[jonestown]

I love this zippy little car but what are my options in terms of competition? Surely, Scion is hoping to steal some customers away from their competitors with the IQ.

 

[Barbosa]

I think its doing a bang up job competing with the mico mini car phenomenon. The fiat and the mini are the only other two I can see right now and are currently above my pay grade.

 

[David Blaine]

Yeah, the Mini Cooper and the Smart Fortwo are probably it's only competition. The Echo as well, but Toyota is Toyota I suppose.

Dave

 

[DeeezNuuuts83]

What about the Honda Fit? Granted they're different in size, but I suppose people may cross-shop both vehicles.

 

[car_crazy]

smart car is not a competitor since most people dont want it. its a really crappy car. the honda fit, and toyota echo might be competition as they are pretty close to the iq msrp. but the mini is going to be much more expensive than the iq and is a completely different car(more expensive, faster, and better handling). i should also mention that the cygnet is coming to america. the cygnet is basically a scion iq thats more expensive with barely anything different between the two.

Aston Martin Cygnet Coming To America | AutoGuide.com News

 

[inoplanetyanin]

Fiat 500, smart for two, yaris, fit, scion xb, huyndai accent and other small cars.

 

[racer_d]

Any car at the same price point is a competitor when buying new. If I am sitting in a Toyota/Scion dealership, then heck, Corolla, Yaris, XD(?) are all competitors!

Then consider the number of used cars at the same price (ie, used Prius, corolla, Jetta/Golf etc etc.)

 

[trenton2345]

What about the Honda Fit? Granted they're different in size, but I suppose people may cross-shop both vehicles.
_________________________________
the machine

 

[hothatch]

i would almost say anything with starting price lower than 20 thousand.

Even though people may cross shop price is still a very big factor in car buying. yaris, XB and small/micro car on the market...

 

[stevemil00]

I'd say the Fiat 500, definitely. It's not quite as small, but we got one several weeks ago - a Sport, manual - and so far we think the Fiat is an awesome car. 33-34 MPG for our typical driving style, which probably trends more to city than highway. My wife just took a 260-mile trip, largely on lightly-traveled state routes, and hit 43-44MPG. The Fiat handles well and is comfortable and looks decent inside and, of course, is available with a manual transmission and a stability-control-off switch (though the latter we think just raises the limits, sadly).

The 500 replaced our smart car, which was actually OK but which desperately needed smarter transmission software to help it figure out that a small lift off the throttle did not always mean "upshift now!", sometimes it meant "I need to scrub a little speed so I can see if I need to commit." The delay in waiting for the upshift to complete, then waiting for the next downshift, then waiting for another downshift, could get pretty frustrating. On the flip side, exploring the smart's handling limits could be entertaining (seriously) and the fact that it's rear-wheel drive is great.

I like car magazine's capsule summary of the smart: 10 years ahead of its time... 10 years ago. You always got the impression that it should somehow be a bit better than it was.

We'd also been holding out for the iQ, and we might have toughed the delay out, but the news that it'd only come to the US as a CVT was a deal-killer for us. Why replace a car whose automatic transmission we dislike with another car whose automatic transmission has not been well reviewed? Especially since we prefer manuals anyway...

 

[fresco]

lets not forget about the Chevrolet Spark, Ford Fiesta & Mazda 2. <----- those three are some good competition everyone should keep in mind when thinking "scion iq competition"

this is just the beginning, the small/micro car market is just emerging and growing at a fast rate so there will be more and more competition to come.

But, out of all the current competition mentioned here, which one comes very close to the iQ?

 

[hothatch]

Fiat 500 that would directly in the category, while the scion sits a sportier car,the fiat has the European luxury tag behind it!

 

[gokartride]

MINI rolled out a "Rocketman" concept car in Geneva...seating-wise it is packaged just like an iQ. It seems that all they did was shorten a regular MINI, but apparently the car will use BMW's new 3-cylinder engine, resulting in greater mpg. Rumor has it the car will be produced.

This car could go head-to-head with an iQ, and will in Europe (if built), but I think MINI will wait and see how the iQ does in the U.S. before even thinking about bring something like this here.

 

[gokartride]

out of all the current competition mentioned here, which one comes very close to the iQ?

It hasn't been mentioned. but I'm thinking the Yaris may come closest. It has the smallest turning radius of all present offerings (from what I can tell) and has the same engine as will be offered in the iQ. In fact, the Yaris might even be considered a stretch iQ.

Of course, the Yaris IS a Toyota, so I guess it's not really competition is it?