If you spell phat with an “f”, look away now. If, however, the crotch of your trousers is stylishly down around your knees and Glastonbury still seems like a good idea, this may interest you.

It’s a brand new Toyota, the smallest launched in Europe, and it’s looking for a specific audience. These lines from Toyota’s press kit reveal the sort of people the company hopes to impress. And more significantly, those it would prefer to walk on past. “Cars? Do they really figure when it comes to the urban youth scene? Aren’t they just another anchor to weigh you down along with all the other burdens of age and conventionality, a kind of four-wheeled form of cellulite or a receding hairline?” Yikes. The punchline, of course, reveals that the Aygo — pronounced i-go — is designed for young, trendy city dwellers on a tiny budget. It will cost £7,000-£8,000.

Competing in the small city-car segment along with the Kia Picanto, Fiat Panda and others, the Aygo is the result of Toyota’s joint venture with Citroën and Peugeot, which will launch virtually identical models called the C1 and 107 later in the year. The main differences will be styling at the nose and tail. And, of course, price.

Of the three, the Toyota is likely to be the most expensive and the Citroën the least. That said, the Aygo will be worth more than the French duo when it’s time to sell, as the Toyota brand carries the sheen of reliability and quality, never mind that it’s the same car built on the same line.

Still, the student-spec entry-level £7,000 Aygo has most of the essentials covered, with standard fit antilock braking, body-colour-keyed bumpers, driver and passenger airbags, power steering, tilt steering wheel and heated rear window with a wiper. There’s even a connector for an MP3 player — now how “yoof” is that? Air-conditioning is the only extra I’d specify, which would bring the Aygo in at about £7,500.

It goes on sale in July and Toyota will be spending hugely to convince twentysomethings that there’s a real youth buzz about the Aygo. They will produce 7m beer mats with the red-ball Aygo logo and, no doubt, pithy youthful sayings. They’ll also try something vaguely French Connection UK (FCUK) with T-shirts saying things like “Aygo like a rabbit”.

The problem with this is that it’s hard to invest a car with “cool” no matter how much you spend. That’s a natural process and if the pull-your-trousers-up-mate brigade get the idea they are being cynically targeted they’ll run the other way. Like rabbits, actually.

Which would be a shame, because there is a lot to recommend the Aygo. First, the styling is fresh and gives the car an instant charm. And it’s also quite solidly constructed for such a small and inexpensive machine.

There’s room for four six-footers, although the headroom in the back is a little tight. And the boot is tiny, something that can’t be alleviated by sliding the rear seats forward — they can only be folded.

From launch the Aygo will be available only with a 67bhp 1 litre three-cylinder powerplant, so you’d expect it to perform like a garden tractor. But this titchy little thing has a minimum kerb weight of just 790kg — that’s less than a Lotus Elise, for God’s sake — so the littlest Toyota manages to feel lively, even if the figures aren’t quite in Lotus territory.

That engine sounds quite characterful when you rev it out to 6000rpm, almost like a (very, very, very) junior 911. It does 0-62mph in 14.2sec with a top whack of 98mph, so your licence is pretty safe.

The Aygo doesn’t pretend to be a driver’s car. It rides quite well, smoothing out broken bits of tarmac with aplomb, but it rolls heavily through tight corners. That said, the compromise between ride and handling is good.

The cabin has a quality feel you don’t expect. Taller drivers, though, might wish for a lower seating position — the Aygo doesn’t offer seat height adjustment. But with its wheels stretched to the corners of the car, a tight turning circle and power-assisted steering, it is easy to pilot around town.

This little baby is all about cheap, trendy transport for the hip and happening. It’s in the lowest insurance group, 1E, and with class-leading fuel consumption of 61.4mpg and a three-year, 60,000 mile warranty, it’s one of the least expensive to run new cars in the UK.

Toyota is aiming for a four-star performance in the Euro NCAP crash test programme, so the Aygo should be one of the safest cars in its class. All well and good, but I’m not convinced the Pot Noodle generation is going to flock to the Aygo.

Toyota plans to sell about 13,000 Aygos a year in the UK, which is a lot of student loans. And it is targeting an economic group for whom £7,000 is still a great deal of money. Will Toyota pull it off when you can buy a used car for half that with all the cool you can handle? Phat chance, I reckon.

VITAL STATISTICS

Model Toyota Aygo
Engine type Four cylinders, 998cc
Power/Torque 67bhp @ 6000rpm / 69 lb ft at 3600rpm
Transmission Five-speed manual
Fuel/CO2 61.4mpg (combined) / 109g/km
Performance 0-62mph, 14.2sec/ Top speed: 98mph
Price £7,000 (estimate)
Verdict Charming, well-built and supremely frugal city newcomer
Rating 4/5

THE OPPOSITION

Model Fiat Panda 1.1 Active £6,595
For Versatile, roomy interior. Fun to drive
Against Dull design. Only a three-star Euro NCAP rating

Model Kia Picanto 1.0 GS £5,495
For Well equipped and dirt cheap
Against Kia badge and a bouncy ride