Why The Aston Martin Cygnet Is The World's Ugliest Car

From a fine British GT car maker comes a tragedy to car design

18 May 2015

Aston-Martin Range

The Aston Martin DB9, Rapide and Vantage are three of the greatest looking cars currently on sale. But while they look gorgeous and while their V12s sing a fantastic melody, they are flawed from a business point of view. A suited, soulless investor would walk into the director's office and complain about the limited product range and the fact that those V12s aren't the friendliest to the environment. Unfortunately, a situation just like that has lead to the creation of this. The Cygnet.

Aston Martin Cygnet

The businessman would be satisfied with this creation. It has the 1.0-litre 3-pot engine from the Toyota Aygo, which is cheap for the company to buy and good for overall emissions. The car itself is a Toyota iQ - again, peanuts to buy but easy to modify and easier still to sell with a hefty premium - £31,000. That'll be Aston's problems solved, then.

Now here's how you, me and other petrolheads see it: the Cygnet is a travesty!The car is based on a quirky Japanese city runabout that looks like a kitchen appliance, which was never the best start.

Toyota iQ

Simply sticking Aston trinkets onto the IQ is the most painful bit for me, however. It's like putting a bowler hat and a giant mustache on a Japanese lad; just looks wrong.

Aston Martin Cygnet rear

The design element that offends my eyes most are the Cygnet's boomerang taillights, which look like they've been slapped on the wrong way around.

Unlike any other Aston in the range, no soul, no passion and no imagination has been applied to the creation of this model, which is upsetting. It's just marketing bull on wheels, a bit like the Vauxhall Adam we tested a while back.

So how can we get this piece of tat off the road, while keeping the profit seekers and the environmentalists happy? Well, here's an idea...

Toyota GT 86

...since Aston is in cahoots with Toyota, let's take this, the GT-86 - a car most of us would already kill for as is - and drape a mini Vantage body on top. Then, pimp the interior, and slap it with a healthy premium to keep Aston's bank managers happy.

Who's with me?