2011 Aston Martin Cygnet
Offered by Leclere MDV | Avignon, France | March 25, 2018
Photo – Leclere MDV
As a fan of obscure cars from big manufacturers (even those from Aston Martin), this 2011 Aston Martin Cygnet really hits the spot. The car is essentially a fancy version of the Toyota/Scion iQ city car sold all over the world. It got the Aston grille and a nicer interior. If they haven’t already, people will completely cease to remember this car ever existed in another five years.
Probably because it was still a Toyota underneath. No silky-smooth V-12 power plant here. The engine is a puny 97 horsepower 1.3-liter straight-four. So with that in mind, the question you’re probably asking is “Why?” Well Aston Martin decided they needed to meet the 2012 European Union fleet emissions regulations and by offering a car that got 60 mpg they could continue to build other insanely powerful road cars.
It’s easy to question their strategy of re-branding a Toyota now (well, it was then too) but, as you might expect, it failed spectacularly. They planned to sell about 4,000 of these a year at a price of about $45,000. Initially they were only sold in the U.K. and at one point Aston dealers in the U.K. were giving them away if you bought a DBS, DB9, or V8 Vantage (according to the auction catalog). Over two years of production, they managed to sell just 143 of these in the U.K. (there may have been another 150-ish sold elsewhere but I can’t verify that). Having covered 34,000km, this car is still expected to bring $48,000-$62,5000, proving even un-sellable cars appreciate if they have the right badge. Click here for more info and here for the rest of this auction’s lineup.
Update: Not sold.
Wow I knew they didn’t make many but I didn’t suspect they were so exceedingly rare! Are you sure of those production figures? I once saw one in Barcelona, where I live, and there are pictures out on the www of at least three other units in the city.
I’m fairly confident (I can’t verify how many were sold outside the U.K. but it’s pretty smaller). British sales totals: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-24455948