them. Anyone got them fitted or fitted themselves? As Toyota do seem to sell them a tad expensively.

If you like em get em (it's your new pride and joy after all) but as pointed out before don't use them unless it really is reduced visibility, 1. You look like a plonker 2. It's an non endorsable offence (no points on license but possibly a fixed penalty) to use them when they're not needed. After agreeing your purchase in principal, I'd ask the salesman to throw them in at the last minute otherwise you're walking.