2012 Scion iQ to Start at US$15,995

It too mut.

 

Just think, for twice the price, you can get this rebadged as an [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_Cygnet"]Aston Martin Cygnet[/ame] (that's a baby swan... also known as an ugly duckling. Oh those Brits.)

 

But there is a reason why Aston have made the Cygnet;

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_Cygnet]Aston Martin Cygnet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

To paraphrase a friend, "I blame Scion."
On the feature to feature level, it will likely be comparable to the Smart fortwo. With the fortwo though, you can get a stripper, even sans radio, if so inclined.

While Scion's fully loaded car with no haggle price marketing model has worked so far, I think it will end up hurting the iQ. Fuel economy or something will have to be wowing to keep buyers from upsizing to the xD.

 

That's a ton of money for a miniscule car. I'd absolutely buy an Elantra over this thing. Some will buy it, but then some bought the SmartForTwo, a name that belies the fact the car is a steaming pile of stupid.

 

I would buy another Fiesta at that price.

 

But isn't this exactly what people who own massive pickup trucks think about Prius drivers?

You could replace Elantra for F150 and SmartforTwo for Prius.

 

That's a bit of an exaggeration. The Elantra and IQ are relatively close in fuel economy and the Prius and F-150 aren't even on the same planet.:rockon:

A car in the IQ/Smart class doesn't get appreciably better fuel economy than an Elantra class car, the main things they have going for them are a questionable level of cute and their small size.

The cute is in the eye of the beholder and the size doesn't mean anything in the typical North American town or city. Crowded cites in Europe are another story.

 

It's just not competitive at that price point, it should be substantially less.

 

2012 Scion iQ Review with Video!

Autoguide.com
2012 Scion IQ Review: Car Reviews

 

The xD, with auto, is just a smidge under the iQ in price. The iQ has big advantage in fuel economy, but that will only hold if Toyota plans to drop the xD or never update its aging 4 speed. So, on the same lot, a buyer will be presented with fuel economy and parking utility veruses more passenger and cargo utility.

On other lots, with cars equipped with newer transmissions and engines, the fuel economy advantage of the iQ shrinks. Yes, 40mpg hwy is mostly bragging rights, but these cars do pull 30+ down in combined fuel economy. While more likely than an 100% highway commute, a pure city commute is still an outlier. The 55/45 mix for combined wasn't chosen at random.

Except for Smart, the stripper base model no longer exists. A/C and perhaps premium sound are, IIRC, the only note worthy options to add to these cars to equal a Scion in features. With a narrower gap in the iQ's advantages, I see more singles opting for the larger class car.

For those that decided this size class car works for them, the iQ is the better choice. The passenger and cargo versatility, transmission, and Toyota rep will over most from the Smart. The only real advantages the fortwo has is entry price and convertable option. I'm disappointed neither offer a manual, but understand why.

I want to see more these class of cars here, and I think the iQ will be success. But it'll be like the original xB, interest outside Scion's target market will make it so.

 

Just watched and read this review and I think they've got it 100% right. It is a city car - San Francisco being an ideal place to test it. They also noted that it drives surprisingly well at highway speeds - which is does. In fact you'd think you were in a Corolla until you look behind you and see the small dimensions.

One thing they touched on but didn't show is the amazing turning circle. They did say you could turn it within the space of two king size mattresses but never showed the car turn in practice - you really have got to see it to believe it (think bumper cars).

Still, I think it'll be a hard sell to America though Canada might 'get it'. Premium cars in a small size just seems a concept beyond many judging by some of the comments on this thread so far. The A & B class Mercedes are not sold in the US for this reason I guess (though I believe Canada gets the B class).

Mercedes-Benz A-Class - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mercedes-Benz B-Class - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The demographic may be slightly different but those standard features you mention are in the Elantra as well.

Some will get it just to be different. 36 city is pretty darn good though, I'll give it that!

