Kinder Suprise Aston Martin

I really don’t know what to say about Aston Martin Cygnet. A pointless car or a huge marketing achievement. Today Aston Martin announced the price of Cygnet (Aston Martin’s city car based on Toyota iQ) and it is priced at £ 40 000 (€ 47 000 / $ 63 000). This price tag to a car which is based on a Toyota is a real question mark!

In terms of marketing; Aston Martin did a piece of art vehicle. Exterior and interior design of Cygnet is a great interpretation of Aston Martin design concept. You can see the each detail of Aston Martin identity on Cygnet. The air holes on bonnet, the front look, the precision in interior design and high quality interior. Honestly Cygnet’s interior is one of the best interiors on market. You can buy this car just for its interior design. Unfortunately there are some buttons transferred from Toyota too! This was unavoidable, overall it is a real piece of art Toyota.

The pricing is very well designed like the interior. £40 000 is a good price to prevent people who cannot afford to buy a descent Aston Martin and end up in Cygnet! This is serious problem for brand extension. You just introduce a new lower segment car and new customers adore it but your royal customers run away.

High price means one thing, this car is not for you! If you are planning to buy an Audi A3 and you just waited for Cygnet for your new car, you made a mistake. Cygnet is not an alternative for A3 or Golf or Focus consumers. £40 000 means, this car should be bought by people who already have an Aston Martin or Bentley or Ferrari or Rolls Royce or anything which does not fit to narrow city roads. People who do not wish to destroy their style by small city cars are the target group. And there are lots of people like this! However I know that many people will save money to own an Aston Martin and they will buy one Cygnet, and they will say I have an Aston Martin.

Let’s see the real picture. Cygnet is based on Toyota iQ and expect the design, the rest is the same. Engine, transmission, exhaust, suspension and this list goes on! Unfortunately iQ is not a luxury vehicle and does not offer something special. Aston Martin did their best to redefine the iQ but this is the limit.

For £40 000, you will get a 1,3lt Toyota engine which is the same engine in iQ, there is nothing changed. Two gearboxes, a manual and an automatic. The automatic is an automated manual transmission, which means it will be terrible. The suspension remained the, the rear suspension is a torsion bar. And this means, there is no proper suspension on rear wheels. The pot holes can be felt by your whole body. This technology is cheaper than a descent suspension and mostly present in budget cars (Renault Clio, Peugeot 206, Toyota Auris). This means the traditional Aston Martin comfort may not be present in Cygnet also.

And lastly, you can buy a descent second hand DB9 for £40 000 and it would be a proper car. I know the main target group of Cygnet is the customers who already have an Aston Martin and don’t like second hand car.

In my opinion, we can see a very interesting target group for this car. A totally unexpected customer group may end up in dealer. This happened with Tata Nano, a cheap car for poor people and rich people in India bought Nano for daily driving. Cygnet will be a Kinder Surprise for everyone.

Why Aston Martin did this crazy thing? Because, they have to reduce their CO2 levels upcoming EU regulations. Unfortunately Aston Martin is a lonely brand unlike others. Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche are sub brands of Volkswagen, Ferrari is a sub brand of Fiat, Mercedes and BMW have low emission vehicles. So except, Aston Martin everyone can reduce their overall CO2 level to satisfy future EU regulation. For Aston Martin, offering a car based on iQ was the best option.