Motoring

with Toby Aiken

Firstly, apologies for another Toyota review – sometimes these things happen. Actually, before I get into the review, I have a question for the people at Toyota.

Why does an X suggest a car is more rugged? More of an SUV? Is it because the X can be appropriated to be the ‘cross’ in cross country? That is my only assumption, and while it’s not an important factor, it’s perhaps the subject of another column at some point.

When do things go from being new and different, to standard and accepted? The X suggesting a bigger version of the base car, two-tone paint jobs, and retro looks. When did these things suddenly become popular again? I know fashions and trends come and go, but often these things just happen so unobtrusively that we’re accepting them before we’ve noticed them.

Anyway, back to the car. The Aygo X is clearly intended to be a city car for a growing family, and a city car it most certainly is. It looks good, and while it may have 5 doors, it’s really tiny, while still being spacious. Somehow.

The thing is, while a city car is all well and good, in today’s economic environment, even a city car has to be able to hold its own in a range of situations. I’m not saying it has to be able to go off-roading, but even a frugal 3-cylinder 1-litre supermini has to be able to cut it on the motorway, A roads and B roads that make up Britain.

When it comes to capable superminis, the Fiat 500 really laid down the gauntlet to the others in the category when it was launched, and is equally at home in pretty much any environment. So much so that when it came out it rapidly moved to the top of the popularity charts, displacing many established city cars in the process.

So does the new Aygo X meet the challenge? Can anything?

On the A roads it needs to be pushed to move well, but that’s expected really when you buy a small engine car. There’s a bit of body roll, being a taller supermini ( the X factor perhaps) but nothing like what you might expect considering the height to weight ratio. And it has to be said, it corners superbly, again lightness is its friend here.

The cornering means B roads are handled pretty well too, but motorways – that was always going to be the challenge. A challenge that it just about acquits itself on. But only just. It’s fine at speed, and as long as you pay attention and work the gearbox, it can keep up. But above 55 or 60mph, the road noise does get a bit intrusive. Not unmanageable, but definitely noticeable. But realistically, this isn’t going to spend many miles on the motorway, so I can’t really hold it as a negative. It’s a capable car. Practical, nippy, you might say. And while it probably doesn’t quite match the Fiat offering in style, I’m not sure anything does. The Local Answer To advertise call 01242 510500 Page 29