Introducing George
 

Hi,

This is a new project thread for George, my Aygo Go (80's band Wham, George Michael, "wake me up before you Go-Go" - geddit, no, oh never mind... ;) ).

An introduction. The Aygo is a small hatchback made by Toyota and PSA (Peugeot / Citroen) in the Czech Republic since 2005. Both PSA and Toyota were moving their small cars upmarket so they needed something to fill he gap, the Aygo and the Peugeot 107 / C1 did that. I collected George this evening trading in Helga to do so.

My reasons for a change are detailed there but this is about introducing George as a new project / hypermiler car. So some pics :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ar...eorgefront.jpg

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ar...georgeback.jpg

As you can see George is a small hatchback which is popular here in Europe and Asia but maybe not so much these days in North America. The Aygo is a relatively simple car with some cost and weight saving features such as non wind-down rear windows :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ar...georgeside.jpg

and a single piece of glass for the rear tailgate rather than two metal pressings welded together with glass added :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ar...georgetail.jpg

The interior is simple - everything you need and not much else - actually it has a secret sat nav and some other goodies - plus of course the SG2 (see the right hand side of this pic).

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ar...eorgepilot.jpg

And the last time I had a car with tyres this skinny was in 1992...

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ar...orgeskinny.jpg

Initial impressions are positive but of course we are in the very first flush of the honeymoon period. George has fewer miles than I expected (only 16 !!!!) when delivered which is amazing - I expected a few hundred at least as George is a few months old. In fact he is more or less brand new which is not what I was expecting at all.

He is quiet compared to TDI Helga and of course light and easy to drive. There was a rattle on the way home from the dealer but a quick check under the bonnet revealed the read battery cover to the right side of this pic of the "3 cylinders of glory" was loose

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ar...eorgepowah.jpg

The engine is more or less bang up to date, it is a 1.0 (998cc) 3 cylinder engine with VVT, and injection this, and something else which makes it dead modern - I think. I do know it has a chain driven cam so no timing belt to worry about :thumbup:

The fog light areas are totally blocked. The grills etc. seem prettty much blocked already, there is only a small radiator which is mounted just behind in the grill on the right side of the pic above, and there are openings in front of that only. So even aero seems to have been thought about at the factory.

Official figures are 0-100 kph in 14 seconds, top speed 98, urban MPG ~ 52, combined 60 and extra urban (aka highway) ~65. Unofficially magazines have the 0-60 as 11.5 secs and he does feel this kind of "nippy". Gearing seems to be over 22 MPH/1000 in 5th which means relatively relaxed motorway use at my normal high speeds of 55-75.

I filled him up tonight and reset the SG2. The SG seems to register >65 MPG for my urban style journeys everywhere and I am not hypermiling yet! So far there are no mods. I may pump the tyres up to 40 PSI tomorrow and see if that helps with coasting.

My initial target is 60 MPG tank to tank, and then on to 70.

Mrs A's Prius arrives tomorrow so we will have a simple and cheap vs tech. and spendy comparison to make. Mrs A thinks George is too small for us but A Junior already thinks he will be great as he is the only person to have worked out how the MP3 stereo thing works...

I'm off to study the manual...

I have a family issue to sort at the weekend in England so George will immediately get a long run with me. I'll monitor things and update the thread.

Very nice buy. I wish we had the Aygo over here. I especially like the 1.4L D4D engine.

I wish we had cool cars like that in the states. Bah.

Congrats on the new toy ! (pun intended) :thumbup:


We should do a group buy for that engine !

Although the Diesel was badged as a D4-D it isn't the nice, chain cam Toyota Diesel engine as used in the Yaris and Auris, its actually an old PSA 1.4 HDi with the intercooler removed (for space) and only 54hp, down from 70 as presented in the Citroen C2. Toyota dropped the Diesel after only 1 year, Citroen dropped the Diesel here in the UK at least in 2009 when the range was facelifted. The Aygo and the 107/C1 are the same car.

