Would you pay 25 grand for a 2nd hand Toyota iQ?

[Fordulike]

Browsing the web today, dreaming as usual of owning an Aston, when I stumbled across this travesty:

Toyota iQ pretending to be an Aston Martin

Now call me cynical, but this is not an Aston in the true sense of the prestige cars they lovingly craft.
Someone decided to slap a bit of fancy interior trim, some ghastly boy racer body vents and of course, an Aston badge, on a bog standard Toyota iQ.
Then charge the earth for it

Now, I have no idea what they were going for when new, but as this one is 25 grand for a 2012 model, I hate to think.

The funny thing is, if I ever saw one of these driving down the street, I would think 'what idiot bought that?', rather than 'oh look, an Aston, super cool'

A materialistic world gone mad lol

 

[SRS]

Whatever the badge it will always be nothing more than a small runaround shopper.

25k, you can get a lot of bikes for that.

 

[Fordulike]

Whatever the badge it will always be nothing more than a small runaround shopper.

25k, you can get a lot of bikes for that.

Or just one of these lol

 

[flecc]

A materialistic world gone mad lol

No, it only looks like that. In fact it's the environmental world gone mad.

The reason for this tarted up Toyota IQ is that all car makers have to meet certain emission standards. Aston Martin can't do that without spoiling some of the performance characteristics of their super sport cars, but fortunately the measure is across the range of models a car maker "produces". The ultra low emission IQ balances out the gas guzzling extravagance of the true Aston Martins.

It's only fair really, after all, Lamborghini is made by Audi, Ferrari and Maserati by Fiat and Bugatti by Volkswagen, all of them balancing those against the low emission models in their ranges to meet total emission targets.

It does of course illustrate how nonsensical such emission standards really are.
.

 

[mike killay]

According to Wiki, only 150 were sold in the UK, so, grab a rarity while you can.
Engineering wise, it sounds horribly expensive to repair.

 

[the_killjoy]

Surely the question is not why anyone should buy a second hand one, but why buy a new one in the first place.

 

[Croxden]

It's to do with the amount of disposable income one has.

 

[Cyclezee]

According to Wiki, only 150 were sold in the UK, so, grab a rarity while you can.

I'm surprised they sold that many

 

[flecc]

I'm surprised they sold that many

The whole point for the wealthy is that it's a little different from what everyone else drives in the city centre.

Those old enough may remember the Radford Mini, a standard Mini basically but tarted up with premium wood and leather by coachbuilders Radford and selling at around £10,000, several times the normal mini price at the time. With such purchases a personalised number plate completes the differentiation.

Paul Raymond, the owner of strip club Raymond's Revue Bar in Soho owned a Radford Mini which he would leave on double yellow lines not caring how many tickets it got. He knew the traffic wardens had to write it's personalised registration number FU 2 onto the ticket!

Eventually he got bored with it and gave the car to his top stripper, Fiona Richmond. It's a hard life being rich!
.

 

[Croxden]

Fiona Richmond, now that's a blast from the past.

 

[stevew]

Fiona Richmond, now that's a blast from the past.

Whatever you do, DON'T Google image that

 

[the_killjoy]

She did transfer the number plate to an E-Type