If you work either for Toyota or for a related company, or have just bought an Aygo, or are committed to doing so, it would be only fair to suggest that you navigate away from this page without reading any further. For you, what follows ain't gonna be pretty.The Aygo specifically being considered here is the x-clusiv manual five-door, which at £11,695 is one of the most expensive and certainly among the most impressively equipped cars in the range. You can save £400 by choosing the three-door if that's sufficient for your needs, or you can invest a further £700 for the automated manual transmission which, while not very good, is nevertheless one of the better units of its type.All x-clusivs have Bold Black exterior paintwork, a Piano Black centre console and black leather upholstery, all of which give the Aygo quite a premium feel. So does a list of standard equipment that includes DAB digital radio, automatic headlights, a reversing camera and the very good x-touch multimedia system which, among other things, can be used to control the functions on your smartphone.Another positive feature is the way the suspension has been set up to make the Aygo ride and handle much better than its size (or its looks, which I don't fancy much but will certainly appeal to other people) suggest should be the case. It's also very easy to manoeuvre in urban situations, as all city cars should be.If all your priorities have been covered in the last few paragraphs, you might wonder if there is any reason not to buy an Aygo, and you might do so, and you might be completely happy with your purchase, and that would be lovely and I would be very pleased for you.But there are issues which, to my mind, push the Aygo (and the Citroen C1 and Peugeot 108, which look different but are essentially the same thing) a long way down the list of desirable city cars. One is that the high-quality impression created by the colouring and the equipment and the fancy upholstery is blown apart by the way the whole body can be set ringing simply by turning the central locking on or off.Similarly, efforts to suppress the noise of the one-litre three-cylinder petrol engine - a modified version of the one used in the original Aygo nine years ago - are inadequate, and in most circumstances the sound, though not unpleasant, can be excessive. The only plus point here is that, unlike its French equivalents, the Aygo isn't available with the more powerful 1.2-litre unit, which is even louder.Rear visibility is so ridiculously poor that I could almost believe the designers intended to limit it as far as they could legally get away with. If you want to carry passengers in the back they'll have to be small because there isn't much room there (though there's plenty up front) and somehow there is load space than Renault offers in the rival Twingo even though that car has its engine and gearbox right underneath the luggage compartment and the Aygo doesn't.The Twingo is a very fine city car. So is the Hyundai i10, and so are the much older SEAT Mii, Skoda Citigo and Volkswagen up! I can't nominate one of them as the absolute best in the group, but I rate each of them more highly than the Aygo. If Toyota's challenger does well it will probably be because of its distinctive looks and adventurous marketing rather than because it's a particularly good product. Engine 998cc, 3 cylinders Power 68bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 65.7mpg / 95g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 14.2 seconds Top speed 98mph Price £11,695 Details correct at publication date
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