Fierce for Success

As the world turns its back on rough-and-tumble SUVs for their lack of refinement, environmental unconsciousness and the very common sense that most peep don't live next to a barn, and when the common car , is too anaemic for the adventurous urban jungle warrior, the cross-over 'soft-roader' has been the ideal sweet spot that car manufacturers have .

Mitsubishi , from the looks of things, their new competitor in this hotly contested segment in the market , the RVR (the new 2010 that is, not the old thing of yore-and-ions ago) .

Taking a hint from the very aggressive ( and very successful)shark-visage of the Lancer, and a rear end not too disimilar to the Audi Q3.

So , what you get is a winner .

Cannot wait til it hits the show rooms this year . And soon . Lovely.

Q

Pretty Big Mini Rival

Aston wants a piece of Mini.

>>> First up, lemme give you a brief preview write up:
Yuu can see the traditional and familiar Aston face : The vertically-stacked lights and the wide-gaping low grille.

The rear also has familiar cues from traditional models albeit less so than the original concept of last year. Now , the production version you see here , has a VW Golf-ish rear lamp clusters.

The designers cum sculptors have done their very best with 'surface flaming' and swages to render the side profile as swoopy as a short-stubby car could possibly be.

Any car with as Aston badge needs to pop-it-like-its-hot on the inside. It has to scream sporty, exclusive and expensive. And so here , it doesn't disappoint (too much). With high-quality hide stiched over everywhere (possibly many cows died here of claustrophobia), edgy and exclusive embossed materials on the seats and door panels, and polished piano-finish for the dash. Of course, while most Aston's have more traditional interiors, this here is meant for the younger and trendier-than-thou set so you'd expect hyper modern luxuries and amenities and an overall, more modern-take on things.

Drive-wise, no one has the inside story as yet, but ,this is an Aston, so expect sharp and precise hot-hatch/roadster-like hustling around the bends. (Which no Toyota ever was; so good luck with that).

>>>Now let's get on with general snipes at this car;

When I first came across the initial pictures of the Aston Martin Cygnet still on the design facility being chamfered away by its modellers ( you could almost sense their frustration going " More off! More off! Not sleek enough.. never sleek enough!" .) .

I was thinking " WTH. "

At that time, Aston claimed it was but a design study and a potential small car and should it ever come out, will be meant nothing more than a good-will gift to existing customers who just need a smaller ride to the nearest hypermart.

Totak bubbish right?

Until when I kinda stumbled upon a picture of one on the opposite page of an auto publication featuring a Fiat 500C(which by the way has a price tag so steep it's even more a joke than the Cygnet.)

Now , we all know that the Fiat 500 range was conceived to be that retro cart-like car to compete with the very successful BMW-owned MINI.

There. Got my drift? Aston Martin wants a piece of the MINI-clientele was well.

No chicken pie here . Only Baby-swan pie.

Only time'll tell if Aston Martin can indeed bring its sporting heritage to this end of the market.

Q... what a very expensive little bird it's gonna be.

Ugly and Stupid?

Baby Martin

It might seem at first that it’s a joke—Aston Martin building a car based on the Toyota iQ city car—but it’s not April first, and with a concept car called the Cygnet, indeed they’re serious.

Aston Martin describes the Cygnet concept as a luxury commuter, “a distinctive, intelligent and exclusive solution for urban travel in style and luxury.”

Why should only the hoi polloi be fuel efficient? Or put the other way, why should the fuel efficient not be able to arrive in Aston Martin style?

Accordingly, the Aston Martin Cygnet is “a creative, environmentally conscious solution, being small, yet with presence – and highly fuel efficient, now combined with the prestige of Aston Martin’s luxury brand ownership.”

Aston Martin Chief Executive, Dr Ulrich Bez said: “Now is the right time for Aston Martin to take this first bold step to embark on this special project – made possible with the support of an organisation of Toyota’s stature and capability and the intelligent design and perfect city car package of the iQ.”

Dr. Bez conceded that much remained to be done, but by working with Toyota and utilizing the respective strengths of each organization, “this project could become reality in the not too distant future.”

Aston Martin provided no technical information, including what suspension or engine differences there might be, though we would be surprised to see a production Aston Martin Cygnet as merely a Toyota iQ with a different body and inside, luxury trim.
Even so, one shouldn’t expect a production Aston Martin Cygnet to be a luxury tourer. Bez called it “akin to an exclusive tender to a luxury yacht.”

“The offering of a ‘Cygnet’ with a DBS, DB9 or Vantage is a unique combination of opposites,” said Bez, “and a novel transport solution allowing intelligent and sensitive mobility on an exclusive and innovative level.”

In short, the question is not whether a production version of the Cygnet will arrive, but when. And a cygnet, as you know, is a baby swan.

Then too, a baby swan was, in the children’s story. An ugly duckling.

And where's the IQ in that?

Q ... what say you? A really expensive shopping cart? A supplementary card to that exclusive Gold Card?