Discussion
Speedraser said:
You can put lipstick on a pig...
Cygnet is the best-ever example of everything that is bad about badge engineering. To take a cheap Japanese city car (how good a car it is -- and it's a good city car -- is irrelevant), stick the Aston Martin grille and badge on it and call it an Aston Martin is an affront to a great marque, and its iconic grille and badge. Everything about it is appalling. Bez even had the stones to call it "as authentic" an Aston Martin as a DB5. Shameful.
i agree with the above.....this is not a case of raiding the parts bin for wing mirror or rear light .......it looked like an IQ because it is an IQ.........with regards to the DB7 being an XJS, i have some sympathy with that view, but what a beautiful looking XJS Cygnet is the best-ever example of everything that is bad about badge engineering. To take a cheap Japanese city car (how good a car it is -- and it's a good city car -- is irrelevant), stick the Aston Martin grille and badge on it and call it an Aston Martin is an affront to a great marque, and its iconic grille and badge. Everything about it is appalling. Bez even had the stones to call it "as authentic" an Aston Martin as a DB5. Shameful.
Spot the difference between
and
compared to
and
The fact that AML changed every panel in addition to re-trim the interior and change the wheels of the iQ made it even more of a folly. If they were so desperate to do a City car they should have given the then Works Service the remit and made "Q-branch" do the re-trim and sold it as the iQ by Q or whatever.
and
compared to
and
The fact that AML changed every panel in addition to re-trim the interior and change the wheels of the iQ made it even more of a folly. If they were so desperate to do a City car they should have given the then Works Service the remit and made "Q-branch" do the re-trim and sold it as the iQ by Q or whatever.
Edited by V8LM on Thursday 15th January 09:04
This sort of thing does nothing to stop the vitriol aimed at the Cygnet...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
Beefmeister said:
This sort of thing does nothing to stop the vitriol aimed at the Cygnet...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
Take off the orange and that's Mako blue. I would buy it as a little runaround. I had an Aygo for a while, Toyota make great cars...http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
good grief said:
Neil1300r said:
Someone has to say it -
The Toyota is a brilliantly packaged, low cost car. Driving it through Hellfrauds bolt on department doesn't improve it one bit. In my eyes it just made it look ugly and cheap
Buy an IQ of the same year and save yourself money. If you want a well designed leather interior, thats great as a City car - buy a MINI with the auto box. Want it with performance buy a Cooper S with the auto box.
If you don't want a MINI or an IQ look at a Fiat 500
Blimey, I'm not sure it's that bad. The Toyota is a brilliantly packaged, low cost car. Driving it through Hellfrauds bolt on department doesn't improve it one bit. In my eyes it just made it look ugly and cheap
Buy an IQ of the same year and save yourself money. If you want a well designed leather interior, thats great as a City car - buy a MINI with the auto box. Want it with performance buy a Cooper S with the auto box.
If you don't want a MINI or an IQ look at a Fiat 500
Friend of mine bought a CooperS works, parted with over £30 grand for it, sold it a few years later for about £6000 with average miles on it, mind you cannot argue about which would be the better drive.
Anyways, I digress. I saw a Cygnet once in Edinburgh. They certainly draw looks, that is true. I think the mixture is a lot more varied than a normal Aston experience, most owners report positive responses, observing people pointing and laughing from the other side of the street, its fair to say the Cygnet isn't as loved.
End of the day, I dont think anyone can really predict the residuals but if they look firm, its defintely the nicest interior on an extra-small car you're going to get.
Personally, I'd get a sub £10k JCW with full leather and drop a couple of grand at a decent trimmers getting the dash and other visible interior plastics trimmed in alcantara.
When I first saw a photo of the Cygnet clay in the Aston Martin styling dept. I thought it was some sort of an photoshop April fools Joke.
I get that its meant as some sort of small luxury urban transportation device kind of like the Harold Radford /Wood and Picket Minis were in the '60s, but trying to adapt the Toyota iQ package into an "Aston Martin" was a big mistake , as Aston Martins are traditionally very visually attractive and the Cygnet is obviously not as its proportions are just so wrong for an Aston Martin.
Leaving off the Aston cues (grille/vents/rear lights etc) and calling it a Tickford Toyota would have solved the is it or isn't it a real Aston Martin dilemma, but I doubt they would have sold as many labeling it that way.
Weird expensive little car at the end of the day.
I get that its meant as some sort of small luxury urban transportation device kind of like the Harold Radford /Wood and Picket Minis were in the '60s, but trying to adapt the Toyota iQ package into an "Aston Martin" was a big mistake , as Aston Martins are traditionally very visually attractive and the Cygnet is obviously not as its proportions are just so wrong for an Aston Martin.
Leaving off the Aston cues (grille/vents/rear lights etc) and calling it a Tickford Toyota would have solved the is it or isn't it a real Aston Martin dilemma, but I doubt they would have sold as many labeling it that way.
Weird expensive little car at the end of the day.
WayneB said:
Leaving off the Aston cues (grille/vents/rear lights etc) and calling it a Tickford Toyota would have solved the is it or isn't it a real Aston Martin dilemma, but I doubt they would have sold as many labeling it that way.
Weird expensive little car at the end of the day.
Did they actually, honestly, genuinely sell any new though? Or just pre reg the handful they built and flog them 'cheap' (ie for what they were really worth, a few grand more than the equivalent IQ).Weird expensive little car at the end of the day.
People aren't daft, this is a £10K (new) car with a nice upgrade to the interior offset by the rather embarrassing ludicrous pastiche Aston grill and vents.
