Forget the Cygnet. Toyota and Aston should team up to make a proper small car

WHAT do you get if you cross Britain’s coolest brand with one of my favourite small cars? A sales flop in the making, apparently.

You might already know that Aston Martin, makers of James Bond’s motors of choice, have taken the axe to their smallest model, after just three years. It joins the Tickford Metro and the Panther Rio in the list of expensive-but-not-expansive relics that show why kitting out small cars with just about every extra imaginable just doesn’t work. I’m not surprised; given the choice between a Toyota iQ that’s had its price trebled or a shiny new Lotus Elise, I know which I’d take.

The Cygnet’s story of the ugly duckling not quite turning into the swan Aston had hoped is – if you’ve been reading the motoring magazines at least – well documented, but its demise has put a more important truth in the shade.

The Toyota iQ, the car the Cygnet’s based on, is an absolute belter.

I remember first driving one on the country lanes of North Wales four years ago and being amazed at how well what looks like a washing machine on wheels handles. Considering I’d just stepped out of an original Mini and hopped straight into the weirdly-proportioned baby Toyota, I remember being blown away by how surefooted it felt.

The big news back in 2009 was that the iQ could squeeze four people into the same space Smart managed to get two, although the tradeoff was forever having to choose between your mates and your luggage. It was – and, I reckon, still is – a very cleverly engineered little car which manages to fit an impossibly great deal of stuff into what should be an unreasonably small space. Not unlike what my beloved Mini managed all those years ago!

In fact, the reason why the iQ isn’t on every other driveway in the land – even though it costs a third of what the Cygnet did – is down to a problem of Toyota’s own doing. Wander into one of its showrooms and you can also buy something called the Aygo, which might not be as extravagantly engineered but it’s even more fun to drive, has room for mates AND luggage at the same time and costs less to buy. It’s a win win for the world’s biggest car company, of course, but probably not for clever cars that appeal to people like me.

Unless, of course, Aston and Toyota team up and create a small car that doesn’t have the oddball factor. A GT86 sports car with Aston trimmings and the badge to match? Yes please!

Fire up the... Toyota IQ

TOYOTA'S tiny IQ isn't new but it's still top of the city car class thanks to a blend of zany styling and clever packaging.

Smart drivers definitely won’t need a high IQ to get the point of Toyota’s smallest model, which defies conventional car logic by squeezing four seats into a space where you'd normally struggle to get two. The IQ is similar to the Smart in so many ways and yet so much smarter where it matters, with a better Euro NCAP safety rating, cheeky styling straight out of a Pokémon cartoon, and surprisingly surefooted handling.

Admittedly it’s not going to give you hot-hatch style thrills if you venture out of its natural habitat of crowded town centres and onto the country lanes but it’s still fun to drive, mainly because it’s so easy to hustle through tight spaces and because of how its engine sounds.

Toyota say it has a 1.0 litre petrol engine but – sounding like an F1 car when you push it and eerily quiet when you don’t – this particular powerplant is one which will delight most drivers. It's just a shame then that the nannying dashboard reminders to change up and down through the gears are constantly pestering you, proving an annoying bit of gadgetry you don't need when you're trying to make progress.

Anyone who expects MPV levels of space is going to be disappointed, the boot is practically non-existent, and it’s not cheap in the way the Aygo, Toyota’s other baby offering, is.

But what it does do is answer age-old questions about how to fit four people into a very small amount of space very intelligently, and its styling is cool in a uniquely Japanese sort of way.

It’s not perfect but you can’t help loving it.

As published in The Champion on September 29, 2010

Fire up the...Smart ForTwo

IT'S a question lots of recession-ravaged motorists are bound to be asking at the moment. Just how smart is it to buy a Smart?

Leaving out the likes of Mazda's MX-5, the MG TF and all the other sporty roadsters tempting you in showrooms across Britain this summer it's hard to think of a car under £20,000 that offers you just the two seats, and I've often wondered who is actually buying Mercedes' most miniscule motor when I see it sneaking up on the nation's parking spaces.

The tiny City Coupe, now named the ForTwo, is still the staple of the Smart brand after the sporty Roadster and the larger ForFour were dropped, and having driven it's not hard to see why it's still proving a hit with anyone looking for a quirky take on the small car.

Get past the cute curves and the smiling grille - the styling's a bit of an acquired taste but it's hardly ugly - and the first thing that strikes you is the quality of the interior, which feels remarkable airy and spacious for something so small and blessed with an interior that despite looking slightly plasticky has a feeling of quality, and you'd sitting in either of its two seats you almost instantly forget the back window is just inches behind you.

