You know… that’s not a horrid-looking little interior right there. What does an adorable little “yacht tender” Aston Martin Cygnet cost, anyway Jeeves? £30,995 base? Why that’s a duke’s whisker away from fifty thousand of those colonial greenbacks! One could nearly afford three Toyota iQs for that amount of filthy lucre… and aesthetic improvements aside, they’re the same ruddy vehicle! But then, one imagines that the Aston version at least offers the sporting thrills one expects from such a storied… what’s that now? It takes 11.8 seconds to reach 62 MPH? Egad Jeeves, we’d go faster if you pushed me in the old S3! In fact, a peasant-powered Bentley is both lower-emissions and infinitely more befitting ones station than a rebadged Toyota. So much for all that “progress” nonsense…
The old saying “more money than brains” would definitely be applicable to anyone stupid enough to buy one of these.
The ‘price’ is really just AM’s valuation and has nothing to do with the actual price the market would bear for this product. The most likely scenario is that it will be sold as a package with a $200,000 AM since the cost of producing it is far lower than that. The high list-price is probably to discourage the notion that this is any kind of ‘affordable Aston Martin’.
As to why an Aston Martin owner would be interested in this little Noddy-car – it is a hedge against municipalities that are either already starting or seriously considering restrictions and fees based on the size of vehicles they allow in congested areas. For the badge-conscious, new-money show-offs that seem to be AM’s primary client base, the Cygnet may be a way to make sure that EVERYONE knows they drive an Aston Martin (even when they aren’t driving one).
And Edward, my dear chap, here is what the real conversation with my man Jeeves would have gone:
My man Jeeves is really a most extraordinary chap. It is quite impossible to quite describe it in ye olde English because you really have to experience it – like a deep tissue massage. He is like one of those chaps who sit peering sadly over the formica counter at your aerodrome in the place marked “Inquiries.” You go up to them and with absolutely no formalities spring a question on them, such as say: “When’s the next flight to Buggernutsville, Kentucky?” and they reply, without even having to pop their brain into second gear “Two-forty-five, gate C11, change at Dallas.” Jeeves gives you the same impression of omniscience, but while the johnnie at the airport is a keen specialist on arrivals and departures of aeroplanes, the range of subjects over which Jeeves exercises mastery is infinitely broad.
As an instance of what I mean, I remember meeting Barmy in Bond Street one morning, leaning on the fender of a grey automobile, and I felt I should never be happy till I had one like it. Barmy as you know, recently came into some money by way of some sort of sporting venture on Wall Street, and got away before the gendarmerie shut down the operation. You would never know to look at him now that he was the same pimple that sneaked pencils out of the form room to make a little money on the side, back in the day. Anyway, I managed to get the name of his carriage, and it turned out to be something called an Aston Martin.
“Jeeves,” I said that evening. “I’m getting an Aston Martin like that one of Mr. Phipps’s.”
“Injudicious, sir,” he said firmly. “It will not become you.”
“What absolute rot! It’s the soundest thing I’ve struck for years.”
“Quite unsuitable for you, sir.”
“Unsuitable, Jeeves? What do you mean? It looks rather sharp – you should have seen the looks Barmy was getting.”
“Precisely, sir. Aston Martins are the sort of conveyance a gentleman of poor taste acquires in a quest to impress the sort of people who merely aspire to such tastelessness. A gentleman of your standing would not want to be mistaken as a member of that particular social stratum, sir.”
“But Jeeves, old whatsisname, the Lord Axminster – doesn’t he drive one of those.”
“Yes sir, but that is an old Aston Martin, a classic DB2 Drophead Coupé that he acquired from his father-in-law Lord Milford’s collection. It is a historic automobile, and is much more respectable than its unworthy successors.”
“Well Jeeves, I think you are being somewhat unfair – it is a snappy little car and besides, I already placed an order for it on my way back from the Drones club.”
“Very good, sir.” And Jeeves withdrew quietly from the room like one of those whatsits that fade out from places. Apparitions, that’s the word. I can’t say he was actually scowling, but I detected a certain sadness in his demeanor, but as the Americans say, he needs to deal with it.
Well, the long and the short of it was that the confounded thing came home, and I got in it, and when I caught sight of myself in the glass I nearly swooned. Jeeves was perfectly right. I looked a cross between a stockbroker and a cheap bookie. These things are just Life’s mysteries, and that’s all there is to it.
