The Aston Martin Cygnet has the potential to become an “icon”, according to company boss Ulrich Bez.
Speaking with Automobilwoche, Bez said the Cygnet had features that made it "advanced, iconic and iconoclastic". He compared its potential status to that achieved by the Aston Martin DB5 that was used in James Bond films in the 1960s.
"The Cygnet is exclusive and bears an exclusive brand name," he added.
See official pics of the Aston Martin Cygnet
The smallest Aston ever is based on Toyota iQs built in Japan, which are then specially imported to the UK for Aston. It will be put into full-scale production at Aston’s Gaydon headquarters in 2011.
The design and build work of the Cygnet is carried out at Gaydon; Aston has incorporated much of its design language into the iQ, including its signature front grille.
Bez defended the Cygnet’s creation in a promotional video last month, saying it’s been primarily designed to help Aston lower its fleet average CO2 emissions in the face of strict upcoming EU legislation.
Steve Cropley blog: Who's to say the Cygnet won't be a success?
“Aston Martin is honest and we don’t make compromises,” he said. “Whatever we do, we do it right. If we do performance, we do performance; we won’t downsize our sports cars.
“The Cygnet needs to satisfy the demands of emissions and space. It is a car without compromise, just like every other Aston Martin."
Bez also said the firm wasn’t currently looking for an automotive partner, despite being linked with Daimler. The firm’s 2009 Lagonda luxury SUV concept was based on the Mercedes GL.
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Re: Aston Cygnet 'will be an icon'
Who in their right mind would buy a Cygnet? WE all know thats its actually A Toyota IQ with some fancy bits added and an AM badge
Its just a 10 grand car selling at 3 times the price before extras. If the people who now own Aston Martin were any good they'd get the design team to come up with something original.
Re: Aston Cygnet 'will be an icon'
Thank you for clearing that up, i've been wanting clarification on the details of this legislation for a while - i'm just too lazy to seach for it.
For Aston, this makes their situation look all the more desperate. I hope they've thought carefully about the sort of company they want to be and if that involves making extreme luxury microcars that's up to them, but they're kidding themselves if they believe that they can do that whilst competing with the likes of Bugatti.
Hopefully the whole Cygnet project will end up as some sort of veiled corporate cry for help and Aston will get snapped up by some mainstream manufacturer with interests similar to those of VW and BMW when they bought Bentley and Rolls.
Re: Aston Cygnet 'will be an icon'
Somebody here is Ducking the issue, aren't we?