Aston Martin's Cygnet. They'll Actually Build It

by Cammy Corrigan

Published: October 11th, 2010

aston martin s cygnet they ll actually build it

We all thought it was trick. We all thought Aston Martin was playing an (admittedly) funny practical joke. But no, it was confirmed. The Aston Martin Cygnet (A.K.A The Toyota IQ with a posh badge) has been confirmed for production.

Honest John reports that the Aston Martin Cygnet will go into production in 2011. Aston describes the car as a city car “that sets a new benchmark for compact luxury, building upon nearly a century of experience building high performance sports cars, luxurious long-range grand tourers and extremely competitive racing machines”. I wish I was making this stuff up. It will be built at Aston Martin’s headquarters in Gaydon (yes, it makes me laugh, too!), Warwickshire. “Whatever we do, we do right. If we do performance, we do performance; we don’t downsize or compromise our sports cars. The Cygnet needs to satisfy the demands of emissions and space. It is a car without compromise, just like every other Aston Martin.” said Aston Martin CEO Dr Ulrich Bez.

But as you’ve probably guessed, this car is actually a car born from legislation. The Cygnet was born to help Aston Martin fight CO2 emission levels for car manufacturers. The Cygnet will help off-set the emissions of all those DB9’s and Rapides (you know, the fun Astons?). Prices have yet to be confirmed, though they are aiming to start around £20,000 ($32,000) according to the article, but I reckon it’ll end up around the original price of £30,000 ($47,000). £20,000 or £30,000, I’m still pretty sure I could spend that money better…

#AstonMartin #CammyCorrigan #Cygnet #Japan #UK

Cammy Corrigan

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6 of 15 comments

Pete Zaitcev on Oct 11, 2010

This is exactly how Porsche will survive the CAFE.

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- Davekaybsc on Oct 11, 2010
  
  With Porsche being part of VAG, shouldn't their CAFE troubles be over? They can use the VW Polo for this, they don't need to make their own.
  
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- Silvy_nonsense on Oct 11, 2010
  
  @Davekaybsc I'm not sure it works that way. The legislation (read it here http://www.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/Cfc_title49/ACTchap321-331.html#32901) is not super specific (OK, its as confusing as you'd expect) about the definition of a "manufacturer", but it does say its someone who makes -or imports- vehicles. The data on fines paid shows the fines of foreign makers being paid by their U.S. subsidiaries (the importer) not the parent company ( http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/cafe/FINES-COLLECTED-SUMMARY.html ). Its possible that since Porsches and VW's are imported by separate legal entities, they don't get to combine data. I'm just guessing and don't have the expertise or legal background to say anything even close to definitive, but I think that its fair to say that the fact that Porsche is ultimately owned by VW is no guarantee of anything. Also, the fines data only goes up to 2004, but VW is on the list, which surprised me. The act also treats the calculation of domestics and imports separately, so Ford owning Aston Martin, for example, wouldn't have helped, even if the calculations are made at the parent company level.
  
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MRF 95 T-Bird on Oct 11, 2010

Why can't Aston design a sun $100 K oradster/coupe that gets 30+ MPG thus having an entry-level car and not saome badge-engineered Toyota

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M 1 on Oct 12, 2010

Cygnet? I always get their names mixed up. Which Horseman of the Apocalypse is this one, again?

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Psarhjinian on Oct 12, 2010

Justin Berkowitz' bit at Metacars was the definitive take on the Cygnet.

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