It's also a bit of a hoot to drive, with the Tiptronic transmission on the version I drove proving surprisingly good fun once you've mastered it, and the steering has a quick nimbleness to it which defies the car's narrow stance.

The best bit is the hum from the three cylinders strutting their stuff behind you and working 83bhp to the rear wheels, because it sounds delightful when you're driving it.

It's a fun thing to be at the helm of, but I still wouldn't buy one, because Toyota's IQ has moved the game on by offering the same sort of thing for the same sort of price, but with the huge bonus of back seats. The clever thing to do would be the offer the next generation of the Fortwo as a four seater, and steal the small car crown back.

It's still smart to buy a Smart, but for now it's smarter still to buy the tiny Toyota.

Life On Cars: Car of the Year 2009

RATHER than the usual motoring fix, I’ve launched the inaugural Life On Cars Car of the Year Awards to honour the good, the bad, and the Susan Boyles of the motoring world.

For 2009, I’ve decided to start with a recurring joke in The Champion office…

The Austin Mini Award for Least Reliable Vehicle goes not to my Austin Mini, which requires you to mend it as you drive it, but to the Vespa scooter it replaced. I know it’s not a car, but any machine badly built by someone with no understanding of electronics means a truly scary reliability record.

The Toyota IQ Award for Best Toyota IQ goes to the Toyota IQ. I absolutely loved the fun factor of this tiny Japanese tot, which lets you get four adults into something no bigger than a Smart. Blend nice dynamics and zany looks and you’re onto a winner.

The Impending Accident Award for Best Road has to go to the Llanberis Pass, which I discovered while popping out for a coffee one morning in North Wales. My brakes probably didn’t appreciate its climbs, dips and bends, but I’m still waiting for my next fix.

The utterly alive sensation from the Morgan 4/4 means it wins the award for Best Drive of 2009, although the sheer speed of BMW’s Z4 and the sprightly handling of Volkswagen’s Scirocco earn them honourable mentions.

The Lady Gaga Award for Questionable Style goes jointly to the Australian-built Skelta, which has looks to scare small children, and the Toyota IQ For Sports, which takes one of my favourite cars and ruins it. Luckily, neither are on sale over here yet.

Best Motoring Event of 2009, for me at least, was the banger race which saw teams from across the North West crucify caravans in the silliest motorsport spectacle in ages. The Woodvale Rally was fun, but it didn’t make me laugh as much.

I could have plumped for the scintillating Ferrari 458 as the Car I’m Most Looking Forward To, but for all its stunning styling it isn’t gracing my computer screen. That honour goes to Jaguar’s upcoming XJ, pictured above, which I reckon I’m alone in thinking looks great.

And last but not least, the not-at-all stunning Life On Cars Car Of The Year Award, which goes not to 2009’s best car but the one I liked the most. It’s a toss-up between the IQ and Ford’s Fiesta, and on the basis that I might have to carry things as well as people, the Ford, pictured below, just snatches it.

Normal service will resume next week, I promise. You can go back to sorting out your New Year’s resolutions now.

If you voted for this car, you're wrong

IT’S like seeing Jedward winning The X Factor.

That’s how I felt this morning when I found out that Volkswagen’s Polo, the imaginatively named replacement for the Polo, had won the coveted title of European Car of the Year 2010.

Naturally – and in keeping with the contest’s fine tradition – the wrong car won.

European Car of the Year is a stupid idea because what works in Germany or Norway doesn’t necessarily work on our roads, and because all too often the winner is granted to something which is boring and unworthy and usually French.

For every Ford Focus or Alfa Romeo 156 there’s a Talbot Horizon or Peugeot 307 that’s somehow wafted its way into the top spot, and the last time its 59-strong panel of judges let themselves go and voted for something soul-stirring was in 1977 (Porsche 928, in case you’re wondering).

Usually I don’t care but this year, the car that should have won lost by just a few points.

Autocar’s Steve Cropley, who led the UK’s judges this year, said:

“The Polo is a very complete, very refined car which delivers all the consistent qualities VW has become so well known for. However, given its unusual layout, controversial looks and premium price, the iQ did amazingly well.”

The IQ didn’t just do amazingly well, it should have won full stop, and taken its place alongside the Rover P6, NSU Ro80 and, er, Fiat Punto as an innovative piece of engineering that genuinely moves motoring forward.

Given that I’m right and 59 of Europe’s top motoring writers are wrong, I’ll be featuring my own Car of the Year award on this very site later this month.

