Toyota Aygo X review

First thing to note is that the Aygo X is not a quick car. Even with a new-found 114bhp from its 1.5 three-cylinder hybrid, you’re still looking at over nine seconds to reach 62mph from rest – a motorway steamroller this is not. And if you do plant the throttle, you’ll get to where you’re going deaf as well as late.

Does that really matter, though?

Pardon? Sorry, cheap gag. No, not if you're exclusively using this as a town runaround. At low speeds the Aygo X is nippy enough, but if you ask it for maximum effort you get the sense of urgency without the actual propulsion to show for the noise.

And the thing is, as much as carmakers like to pretend that city cars live in cities, they don't. Young people bomb up and down motorways to university or college in them. The elderly sometimes want to go cross country too. And that's where a really grown-up and refined supermini like the Renault Clio comes into its own, and the Aygo X does not.

Through twisty stuff it fares slightly better, though. The Aygo X stays remarkably flat, but while the steering is nicely weighted you won’t find yourself mistaking this for a hot hatch or anything close to it. The turning circle is also a usefully tight 4.7m.

So what’s this hybrid powertrain like?

Really bad, if your goal is to make fuel disappear. Seriously though, the Aygo X Hybrid has a remarkable talent for economy: the official claim is 76.4mpg and on a mix of roads we saw almost 70mpg without any effort whatsoever. Remember there’s no plug-in numbers trickery here – petrol goes in, motion comes out. Roughly 450 miles of it, from a 30-litre tank. Wowzers.

Driveability is fine, with a responsive throttle and brakes that make it easy to modulate your speed. There’s a B-mode, which ups the regen (and volume, faintly) and helps to keep the 0.76kWh battery juiced up for short but serene bursts of engine-less running. Why Toyota bothered with the EV mode – or Normal, Eco and Power driving modes, for that matter – is anyone's guess.

Quick word on the transmission: it’s an eCVT (electronic Continuously Variable Transmission, before you ask), so no gears as such. We hate it because of its lack of responsiveness and migraine-inducing noise, although we’ll admit the shift to the 1.5-litre hybrid has made the ambiance less strained. Thank God.

Is it comfortable?

Good question. For a tall-ish car with big wheels (your options are 17s or 18s) the Aygo X rides reasonably well, though you can hear more of what the suspension is up to than in rivals.

For the facelift Toyota has updated the suspension (MacPherson strut fronts, torsion beam rear), no doubt because it’s gained some 145kg by going hybrid. Inevitably that means it’s not as adept over bumps as it was before, with a fair amount of side-to-side jostle as you drive along.

The seats aren’t hugely supportive, but there’s enough padding there to ensure your spine will survive.