Classic pearls of the future - Toyota IQ and Aston Martin Cygnet
03/08/2016
It was really short, 2.985 meters long to be precise, the Toyota IQ. A Smart of the current generation is 2.695 meters long, another 30 centimeters shorter. So what about the Toyota should indicate special intelligence (IQ)? Well, the Toyota had not just two but four seats. Not all of them were intended for adults, but three of them were, assuming a certain willingness to compromise. This made the Toyota a much more complete car than the Smart, with which it competed directly. The engines had at least three, sometimes even four cylinders and up to 98 hp. Quite a lot of power for a small car weighing around a ton.
The IQ divided potential buyers into two groups: some loved it, others didn't even give it a second glance. And this was mainly due to its appearance, with the front design in particular taking some getting used to.
This is exactly where the Aston Martin designers came in, turning the intelligent little car into a youthful swan (Cygnet). The Cygnet also had an Aston-typical front end and, of course, the most powerful engine available.
It was also available in all the colors in which you could order your DB9 or V8 Vantage. For Aston Martin, the Cygnet was a means of reducing fleet consumption, so the transformed IQ with its 113 g/km CO2 emissions was of course a good thing. However, the calculation didn't quite work out, because instead of the planned thousands of young Swans, Aston Martin was only able to sell 150 (according to the BBC). So the luxury sports car manufacturer pulled the plug and abandoned the project in September 2013. Despite the Aston radiator and nice colors as well as the upgraded interior, the premium of over 100% compared to the Toyota donor vehicle was obviously too high.
And this is exactly what could make the Aston Martin version of the IQ an even more convincing classic pearl, because the Cygnet really doesn't lack exclusivity. The significantly cheaper IQ has a harder time of it, even though it was only produced from 2008 to 2014 and did not fulfill Toyota's sales hopes.
Who knows, many an ugly swan (or was it an Ende or a Beetle) only conquered the hearts of classic car buyers in retrospect, perhaps it will be the same with the IQ?
