Famous for their range of iconic British sports cars, Aston Martin have been focusing on widening their market lately, firstly with the Rapide, a four door sports saloon and now with the micro sized Cygnet. The announcement raised a lot of eyebrows as the car is so far from the typical type of car that the car manufacturer sells. Aston Martins official line is that the Cygnet is a "luxury commuter car" which "sees the company's core values engage with a new environment". The actual reason for the Cygnet's existence is to help the company comply with European emission rules. The high efficiency of the new super mini helping to bring down the average emissions across the range.
Announced in mid 2009, the first Cygnet's will start hitting the roads sometime in 2010. Despite its diminutive size the car certainly still has an Aston Martin price tag, expected to sell for around £30,000 ($50,000 USD). To retain exclusivity further still, the Cygnet will only be available to existing Aston Martin owners with annual production expected to be below 5000.
Despite the high cost, the Cygnet is not a bespoke design and is actually based on the Toyota iQ - a low cost micro car which originally launched in 2008. Beneath the heavy modifications which give the Cygnet its signature Aston Martin looks, the car underpinnings of the initial models will share much with it's Toyota brother - even down to the engine which will be the stock Toyota 1.33 liter. The actual differences will be mainly cosmetic most obviously with the exterior which has sees new body panels and lights. The end result resembles a DB9 which has been squeezed from bumper to bonnet in a vice. The interior of the Cygnet has also seen a revamp and from the inside feels closer to a classic elegance than to the Toyota that the mini Aston is based upon.
The Cygnet has received a very mixed response since its announcement and it remains to be seen how the car will fare once available. To expensive for the typical micro car owner and frankly, too embarrassing to be driven by existing Aston Martin owners. If the Cygnet really is purely an exercise in emission compliance then the reality is Aston Martin will be producing 5000 cars a year which will rarely leave the garage - not exactly the environmentally friendly result that the European Union were aiming for.
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