Toyota AYGO X review (2022 - 2025)
Toyota AYGO X cars for sale
3.0
Expert review
Pros
Lots of standard equipment
Impressive fuel economy
Decent space given its compact dimensions
Cons
A little short of power
Quite pricey
Not that much fun to drive
The CarGurus verdict
The Aygo X is a car that’s brimming with character, and it scores big points for its impressive fuel economy, and even more for the amount of big-car technology it packs into a model in a class where that sort of thing is very much the exception rather than the rule. Its interior packaging is impressive given its tiny exterior dimensions, too. Oh, and one shouldn’t overlook the appeal of a potential 10-year warranty.
However, it is a little pricey to buy in the first place, especially higher-end models, and it’s a little slow, noisy and unrefined at times – there are certainly city cars that are more fun to drive than this. But if you fall for its charms, you’ll more than likely be able to overlook its foibles.
What is the Toyota Aygo X?
This is the third iteration of the Toyota Aygo, which was first launched in 2005 as part of a joint project with Peugeot-Citroen (part of the group now known as Stellantis) to create a city car. The result was the Peugeot 107/8, Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo – a compact hatchback effectively one size down from the popular Toyota Yaris supermini.
But now with this mk3 version, Toyota has gone its own way. The C1 and 108 are no more, and the new car is now a pint-sized SUV/crossover: The Toyota Aygo X (pronounced ‘Aygo Cross’, if you were wondering, but not written out as with the larger Yaris Cross SUV).
Despite the funky off-roader-alike design, the Toyota Aygo X is still strictly a front-wheel-drive car, so if you want to head off the beaten track in a tiny 4x4, you’ll need a Fiat Panda Cross or a Suzuki Ignis Allgrip. There’s also just one engine option – a non-turbo 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine with 72hp; there is no electric or hybrid option.
It’s also quite pricey – the entry-level model costs more than a basic Hyundai i10, while the top-end models are getting on for the price of much larger superminis such as the Volkswagen Polo or Skoda Fabia. Offsetting that, to some extent at least, are generous levels of standard equipment. It’s also significantly cheaper than small electric cars such as the Fiat 500 E or the Honda e.
How practical is it?
At 3,700mm long, the new Aygo X is only three-quarters the length of a Range Rover, yet it’s got five doors, room for four (including adults in the rear seats as long as you don’t plan on undertaking too long a journey) and even a decent-sized boot. That’s largely down to the fact that it’s 24 centimetres longer than the old Aygo, but that’s still impressive.
Boot space is 231 litres. That’s a little short of the Hyundai i10’s, which is its closest rival, but it’s 60 litres more than you got in the old Aygo and when you fold down the rear seats you get 829 litres of luggage space. That’s fairly impressive given the Aygo X’s stature, but the Suzuki Ignis can provide 1,100 litres of space with the rear seats folded down, thanks mostly to its more upright, boxy shape.
And you can’t entirely beat the laws of physics. The narrow rear door aperture is frustrating, especially if you want to put a child seat back there, and there’s not much room once you’re in. Mind you, you’ll only have to worry about providing space for two rear passengers – some rivals offer the option of a third rear seatbelt.
Up front, there are more ‘normal’ levels of space, though the relatively narrow width of the cabin means that broader-shouldered occupants might feel a little close to one another. This narrowness also manifests itself in the fact that there are only two air vents – on the extreme right and left of the dash, and nothing in the centre of the dashboard.
What's it like to drive?
Despite being less than half the weight of a Land Cruiser, the largest Toyota SUV you can buy, the Aygo X’s acceleration isn’t exactly explosive. In fact, with only 72bhp available, it takes 14.9 seconds to get from 0-62mph. A Hyundai i10 or a Suzuki Ignis feels much more perky.
On dual carriageways and motorways you really have to work that non-turbo 1.0-litre hard to keep up with traffic, and you may well have to change down a gear or two to tackle steep hills. Revving the engine out is quite a noisy experience, too. This is not a car for relaxed motorway cruising.
The upside to that lightweight design and small engine, though, is that it feels impressively agile – it’s keen to change direction, the steering is lightweight but very precise and there’s surprisingly little body lean. That being said, the short wheelbase combined with a relatively wide track (the width between the left and right wheels) means that the front end of the car doesn’t always grip quite like you expect it to when you turn into a corner.
The short-throw gearshift is well positioned and has a sweet feel to it, too – which is just as well because you’ll find yourself changing gears rather a lot in the manual version. The clutch is light, too, but that means it can be hard to find the biting point. And we’d prefer a six-speed gearbox rather than the Aygo’s five-speed manual.