In the real world, what's anyone actually going to have paid for that, £15K (a 50% premium) absolute max surely? £12-13K more likely?
I just can't see it being any more. And on the secondhand market, where value for money really matters with real world cars (and this certainly isn't remotely exotic) I can't see anyone spending more than a grand or two over a normal IQ. Why would you?
Circa £20K asking prices are just that, asking. I can't see them actually achieving anywhere remotely close.
Beefmeister said:
This sort of thing does nothing to stop the vitriol aimed at the Cygnet...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
Somebody likes it: "We're sorry, the vehicle you are looking for is no longer available." http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
Ari said:
WayneB said:
Leaving off the Aston cues (grille/vents/rear lights etc) and calling it a Tickford Toyota would have solved the is it or isn't it a real Aston Martin dilemma, but I doubt they would have sold as many labeling it that way.
Weird expensive little car at the end of the day.
Did they actually, honestly, genuinely sell any new though? Or just pre reg the handful they built and flog them 'cheap' (ie for what they were really worth, a few grand more than the equivalent IQ).Weird expensive little car at the end of the day.
People aren't daft, this is a £10K (new) car with a nice upgrade to the interior offset by the rather embarrassing ludicrous pastiche Aston grill and vents.
In the real world, what's anyone actually going to have paid for that, £15K (a 50% premium) absolute max surely? £12-13K more likely?
I just can't see it being any more. And on the secondhand market, where value for money really matters with real world cars (and this certainly isn't remotely exotic) I can't see anyone spending more than a grand or two over a normal IQ. Why would you?
Circa £20K asking prices are just that, asking. I can't see them actually achieving anywhere remotely close.
jonby said:
You are perhaps making reasonable assumptions but you couldn't be further from the truth. Yes cygnet was an unmitigated disaster for AML in terms of sales but they did sell some and they have held their value particularly well. The dealers are indeed selling them used for £20k regularly, without having to try too hard, based primarily on supply & demand factors. It's actually one of the best gaydon aston buys out there from a depreciation point of view
Looks like they don't stay on sale for long! Does someone know something we don't? Or are people starting to collect them? Strange, as the values of these seem to have levelled off, and look like they have done for a while now.terry mardy said:
Looks like they don't stay on sale for long! Does someone know something we don't? Or are people starting to collect them? Strange, as the values of these seem to have levelled off, and look like they have done for a while now.
The Cygnet will very shortly be hugely collectible, if not already. Extremely small numbers, quirky design, a 'good' car underneath, a perceived folly...all the right factors to make it a collectors item. And during the 2013 celebration, it was at the end of the timeline display (IIRC). Aston collectors will be looking for 'that car' down the road. Buy one if you can while the prices are low.
DB9VolanteDriver said:
The Cygnet will very shortly be hugely collectible, if not already. Extremely small numbers, quirky design, a 'good' car underneath, a perceived folly...all the right factors to make it a collectors item. And during the 2013 celebration, it was at the end of the timeline display (IIRC). Aston collectors will be looking for 'that car' down the road. Buy one if you can while the prices are low.
I could believe that if it were genuinely an Aston, even if it were a very bad Aston. But it's not is it, it is a Toyota. And I'm sorry but what is basically a special edition version of a car they've made millions of will never be collectible, even if that special edition does include glued on Aston badges and some nice leather inside.
People, especially those that collect cars and therefore have a bit of knowledge about them, simply are not that gullible (as Aston Martin themselves very quickly found out the first time around with these things).
A Ferrari 250GTO the Toyota Cygnet is not.
Ari said:
DB9VolanteDriver said:
The Cygnet will very shortly be hugely collectible, if not already. Extremely small numbers, quirky design, a 'good' car underneath, a perceived folly...all the right factors to make it a collectors item. And during the 2013 celebration, it was at the end of the timeline display (IIRC). Aston collectors will be looking for 'that car' down the road. Buy one if you can while the prices are low.
I could believe that if it were genuinely an Aston, even if it were a very bad Aston. But it's not is it, it is a Toyota. And I'm sorry but what is basically a special edition version of a car they've made millions of will never be collectible, even if that special edition does include glued on Aston badges and some nice leather inside.
People, especially those that collect cars and therefore have a bit of knowledge about them, simply are not that gullible (as Aston Martin themselves very quickly found out the first time around with these things).
A Ferrari 250GTO the Toyota Cygnet is not.
This was in autocar online today
WEDNESDAY - Fascinating phone conversation with classic Aston specialist Nick Mee, one of my table companions last night, about the market prospects of the Cygnet, Gaydon’s 'Astonified' version of the Toyota iQ. I’d made some daft joke about the car’s market prospects, which turned out to be well wide of the mark. Turns out there’s a strong market in Cygnets; low-milers fetch £22k-£24k.
Mee (whose emporium is near busy Shepherd’s Bush) reckons the Cygnet is the only city car that’ll be worth more than pennies in 10 years’ time. It might even hold its money. “You always feel special when you’re in a Cygnet,” he says, “because the interior’s so luxurious. The car is rare [only 400 were made], works perfectly in the city and costs nothing to run, because it’s a Toyota. But at the end of the day, the V5 still says 'Aston Martin'. For lots of people, this is the perfect combination of qualities.”
If you thought the mark up on the Cygnet was high.......
http://www.speedmonkey.co.uk/2012/11/spotted-aston...
http://www.speedmonkey.co.uk/2012/11/spotted-aston...
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