12 second 0-60 isn't great but it would probably be a fun car to whip around corners. it does looks very nice for what it is but I'd not want to be in it in an accident.

Definitely unique, I guess that review has given me a better opinion of this. Would need to splurge on proper alloys, though.

 

Did you have a manual transmission? I know Canada once had a wider selection of engines and transmissions for the Smart.
I'd probably lean Smart. It might be more fun to drive with the RWD, and I'd likely get better fuel economy over the iQ on my commute. Mostly, I prefer its looks, but I also have the wife's car for any needs it doesn't meet.

I think most here get the idea of a small premium car. It's just that they think of Lexus as the premium Toyota brand, not Scion. I've looked at the xA and there's a new xB in the extended family. They're nice, but there was nothing about them that made them a premium over a Ford, Hyundai, or even Toyota.

The micro car is just a hard sell in America. Parking and turning radius aren't big selling points here. Fuel economy might be their only real advantage, and that might be a slim one based our commutes.

 

I think this product is interesting.

I think it fills a niche. A relatively inexpensive urban transporter that offers high MPG's for a non-hybrid product.

But I wonder about a few things of very different importance.

First, why if "barely" designed to carry passengers, judging from the video, does Toyota/Scion put those HUGE rear view blocking head rests on the rear seats? Even in the video, they rise up like two huge rear view blocking panels. Couldn't you make them smaller? And/Or integrate them into the seats themselves?

Secondly? While interesting, how interesting- for how long? It might compete well against Smart Cars...but will it ever have the unique panache enjoyed by Smart Cars? Maybe...but it would almost have to "catch on" as the cool "thing" to have...

Also, when Toyota releases the Prius c, isn't that going to take a lot of the potential steam away from a product like this? Roughly 16000 for a very small product like this, that offers around 40 mpg, vs. Rumored to be around 20,000, for a product that's MPG might approach 60mpg?

I think the Prius C interests me more.

And finally, Toyota needs to get with it with their interior and Dash Board design. That Nav Screen looks hideously huge and almost stuck on clunky. Very 70's looking.

Toyota's interiors as a whole just seem a step behind.

Small is small, and this vehicle is meant to be small, but that doesn't mean you need to block views out of windows and create vision shortcomings.

My Honda Fit is well designed in this area. While small, Honda used windows to create the illusion of space and openess, as opposed to the criticism raised in the video of the IQ where evidently there are a lot of blind spots.

I think there might be a short lived niche market for something like this, but I'm hoping in a short period of time, Prius c, hybrids, and potentially simply other products make the idea of buying an ultra small commuter to get mid 30's to 40's gas mileage a bad idea.

I'd rather see efficiency expanded through better technology as opposed to simply offering smaller gas engines attached to smaller amounts of sheet metal. Even though...for now, that works...

 

You can fold the rear seats down (with the headrest inside) when not in use. Few reviewers seems to discover this.

I think Toyota made a smart move in offering it as a Scion. Toyota never really intended on it to sell well, or else it wouldn't be priced like this.

Toyota needs to revamp the small engines. The 1.33 of the Scion is relatively new, but I'm looking forward to see what the C will offer as well. An iQ with the C engine would be ideal since it's a city car.

In the Toyota iQ, Toyota uses the TNS510 satnav which fits in nicely because of the conservative "don't look at me"-look with colors on the screen that match the lighting inside and buttons that are nearly the same style as the rest of the car. The standard Scion radio looks completely out of place in comparison. Don't know what the idea behind that is.

It is still better than a Prius! Agreed. Rear quarter views are lacking, but the real problem is with 3 passengers and your view to the right is obstructed.

 

It shares too many styling cues with the rest of the Scion line up to ever be unique. It is a better all around car than the Smart, I'll give it that, but the Smart is part of the uniqueness class with the VW Beetle and Prius.

At that price it is. They are a good platform for the EV commuter second car, so I think we'll see more in the future.