Lago Aygo

The Aygo has been letting in water — and we all know there’s been a lot of water to let in recently. After several weeks of faffing over appointments and Boy1’s availability, we took it to the rural workshop that’s seen it before. 

Their assessment, after two further days waiting for the AA’s systems to cooperate, is that water is getting through a failed rubber gasket around the third brake light, then trickling down channels in the rear pillars and collecting in the boot carpet and the tail lamp units. The lamps are — for now at least — all working normally. Their suggested remedy is to replace the seals by replacing all three lamp units for £515. 

Keen as the engineer boy is to see the job done properly, he’s not demanding that I simply cough up. Toyota seems not to sell the seals without the lamps. But others do — at £7 for the set of three. Each lamp unit is held in by a single bolt, although it’s awkwardly half-hidden behind what passes in Aygo-world for a trim panel. This presents the possibility of starting a job we find we can’t finish, but any mechanic will have a tool to cope with the awkward angle on the nut. He thinks he has one in Southampton who would do it, which seems a more appropriate solution. 

Asking prices for these cars still seem to be above what I paid in 2021, so there’s merit in looking after this one. Boy1 starts his Proper Job in Cambridge in September, and he’s thinking that might be the moment to move up to something a bit slicker. Till then, this car has a busy summer ahead — and a lot more rain to keep out.