Aston Martin Cygnet

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.