The Toyota Blog

What’s in a name? Well, if your car is called the Aygo, you know that it is more than a pure vehicle descriptor. Aygo – a combination of “I” and “go” – is a promise of freedom and mobility, a declaration of independence for a first time car buyer.
“The Aygo offers us the opportunity to offer first time buyers a Toyota with all the benefits of quality, unrivalled support and, very importantly, modern and funky styling that shows that you do not have to compromise even if your budget is tight,” says Calvyn Hamman, Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Toyota South Africa Motors.

Modern and funky styling
Challenging the perceptions that entry-level vehicles should only deliver on the functional needs of first time buyers, the Aygo offers loads of visual appeal to its youthful target market.
Starting with its cheeky front design, with signature bulge over the Toyota badge, smiling lower air intake, integrated bumper protectors and flowing front fenders the Aygo makes no mystery of its youthful appeal.
Viewed in profile the Aygo shows a surprisingly dynamic coupe-like profile despite the presence of four doors. This is supported by the rearward placement of the rear door handles with character bulge, tinted windows on the Aygo Wild and the blacked out B-pillar. From this angle the Aygo’s wide stance and very short overhangs are clearly visible.
The smart design elements are continued at the rear of the vehicle, where the large tinted rear window doubles as the rear luggage door. The luggage door is flanked by stylised rear lights that mirror the headlamp design and the extended rear wheel arches that emphasise the Aygo’s squat stance. The rear design is topped by a high-mount rear stop lamp that is standard across the range.

Wait until you get inside
The smart design elements visible from outside has evidently flown into the cabin. With its signature cab-forward design the Aygo offers a surprising amount of room for four large adults. Inspired by the cab design of modern speedboats, the Aygo offers figure hugging front seats, a flowing dashboard that offers a multitude of storage spaces and a bold instrument cluster that is mounted atop the height-adjustable steering wheel, allowing for perfect visibility regardless of the steering wheel position.
Styling highlights include the use of body colour in the interior door trim and the integrated placement of all comfort controls in the cylinder-shaped central section. Ball-shaped air vents invites the occupants to touch and interact with the vehicle in a youthful way.
Toyota’s designers have included no less than 16 storage compartments offering 18 litres of interior storage space.

True comfort and convenience
The Aygo is a true city car thanks to its length of 3 415 mm and 4.7 m turning circle, yet its 2 340 mm wheelbase and very short overhangs shows that Toyota has squeezed every inch of interior space into this small city dweller.
Front occupants will immediately notice the long hip point (for more hip and leg room) and smart dashboard design that creates a spacious feel inside the cabin. This is supported by front seats that offer 240 mm of fore/aft travel and the height adjustable steering wheel.

The rear occupants will pick up on the front seats’ slim line design that frees up rear leg and feet space.
Other comfort features abound in the Aygo. All versions of the Aygo offers speed sensitive electric power steering and air conditioning. The Aygo Wild adds front electric windows, an MP3-player-ready front loading CD-player and a 50:50 split rear bench seat with ISOfix tether points for a child seat.

All versions of the Aygo has a full sized spare wheel below the luggage area floor.

Freedom in two flavours
The new Toyota Aygo arrives in South Africa after its European upgrade and it will be offered in two grade levels to suit the perceived needs of the first time buying market.

At R109 900 the Aygo Fresh brings all the modern Aygo-benefits within reach of budget conscious first time buyers. Despite this budget price, the Aygo Fresh offers the same mechanical performance and under-the-skin safety benefits as its upmarket brother.
The Aygo Wild (R120 100) is differentiated from the Fresh by its alloy wheels, colour coded door handles, rear privacy glass and the raft of interior luxuries mentioned above.

Toyota values safety
Toyota’s safety engineers showed that they are up to the challenge presented by the Aygo designers. Using the same “small but clever” ethos, Toyota’s engineers equipped the Aygo with ultra-modern impact protection. At the core of their design is the combination of high strength materials and a functional safety structure to absorb and dissipate impact forces away from the point of impact and more importantly away from the passenger cell.

The Aygo’s impact dissipating structure is supported by the liberal use of high-tensile steel in more than 50% of the vehicle’s body. This includes the exclusive use of high-tensile steel in all doors, the bonnet and the reinforced centre tunnel.
Passive safety is further bolstered by the use of two side impact bars in the front doors and bolt on crash boxes in the bumpers. These crash boxes not only absorb energy in an impact from the front or the rear, it can be removed easily to make post accident repairs easier and cheaper.

The list of passive safety features are supported by a raft of active safety features. This includes a driver and front passenger airbag on all models and side airbags on the Aygo Wild. The airbags are complimented by an airbag on/off switch for the front passenger and a seatbelt warning system for the driver.

All Aygo models are also equipped with ABS brakes, electronic brake force distribution (EBD) and emergency brake assistance (BA).
For safety by another name all versions of the Aygo is equipped with an immobiliser and alarm.

Under the skin
One of the Aygo’s most attractive features can be found under the bonnet. The Aygo is fitted with Toyota’s acclaimed 3 cylinder 1 litre petrol engine that has won its category in the World Engine of the Year competition for four years running.

The engine uses novel engineering solutions such as resin air intakes, engine cover and fuel injector ramps to save weight and space, without compromising durability or power delivery. At 67 kg the Aygo’s engine is the lightest internal combustion engine in a passenger vehicle while its fuel consumption figure of 4.6 litres / 100 km and tax-beating CO2 emissions of 105 g/km will make an immediate and long term difference to overall cost of ownership.

The Aygo’s 1 litre is equipped with variable valve timing (VVT-i), 12 valves and double overhead camshafts to deliver 50 kW at 6 000 rpm and 93 Nm at 3 600 rpm. The engine is mounted atop a unique engine mounting system that absorbs engine vibrations and is linked to two side-mounted braces that is aligned with the engine’s centre of gravity.

The engine is mated to a five speed manual gearbox. The smooth shifting gearbox offers more a different final drive profile to the Yaris Zen1, which ensures lower fuel consumption, emission levels and a Toyota Optimal Drive certification.
The Aygo’s gearing and very low weight (830 kg) translates to energetic performance such a top speed of 157 km/h and a 0 – 100 km/h acceleration time of 14.2 seconds.

Lower down the Aygo boasts an adapted version of the Toyota Yaris front suspension, featuring a McPherson configuration. The damping rates and coil springs have been adapted to the Aygo’s unique driving characteristics and low weight. At the rear the Aygo is fitted with an inverted torsion beam system with integrated stabiliser bars.

Value is key
Building on its wealth of experience with entry level vehicles such as the Toyota Tazz and Toyota Yaris Zen Toyota has acknowledges that overall cost of ownership is key in this target market.

This does not only require an affordable purchase price, but also freely available and affordable service and crash parts and lower - often overlooked - costs such as low fuel consumption and insurance. Having ticked all the boxes with the Toyota Aygo, Toyota has taken it a step further by offering a ToyotaCare 60 000 km / 4 year service plan on all Aygo models.

Service intervals are set at 15 000 km.