The ride, meanwhile, is pretty firm, but it’s more comfortable, composed and less fidgety than you would perhaps expect from such a small car. The short wheelbase we mentioned earlier does make the Aygo a little susceptible to buffeting from crosswinds, however, and it doesn’t always deal brilliantly with potholes.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
The equipment you get with the Toyota Aygo X is, frankly, its trump card. There are some genuine ‘big-car’ features fitted as standard even on entry-level trims. This includes lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking and a reversing camera as standard.
All models also get a central touchscreen infotainment system (how could you have a reversing camera otherwise?) that’s either seven inches, eight inches or nine inches in size – effectively exactly the same set-up that you get in ‘grown-up’ Toyotas like the Corolla or RAV4. And although the graphics aren’t the sharpest or most modern-looking, it’s still impressive for a car in this class.
Plus, whatever the size of the screen or the trim level of the car, all are compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. In top-spec models, the smartphone mirroring is wireless, too.
Every Aygo also gets a cute-looking little driver’s display, which allows you to toggle through various bits of info about the car, your music or what safety systems you’ve got running.
Mid-spec Edge trim brings in climate control, auto wipers, automatic LED headlights with high-beam assist and 18-inch alloy wheels, while top-spec Exclusive cars add keyless entry and part faux-leather front seats, plus the option to add a sliding canvas roof or an upgraded JBL stereo.
In quality terms, the standard of the plastics are perhaps not up there with Volkswagen, but they’re not bad at all for a budget city car.
Toyota Aygo X running costs
We’d give the Aygo a full five stars for running costs, given its ability to consistently return better than 50mpg fuel economy, no matter how much you rev it – in fact, its official fuel economy of 58.9mpg seems achievable were you to drive it carefully enough. However, the more powerful Suzuki Ignis actually returns better fuel economy in the real world. And that’s when we’re talking about the manual-gearbox Aygo X – the CVT automatic model gets just 56.5mpg in official WLTP fuel economy tests.
What’s more, you have to work the little engine so hard on faster-flowing roads that we’d sacrifice a little extra fuel economy for a more peppy performance out of town.
That said, the Aygo X does manage to slot itself into a slightly lower company car tax bracket than the 1.0-litre Hyundai i10 and the 1.2-litre Suzuki Ignis, so there is a cost advantage to those planning to run one as a company car.
Toyota Aygo X reliability
This is where Toyota tends to shine. It has rightly garnered a reputation for creating utterly dependable cars over the years and, although the Aygo X is too new as of yet to have featured in any customer satisfaction or reliability surveys, there’s no reason to suspect that it will be as stolidly reliable as any other Toyota.
And if you want a measure of Toyota’s overall reliability, it came in joint fifth in the 2012 What Car? Reliability survey, out of 30 manufacturers.
In terms of warranty, Toyota reduced its traditional standard five-year warranty to just three years in 2021, but you can now get a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty from the manufacturer, provided you get the car serviced and maintained at a Toyota franchised dealer – which is one of the best warranty deals on the market, especially if you're planning on keeping your car for a long time.
– There are neat little weight-saving and cost-saving touches all over the place in the Toyota Aygo, such as the all-glass rear tailgate, which has been an Aygo signature since the 2005 original. Altogether they add up to an impressively low kerbweight of as little as 945kg. – Despite being a five-door car, the rear windows don’t wind down either manually or electrically. Instead, there’s just a little pop-out catch, which is more commonly the sort of thing you used to see on bargain-basement three-door hatchbacks. With climate control or air-conditioning on all models, it’s not really an issue, but it does show where Toyota has been saving costs – and weight. More frustrating is the fact that the driver’s side electric window is not a one-touch operation, which can definitely be a source of frustration at car park barriers or drive-throughs. – Entry-level cars get 17-inch alloys, but mid-level Edge and up get 18-inch rims. That sounds like it ought to look ridiculously over-wheeled, but actually the visual effect is nicely balanced. They’re fitted with quite narrow 175-section tyres, though, which helps with the Aygo’s fuel economy and emissions.
– Since there’s only one powertrain choice, there aren’t that many options to go through, but we would recommend the manual gearbox version over the CVT automatic. The manual is slick, and easy to use, while the automatic CVT is a type of gearbox that makes an already intrusive engine note even more insistent, because of the way it revs when you’re accelerating. The manual car is also more fuel-efficient than the auto. – If you’re looking for the best trim level, we reckon the mid-range Edge is the one to go for, balancing value for money with extra equipment. Pure-spec cars still get all the active safety systems we mentioned earlier in the review, but extra equipment such as climate control and auto wipers are welcome, while 18-inch wheels and two-tone paint give it an extra visual kick. – That said, the entry-level Aygo X Pure is still a decently equipped car, and definitely represents good value for money if budgets are tight.
