This has turned into something of a long-term test. With a third chance to drive the car, DTW has some extra insight on living with Toyota’s second smallest car.
Perhaps the most illuminating aspect of adding another four days to the tally of six, is that a few important details have turned up, all of them bad. DTW conducted most of the original testing when the days were longer. This time, night driving in humid weather has shown up two details that might irritate or perhaps prove too grating to live with.
The centre console screen is there to allow access to a variety of functions. When not in use it displays a ruddy huge clock with a daft retro typeface. At night there is a marked difference between the illumination levels of the speedo and the console screen. The screen is simply very, very bright and I didn’t find out how to darken it. In a moment of desperation, as I finally grew tired of the glare, I solved the problem as shown.
The photo below shows how it looks when driving. With a little more time and some scissors a properly trimmed screen cover could be devised. Toyota could add something like it to their long list of optional extras that help personalise this little car.
Another detail is the old light/button mistake. The air-conditioner button is illuminated with the “A/C” glowing orange as on the speedo. Underneath is a green light that illuminates when the device is on.
The problem is that at night one is tempted to stab the green light and not the button. Ideally the button and light should be co-located. And I have shown (the yellow box) how large the button should be to make it easy to find and press. Given the acreage of unused space around the button, there is no excuse for not making it bigger. Why was this a problem? Because my casual attempt to find the button to turn the A/C off led me to take my attention from the road and we ended up scuffing the verge. Passengers were unsettled.
In previous excursions with the Aygo I have followed the directions of the car’s change-up/change-down indicator and found third and fourth were leaving the car foundering with a lack of forward motion. This time I tried to wring more out of the revs in each gear and found the problem ameliorated but not eliminated.
Lastly, the Danish newspaper Politikken has caught up with DTW and reviewed the Aygo (Oct 17th). They agreed with my analysis that the boot could be bigger. By coincidence I had a chance to gander at the new Twingo and learned that this little competitor for the Aygo has a) a bigger boot (210 litres) and b) a nicer view out for small rear passengers.
Driven To Write 