James Bond screeches around hairpin bends in them with a beautiful woman at his side, while they are the car of choice for European royalty in which to parade themselves around the Continent’s more opulent capitals.

Now, at last, the opportunity to pop out to the supermarket behind the wheel of an Aston Martin will be opened to the more conventional motorist.

The Aston Martin Cygnet — a new “luxury commuter concept” car, according to its marketeers — is to be built on the base of Toyota’s existing iQ city car and is likely to be available for less than £20,000.

“Small is beautiful these days,” Ulrich Bez, Aston Martin’s chief executive, said yesterday. “We have to move on from the preconceived ideas regarding what Aston Martin is about.”

What the company has been about is high-end performance cars that sell for upwards of £100,000. Even its wristwatches sell for more than the proposed price of the Cygnet.

Mr Bez said that Aston Martin needed to diversify to cope with a sharp fall in demand for its sports cars. “For decades we have seen the big US car manufacturers stick to what they have always done and now they’re on the brink of extinction,” he said.

“This concept will allow us to apply Aston Martin design language, craftsmanship and brand values to a completely new segment of the market.”

It is thought that between 4,000 and 5,000 Cygnets will be built each year. Toyota, attracted by the cachet of Aston Martin, said that it would be the only car that it would make for another manufacturer.

The two companies began their unlikely friendship at the Nürburgring 24-hour race, where they shared garage facilities.

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“The Toyota IQ micro car being sold in Japan and Europe is another example of a world platform that we may to adapt to the US market,” senior vice president of US operations Don Esmond told an automotive conference.

The car is less than three-meters long and can carry up to four people. It is smaller than the automaker’s Yaris subcompact and is compared with the Smart car in size.

“The IQ can figure into Toyota’s response to another world mega-trend – urbanisation,” he said, speaking at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit.

Esmond also said he expected the US auto market to be “very tough’ in the first half of 2009 while the second half will improve slightly.

Esmond said Toyota’s US inventory is down to about 70 days, which the company still considers high.

Measured by the number of sales needed to clear inventory, Toyota’s unsold stock of vehicles had doubled from 45 days a year ago to near 90 days for some vehicles, before production was scaled back.

The Japanese automaker, which saw its US sales fall 15 percent last year, said in early December it was cutting North American production of its best-selling cars, including the Camry and Corolla sedans, in response to rising inventories and a slump in sales.

The automaker also suspended work on its new plant in Mississippi, which was slated to produce the Prius hybrid car beginning in 2010.

Inventories have built up at Toyota, which is known for running a lean and cost-efficient production system where parts are delivered just in time to be installed in vehicles on the assembly line.

Toyota’s revolutionary iQ, the world’s smallest four-seat passenger car, will adopt Toyota’s 99bhp (100 DIN hp) 1.33-litre Dual VVT-i engine from July.

Benefiting from Toyota Optimal Drive technology and equipped with the economy-boosting Stop & Start system, the new engine will give iQ combined cycle fuel consumption of 58.9mpg and CO2 emissions of 113g/km, using the standard six-speed manual transmission. Toyota’s seamless Multidrive transmission will also be available, giving 55.4mpg and 120g/km (mpg and CO2 figures provisional, subject to final homologation).

In spite of its compact dimensions, iQ has been designed to offer the highest levels of occupant protection and is fitted as standard with a comprehensive range of active and passive safety equipment and pedestrian impact protection. The performance of these and the effectiveness of the iQ’s multi-load path body structure have been proven in independent Euro NCAP crash testing, earning the car a top five-star safety rating.

Hyundai has made plans to produce a Toyota iQ rival that could be on sale by next year.

The project became clear after Hyundai’s R&D department was instructed to accelerate development of a ‘green baby’.

A European Hyundai source suggested that Hyundai’s car would differ from the iQ by being funkier and perhaps more basic and functional. “It would be sort of modular and minimalist in a Citroën 2CV kind of way,” he said.

