Perfect candidate for a rear-mounted Hayabusa motor. You’re thinking it too.
Unlike earlier CVT attempts (I’m looking at you, Saturn Ion, blech), Toyota’s unit drives something like a cross between a CVT and a conventional planetary-gear auto. If you pin the throttle, it will rev up to peak power for a second, then actually select a few set ratios, and buzz to redline and shift into them. In normal driving, it slurs around like a CVT should, which gives you wonderful acceleration flexibility without the annoyance of waiting for a downshift (or waiting an eternity for the Smart’s transmission to do anything.) You would expect to hate the CVT, but you end up wondering why all tiny cars don’t have one – it suits the purpose of city driving perfectly. Compared to a Yaris with the 1.5L and Ye Olde 4-speed auto, it’s revelatory: from a driving enjoyment perspective, it’s the iQ hands down 11 times out of ten.
There are some downsides to all this micro-sized cleverness. The iQ’s powertrain is Loud, capital L intentional. In part throttle the little motor emits about twice the volume you’d expect, and it downright shouts under hard acceleration. Highway cruising is reasonably quiet, with the CVT picking a tall ratio and making small adjustments to suit up or downhill. It’s very susceptible to sidewinds and tramlining, giving you the impression it wasn’t designed with highway use in mind. Of course, the 1mpg difference between city and highway MPG also does.
“Finally,” said Bob, “A car I can hug.”
The other amusing part about driving the iQ is largely a result of it’s microscopic wheelbase. Steering responses will take drivers of normal cars a while to get used to; if you sneeze with both hands on the wheel, you will change lanes. The iQ’s parallel-parking-friendly rack ratio is probably to blame there, too. The steering is electrically assisted (what, you think they have space for a hydraulic power steering pump under the hood?) and is super light, so the iQ has go-kart responses. Steering feel is neither expected nor present. The wheel itself is quite nice: a leather-wrapped three spoker with a flat bottom, and some clever audio controls on the left spoke. Good marks for brake feel and strength, but that’s probably more a result of the low weight than any huge stoppers.
But the iQ will probably not be spotted on a drag strip or road-course any time soon. (Although Scion does sell TRD lowering springs and a rear sway bar for it, so maybe autocross? Nah.) It was designed to be a city car, and it’s excellent at that. EPA ratings are 36 and 37 – meaning it does one less MPG on the highway than the Smart, which is radically out of it’s depth on the highway. 36mpg in town without a Hybrid system is pretty impressive too. The turning radius is absurd; 26.4 feet curb to curb means you can basically do donuts without spinning tires. You could probably perpendicular-park it downtown.
Projector-beam Halogens: nice touch.
This being America, where small cars genuinely scare some people, the iQ comes over-endowed with safety equipment. Traction control, stability control, electronic brakeforce distribution, emergency brake assist, and enough airbags to turn the iQ into a raft if you drive it into lake Erie. Seriously, there are 13 airbags in this car if I’m counting right. Dual front, side, front and rear curtains, knees, inner seat, and rear window curtain airbag. It’s like Scion is saying “roll one, I dare you, I double dog dare you.”
For all it’s cleverness and modern engineering, the iQ is still a car of limited appeal. You won’t want to take a road trip in one, for the same reasons a Miata is a bad road trip car. Not a lot of cargo space, it’s a nervous twitchy thing on the freeway, the highway mileage isn’t that great (Honda’s Civic HF and the VW Jetta TDI both come to mind), it would be loud, etc. But as an around-town type of thing, it’d actually be pretty fun.
The value question is harder to answer, though. The iQ starts at $15,995 – and at that price point there are a lot of other cars with much more practicality. Toyota itself makes a lot of cars that will eat iQ sales; the Yaris starts at $14,115 and the Corolla at $16,130, both offering more space and better highway MPG – although the iQ beats both for in-town mileage. The Honda Fit starts at $15,175 and offers shocking amounts of usable interior space. But I doubt Scion will be selling the iQ on it’s practical merits – it’s a funky car that stands out and drives in an amusing manner. It actually has some character – you’ll crack a smile when you drive one, which is guaranteed to never happen in a Corolla or Yaris – and the quality of interior fittings puts both of those to shame.
So if you live downtown, it’s definitely for you. If you want a tiny car that’s a bit on the funky side, it’s for you. If you take a lot of road trips, or like going fast, it’s most assuredly not for you. But if Toyota intends to restore interest in the flailing Scion brand with this and the FR-S, they’re on the right track.
2012 Scion iQ
Base price: $15,995
Price as tested: $17,469
Options: Destination fee ($785), Rear speaker package ($100), Storage Package ($20), Floor Mats ($90), Pioneer Premium Audio ($479)
Body: Unit construction 3-door hatchback
Drivetrain: Front transverse-engine, front wheel drive, continuously variable transmission
Accomodations: 4 passengers (but more realistically it’s “3+1″)
Engine: Inline-four cylinder, aluminum block & cylinder head
Displacement: 1.3L (1329cc)
Aspiration: N/A
Fuel delivery: Electronic Port Fuel Injection
Valvetrain: Belt-driven DOHC,16 valves (4/cylinder), VVT-i
Compression ratio: 11.5:1
Horsepower: [email protected],000rpm
Torque: [email protected],400rpm
Rev limit: 6,200rpm
Suspension (F): MacPherson Strut, Coil Spring, Gas Damper, Anti-Roll Bar
Suspension (R): Torsion Beam, Coil Spring, Gas Damper
Steering: Electric power-assisted
Wheels/Tires: 16×5.0J Steel w/wheel cover, 175/60/R16
Brakes (F/R): Vented discs/Drums, ABS, EBD, Brake Assist
0-60mph: 9.6s
Top speed: 101mph
1/4 [email protected]: [email protected] (
all via Car & Driver road test, Jan 2012)
EPA fuel mileage estimate: 36 city/ 37 highway/ 37 combined
Recommended fuel: 87 octane
Fuel Tank Capacity: 8.5 gallons
Theoretical Range: 314.5 miles
Wheelbase: 78.7:
Length: 119.9″
Track (F/R): 58.3″/57.5″
Width: 66.1″
Height: 59.1″
Cargo Capacity: 3.5ft³
Curb weight: 2127lbs
Main Competitors: Smart ForTwo, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, Fiat 500, Honda Fit
Pros: Incredibly clever packaging, cute exterior, surprisingly roomy & quality interior, high city MPG, ridiculous turning radius
Cons: Louder than a straight-piped Honda, not a highway car, priced too far into “real car” territory
Conclusion: Toyota shows off its engineering prowess in the hardest-to-sell way possible. You still might like it anyway.