A swan... or a turkey?

Another well-known turkey clucked its last this month: Aston Martin has finally killed its ill-conceived Cygnet city car after not quite three rather unhappy years in the marketplace. Rumour has it that its demise was a condition of Aston’s new ‘technical partnership’ with AMG, though I don’t imagine it would have needed much encouraging. With just 142 sold in the UK and strong evidence of a total production run of fewer than 1000 units, it has done no favours at all either to Aston Martin’s image or its bank balance.

What is bizarre, with the benefit of hindsight, is that when Aston Martin first started talking about the Cygnet annual sales of 4000 units were mooted. Not only that, but at first Aston Martin insisted that only existing customers would be allowed to buy one, though it soon saw the folly of that particular idea. Nevertheless you didn’t need either a crystal ball nor to be wise after the fact to realise that a leather-lined Toyota iQ with a different grille, some badging and other cosmetic enhancements was going to be a hard sell at £30,000-plus. Fact is, it was not credible either at its price point or as an Aston Martin.

Andrew Frankel