And I promise John and Edward won’t win it.

Toyota IQ: now Fast and Furious

I'LL get straight to the point on this one; I hate this car.

It's a bit of an odd conclusion to reach, because chances are Life On Cars readers are getting bored of me going on about how brilliant the IQ is. Of all the new cars I've driven so far this year, Toyota's tiniest is still by far and away my favourite.

At around £10,000, it isn't exactly cheap, but what you do get for your money is quite possibly the smallest four-seater ever made, and it's full of clever engineering touches. How can a car the same size as a Smart carry you and three of your mates in comfort?

Yet what surprised me more than anything when I road-tested it earlier this year was the way it drives. I've heard lots of analogies comparing the IQ to the original Mini - which I know very well - but I wasn't expecting the similarities to stretch to the way it handled the tricky roads of North Wales. I can't help but admit it: I love the IQ.

Sadly, what you're looking at is not an IQ.

It's the snappily-titled IQ For Sports, and - if it gets the nod from fans of Fast and Furious - it should be in showrooms next year. Which is a great shame, because it takes the brutal beauty of the original, and makes it look like something you might see parked on Southport's Esplanade on a wet Friday night.

Toyota is clearly trying to give it a bit of the Max Power treatment, but all it does is ruin the point of the original. In fact, the one thing it reminds me of is the Mini Clubman - either the 70s original or BMW's remake - because it just smacks of taking a successful small car and making it worse.

Maybe I'm just getting old and am losing touch with the connoisseurs of cruise culture, but I just can't see a generation more used to be-winged French hot hatches taking to a tiny, lime green city slicker.

Toyota's created a true landmark motor with the IQ, and I'm begging them not to ruin it.

Gearing up

EARLIER this week I was given the Holy Grail of aspiring car scribes.

It's hardly got the most exciting title but The UK Motor Industry Press and PR Guide 2009 has got something any upcoming Jeremy Clarkson desperately wants - the names and numbers of every motor maker's press person.

While it's hardly Lord of the Rings it does it excite me in my own slightly sad, media-orientated way, because it means arranging test drives is no longer akin to picking up molten lead with bare hands. It's also - at £85 a pop for non-journos - pretty exclusive stuff.

It's amazing how hard test drives, which I arranged a lot of when I worked at the Daily Post in North Wales were, simply because I dealt with dealers rather than press offices.

One Volkswagen review I did was shot down in flames by an over-eager salesman, who said I couldn't possibly point out that the Scirocco's rear visibility isn't as good as the Golf's. Another, working for a BMW dealership, insisted a test drive of a Z4 could be done entirely from the passenger seat. I did eventually get behind the wheel, but only after a lot of persuasion.

Yet many others - Toyota and Ford in particular - were more than happy to throw the keys my way and let me come to my own conclusions. Incidentally, I told their salesmen that while Toyota's IQ is a fantastic car, the bigger Urban Cruiser isn't, and they accepted my thoughts.

Hopefully my latest little book will let me into a world where I'll be able to tell you more about new cars without being pestered by car dealers more worried about image than honesty.

I also got sent a second book, called simply So you want to be a motoring writer.

That could come in handy, I feel.

Silly but brilliant

DOES anyone have £20,000 I can borrow?

I only ask because I've completely changed my opinion on Aston Martin's forthcoming city car - no, really - codenamed Cygnet. It's not so much as ugly duckling as an utterly brilliant idea.

Behind the blu-tacked DB9 grille and silly bonnet vents is actually an IQ, Toyota's 67bhp solution for anyone who wants to look stylish in a traffic jam. Its boot is laughably tiny and it costs more than its (far roomier) Aygo sister, but it's brilliant.

The IQ, with its full foursome of seats, is so much smarter than a two-seater Smart, and there's something about its silly dimensions that makes it more fun to hoot about in than Ford's Ka or Vauxhall's Agila. In fact, the only thing that would come close to me writing a cheque for ten grand is Fiat's 500, but for very different reasons.

The Cygnet, though, costs twice that, and blending the IQ with Aston's DBS is like putting roast beef and sushi on the same plate. Either that or a very bad hand at Scrabble. The working title's not exactly racy either; DBQ, anyone?

Yet somehow, in a slightly chintzy sort of way, I still want one. It's just a shame then that even if I did have £20,000 I still can't have one, because they're all going to existing Aston owners.

Never mind. I'll just look forward to seeing Bond chasing baddies in Fiat 500s at the helm of his DBQ...