This year the PSA-Toyota joint project put out the new range of city cars, with the Citroen C1, Peugeot 108 and Toyota Aygo receiving total a total overhaul. But while the two french cars are somehow toned down with styling, Toyota went full berserk when creating the new Aygo.
The Peugeot 108 is the classy one out of the trio and probably the most bland to look at. The C1 manages somehow to put a subtle smile on your face because its squinting at you and has a large ‘mouth” but the Aygo... the Aygo is exactly one of “waku-doki’s” real life representations. By simply looking at it, you instantly get that feel of expecting something fun to happen.
But how Toyota managed to get so far ahead with design in front of its PSA sister-cars? Chief engineer David Terai, the man responsible for this little car that caused such a stir explained recently in an interview with Toyota Blog UK.
“The previous generation was very successful so creating a new one was a big challenge for me… a lot of pressure was there!” said Terai. Back in 2008 when Toyota already started to work on the new Aygo there were twice as few city cars available, but the automaker predicted the boom and wanted to create something different from the begining.
“The first thing I thought was not follow the European way, but do something different, a little more Japanese, a little more Toyota,” Terai continued.
David used many Japanese youth motifs in creating the new Aygo’s image, including manga, anime, electronic music and robots. He explains that the car has a complete Japanese “pedigree” and that’s so different from its French cousins, despite having the same underpinnings.
Speaking about the underpinnings chief engineer also explained: “My goal was that we needed a striking design, but if you only have good design and average performance then no one will buy the car. I wanted to improve the ride and handling, and the refinement too.”
That’s how the Aygo received a sharper steering and a 20 percent stiffer rear end to compensate the the way the Aygo plummets in turns and make for less body roll. The Aygo perkiness will also be maintained by a 1-liter three-cylinder gasoline engine which will also sound “gruntier” than an inline-four.
Also check the video bellow to catch more about the new Aygo’s style.
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