Ironically though, when arranging insurance the chap in the Indian Call Centre refused to believe me that it was petrol - he thought all of them were Diesel.

A guy in a white Aygo tried to hit me when biking this morning:mad: My first thought was: I wonder if Arragonis has his Aygo yet? Don't worry, I know it wasn't you, since this muppet's steering wheel was on the wrong (left) side. And he had white alloy wheels.

With that behind us... Good for you!!:D I wonder how it'll do on the motorways, will it be loud? My auntie has a C1 and my long legs barely fit as a passenger:eek: But that is still better than when I resigned from test driving an original (1960's) Mini Cooper because I couldn't get my knee under the steering wheel. But long, beautiful legs have other virtues, or so I keep telling myself...

3-cylinder engines rock!!! My Grandma's Corsa has the 3-pot 12v 1.0l lump and it sounds like a sewing machine. Could that engine be related to your's, by any chance?

Can the rear seat be removed? With a car this small anything is a substantial fraction of the total weight. Now you're going to be using less petrol in city driving than I use diesel on the backroads. I wish I had a small car for local driving, booo!!!

Awesome!

Points to note based on my Cousin's experiences of having 2 x brand new ones of these..

1. Clutch failure after 18000 miles (happened on one car, and replaced under warrenty with no further issues)

2. Brakes not being fully operational- again fixed under warrenty. They must have been bad if they were not pulling up something ths light properly..

Be interesting to see a cost comparison between What it'd have cost to continue to run Helga (insurance/tax/fuel/servicing/MOT) vs the cost of running the new car (Insurance/tax/Fuel/Servicing/repayments)

To see how long it take for you to be in the clear..may be worth including depreciation?

I know you're an IT type fella, so your 1337 skillz in excel should make that easily doable!

Wasn't me thankfully, although he is quiet enough not to be noticed.

I don't think the 3cyl Corsa motor is related to this one, this is 75% of the Yaris 1.3 VVT unit AFAIK. When the Aygo was launched it was billed as the lightest production car petrol engine in the world - probably beaten now by the Tata Nano ?

I have looked at the rear seat for removal but we have had only 1 car since George arrived so I have had to keep it in. I have to say on a trial folding it weighs about as much as a tissue.

Each passenger seems to make more of a difference than anything else :eek:

From research the original clutch was undersized even for this car :D so they failed randomly, some people could get a full 5 years life no issue, and some would go in very few miles.

The current model uses the Yaris one which is larger - seem to be OK. The uprated replacement was just one from a bigger car. There is a "procedure" for testing and/or adjusting it posted as a sticky on the City Bug forum :thumbup:

But even if it does go, £170 for a replacement :eek:;):D compared to £1k+ for a VW TDI with a DMF...

Light is the word - I could steer more easily with the engine off as well as on when rolling down the drive :D Haven't seen anything on the brakes yet but will keep an eye on it - thanks.

I really really really really really really, no really really hate Excel - the world's favourite database...

I will look into that but will need to get an idea on FE first. FE so far on the SG is, er, random. The commute into work this morning was ~45, I have had higher and lower in Helga. The trip to Morrisons last night had an average of 70 MPG, Helga was hardly ever over 55, but usually over 50.

One issue so far - George doesn't like hills much compared to Helga, so I need to start to respect WOT as an economy device instead of holding a part throttle position like I was this morning. In a Diesel this is full fuel delivery = bad. In a petrol it just removes the restriction = potentially good.

And now Mrs A's Prius has arrived - we need to study the 1000 page manual to get the best from it. First impressions are mixed - the HUD is useless for short people, even after adjustment, I am told - but the hands free kits is superb...

PS - I have sprung some money for the Aygo rev counter kit - these seem to be on C1s and 107s everywhere I looked but not many Aygos have them. I haven't told Mrs A yet as this is supposed to be saving money...

Yeah, I'll include it in *£&£*$&" excel.

PPS - Any Geo Metro owners with small engine tips ?

Just try to keep it out of open loop (too much gas pedal) and you'll be fine. Ideal acceleration is ~80 "LOD" on the SG.