Saturday, January 9, 2010

Pretty Big Mini Rival

Aston wants a piece of Mini.

>>> First up, lemme give you a brief preview write up:
Yuu can see the traditional and familiar Aston face : The vertically-stacked lights and the wide-gaping low grille.

The rear also has familiar cues from traditional models albeit less so than the original concept of last year. Now , the production version you see here , has a VW Golf-ish rear lamp clusters.

The designers cum sculptors have done their very best with 'surface flaming' and swages to render the side profile as swoopy as a short-stubby car could possibly be.

Any car with as Aston badge needs to pop-it-like-its-hot on the inside. It has to scream sporty, exclusive and expensive. And so here , it doesn't disappoint (too much). With high-quality hide stiched over everywhere (possibly many cows died here of claustrophobia), edgy and exclusive embossed materials on the seats and door panels, and polished piano-finish for the dash. Of course, while most Aston's have more traditional interiors, this here is meant for the younger and trendier-than-thou set so you'd expect hyper modern luxuries and amenities and an overall, more modern-take on things.

Drive-wise, no one has the inside story as yet, but ,this is an Aston, so expect sharp and precise hot-hatch/roadster-like hustling around the bends. (Which no Toyota ever was; so good luck with that).

>>>Now let's get on with general snipes at this car;

When I first came across the initial pictures of the Aston Martin Cygnet still on the design facility being chamfered away by its modellers ( you could almost sense their frustration going " More off! More off! Not sleek enough.. never sleek enough!" .) .

I was thinking " WTH. "

At that time, Aston claimed it was but a design study and a potential small car and should it ever come out, will be meant nothing more than a good-will gift to existing customers who just need a smaller ride to the nearest hypermart.

Totak bubbish right?

Until when I kinda stumbled upon a picture of one on the opposite page of an auto publication featuring a Fiat 500C(which by the way has a price tag so steep it's even more a joke than the Cygnet.)

Now , we all know that the Fiat 500 range was conceived to be that retro cart-like car to compete with the very successful BMW-owned MINI.

There. Got my drift? Aston Martin wants a piece of the MINI-clientele was well.


No chicken pie here . Only Baby-swan pie.

Only time'll tell if Aston Martin can indeed bring its sporting heritage to this end of the market.

Q... what a very expensive little bird it's gonna be.

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