“After this,” I said, “not another step for me without your advice. From now on consider yourself the brains of the establishment.”
“Very good, sir. I shall endeavour to give satisfaction.”
“Take it away, Jeeves, before anyone sees this thing here.”
“Yes, sir. I took the liberty of calling a tow-truck. It has been waiting for about half-an-hour.”
$50,000 for THIS? Hahahahaha!
i think i can safely predict Total Flop status for this one. I still don’t get why they are doing it either.
Not enough cup holders. Pass.
I’m really surprised they’re selling it – I thought the whole idea would be to give one of these free with any real Aston purchase and hence reduce average fuel consumption.
Why that’s a duke’s whisker away from fifty thousand of those colonial greenbacks!
When converting UK to US car prices it’s usually more accurate to convert them at a ratio of 1:1. For example – the base price of a VW GTI in the UK is GBP 24,740 vs. a US base price of $24,070.
NOT a bad looking interior?
On what planet is that not a bad looking interior? The color selection is fine, but is there some kind of tectonic activity behind the dash? That thing is so lumpy and busy I get a headache just looking at the picture. I can’t imagine trying to live with it in reality.
Regarding AM’s price point for this folly: LOL.
Fail. Epic fail.
Bbbbut, CAFE! Corporate Avergae Fuel Economy! It helps!
Cayenne for Nine Elevens!
Here’s the uh, “smart” way to go about this. Wait a few months and find a wrecked Cygnet and gut the interior and install it in your iQ.
Justin Berkowitz’ take on this from Metacars was classic.**
That said, I like the idea of a premium microcar, but I couldn’t handle the badge on the nose. If I had cash to burn, though, I’d get one and slap the iQ’s grille on it.
** Pity Metacars doesn’t get updated anymore. It’s genius stuff.
How much do Aston Martin badges cost? They say there is a sucker more ever minute… I guess this car will put that theory to the ultimate test.
This is the holy grail for a 24 Hours of Lemons car, circa 2030.
Obviously, this is a stop-gap solution to improve CAFE-compliance until A-M finds a new fuel or powertrain solution to motivate their british-built billionaire-buggies.
Yet I wonder how this will devalue the brand? Not so much the down-market price point, or the lousy value-equation (I remember having heard similar howls when Jag announced that the XJ220 would sticker for a cool 1/4-million (IIRC). Not only are people in this socio-eco segment less sensitive to price, some will buy this car just to be a little distinctive, for fun, or to show they have money to burn.
Once these go thru the depreciation car wash and start showing up as clapped-out beat-up wrecks, that can’t help to enhance the brand … I wonder if we will hear (or not) that in a few years (after the above situation takes hold) that A-M is buying-up these cars for a fraction of their new price and crushing them…
CAFE only applies to the United States. The chances of Aston Martin selling this here in the USA are somewhere between non-existant and really, really non-existant.
In Europe the boogieman is impending Carbon Emissions regulations. And frankly, I think the person who mentioned them giving one of these away with the higher-end AM cars is absolutely spot-on if those regulations get too draconian. The rounding error in the pricing of a V12 Vantage will probably cover the entire cost of one of these, and Aston can easily raise the price of the top cars 20K GPB to cover the “spare” if they want to.
As to de-valueing the brand, from what I have read in the British press you need to be a current AM owner to even buy one. There IS a market for an expensive bespoke city car in places like London.
Yet I wonder how this will devalue the brand?
I don’t think it will. It’s so obviously a fuel-economy Hail Mary, a throwaway, a joke, that it can’t really sully Aston the way, say, a crossover would.
Well, all I can say is that on April 1st someone from Aston Martin jumps up and says ‘Got ya!’
I can just see the product placement of this in the next James Bond film.
Why isn’t there some kind of loophole with the CAFE nonsense for niche brands like Aston? A zillion dirty Toyotas/Hyundais/[insert huge mass-market automaker of choice here] would do a lot more damage than the handful (in comparison) of Astons running around.
Don’t you have to actually sell some for it count towards CAFE?
The loophole is a fine. As I recall, Mercedes and BMW each pay something in the neighborhood of $20 million a year to simply ignore CAFE. Different rules apply to American manufacturers. Just one more reason for them to pull up and leave the country for good. Thanks, Congress!
Presenting the new Cygnet Cimmaron limited edition.
Another Routan. Weird brandings.