Aston Martin has released official photos of the Cygnet, a re-badged version of Toyota’s upcoming iQ city car. In order to justify roughly doubling the base car’s price tag, the British manufacturer has added Aston styling cues to the exterior and significantly upgraded the interior.
Interior of the Aston Martin Cygnet
The interior of the Cygnet is a spiced-up version of the iQ’s; there is leather and beautiful stitching everywhere, the instrument graphics are altered, and the iPod touch prominently featured on the dashboard hints that Cygnet drivers probably have many things in mind which are more important than serious motoring.
The interior shot also betrays the transmission used: Toyota’s Multidrive box, a continuously variable transmission which is just perfect for buzzing around town in a Japanese minicar. Mark it down as another first for Aston.
Toyota will deliver iQs to the Aston Martin factory in Gaydon, where they will be completed. Likely to be priced in the equivalent of the $35,000 to $42,000 range, they have already been met with eager interest by current Aston Martin owners, the company claims. And you need to be one of those to qualify for buying the tiny Cygnet—at least for the time being. Not a bad marketing ploy.
via 2011 Aston Martin Cygnet – Official Photos and Info – Auto Reviews – Car and Driver.
Badge engineering like this doesn’t tend to work well for luxury brands, as Cadillac learned in the 80s with the Cimarron, but Aston needs the car to help pull its fleet’s average emissions down to meet European standards. It’s estimated Aston will sell 2,000 per year, but there’s no word on a US rollout.
The exterior of the Aston Martin Cygnet
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