Drivetrains and engines haven’t been discussed, but the 12-valve 4-cylinder with 66 hp from the i10 would probably be in the cards. Hyundai has said that i10 is too small for the U.S., so the even smaller “green baby” will probably be offered only in Europe at first, and could be on sale by as soon as next year.

TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that its new “iQ” ultra-compact vehicle has won this years’ Good Design Award Grand Award, the top prize in the Good Design Awards competition held annually in Japan.

The “micro-premium” iQ, with a package that seats four in a vehicle 2,985mm long by 1,680mm wide by 1,500mm high, aims—through its unique styling that creates a sense of sophistication and presence that belies the car’s size—to dispel conventional notions about small cars. The vehicle delivers outstanding cruising and environmental performance with a high degree of safety.

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Toyota expects to sell the small, four-seat iQ in the United States after it improves the car’s safety equipment.

The Japanese version starts at 1.4 million yen ($13,860). The car goes on sale in Japan on November 20 and in Europe in early 2009. Toyota is targeting monthly sales of 2,500 units in Japan and 6,000 in Europe. Last week, chief engineer Hiroki Nakajima said he expects a U.S. launch in the “midterm,” before the first model update. The company needs to develop different airbags and improve bumper strength to help the iQ pass U.S. safety standards, he said. The car comes with a 1.0-liter gasoline engine in Japan, but there is room under the hood for a 1.5-liter powerplant if more output is needed for American drivers, Nakajima said.

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TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today it will begin sales of its new “micro-premium” car, the “iQ*1″, in Japan starting on November 20.

The iQ combines outstanding performance and superior quality in an ultra-compact form that dispels conventional notions about small cars.

A newly designed platform enables an ultra-efficient package that seats four in a vehicle 2,985mm long by 1,680mm wide by 1,500mm high. The iQ’s unique styling creates a sense of sophistication and presence that belies the car’s size.

A 1.0-liter engine delivers outstanding cruising and environmental performance, offers fuel efficiency at the highest levels for its displacement, and also meets the new 2015 Japanese fuel efficiency standards under the recently introduced JC08 test cycle. The iQ is highly responsive at low and medium speeds, provides stable cruising performance at high speeds, and has a minimum turning radius of 3.9 meters—one of the shortest in the industry. In addition, a S-VSC (Steering-assisted Vehicle Stability Control) system and a total of nine airbags, including the world’s first*2 SRS (Supplemental Restraint System) rear window curtain shield airbag, are standard on all models to provide outstanding safety performance.

The iQ is also planned to go on sale in Europe in early 2009.

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Toyota is world-premiering the production design of the new Toyota iQ at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. First shown as the Concept Car iQ at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, the Toyora iQ will go into production during late 2008.

The new Toyota iQ is a sophisticated car, representing the ultimate refined urban mode of transportation. Thanks to its ingenious and revolutionary packaging it measures less than three metres in length, yet has a flexible interior space that allows up to three adults, plus a child or luggage to travel comfortably.

The name iQ is the best representation of what the car embodies. “i” stands for individuality, whilst at the same time also expressing “innovation” and “intelligence”. “Q” stands for “quality” and also suggesting that its “cubic” stature gives a “cue” to new value and lifestyle.

The Toyora iQ delivers dynamism and stability despite its small size. It challenges conventional thinking through a design that is forward-looking, intelligent and energetic, while retaining clarity of purpose and function.

The marvel of the Toyora iQ’s ingenuity is in its revolutionary packaging, which is the result of six space-saving but inter-linked engineering innovations that represent a break-through in Toyota’s automotive vehicle development.

“The Toyora iQ story started a few years ago when we at Toyota began thinking of the environmental impact of automobiles. We came to the conclusion that, in order to ensure a sustainable future, there was a need for a radical change in vehicle packaging. We needed to create a break-through, away from the traditional belief that small is basic. Our answer to this is Toyota iQ,” says Kazuo Okamoto, Executive Vice President, in charge of Research and Development at Toyota Motor Corporation.

The Toyora iQ is designed to cater for the needs of buyers who seek more than just urban mobility but demand space and refinement in an environmentallyfriendly vehicle.

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