Aston Martin has released pictures of its upcoming Cygnet city car, which is of course a Toyota iQ in fancy dress, tailored for owners of Aston sports cars.

The result is certainly a striking little car, even if it does put us more in mind of James Bond’s golf cart than a suitable form of transport for the image-conscious well-off.

Aston’s stylists have flexed their skills on the inside as well as the bodywork, and don’t seem to have known quite where to stop. While it’s always lovely to see hand-stitched hide take the place of elephant’s-arse plastic, we’re not so sure there isn’t too much lingerie-red leather. It all looks a mite like Plenty O’Toole’s boudoir.

And despite all the attention and expense lavished on the little thing, it still doesn’t seem to sport a centre armrest-cum-cubby-hole, which we found annoying by its absence when we took the unadorned base car – a Toyota iQ 1.33 CVT – for a spin a while back.

Real-world buyers will, of course, be able to specify a more subtle interior style when the Cygnet goes on sale in the UK and Europe at some ill-defined moment in 2010. Presumably most will choose options to match their existing Aston, since ownership of a full-size model is a prerequisite for purchase.

Aston’s ugly duckling has its detractors, many feeling it will sully the reputation of its bigger, swan-doored siblings. We beg to differ, and hope the plushest commuter car yet proves to be a soar-away success.