On the outside, the Aston Martin Cygnet may resemble the Toyota or Scion iQ, but Aston Martin wants you to know there’s a reason why its diminutive city car costs 31,000 GBP ($48,484) before you start adding options.

Like Aston Martin’s larger and faster offerings, each Cygnet is hand crafted by a team of artisans at Aston’s Gaydon factory, including a paint technician, a paint supervisor, a seat builder, various assembly technicians, a trim lead, a customer acceptance technician and a production supervisor.

The Toyota products, on the other hand, are clabbered together in automated factories, by robots, and don’t use the same quality of materials or hand-built craftsmanship that go into the Cygnet. In fact, after watching the video it’s impossible not to be impressed with how much Aston Martin the company manages to stuff inside each and every Cygnet.

There are still rumors of U.S. sales beginning in 2012, at a price that’s supposed to start in the $35,000 range. We’re not sure how Aston will shave that much money off the bottom line without dramatically impacting its profits, but we’l be sure to let you know if the Cygnet lands on these shores.