Toyota iQ Review and Prices

By Chuck Giametta

2010 TOYOTA iQ BUYING ADVICE

• The 2010 Toyota iQ is the best car for you if a small city car is on your shopping list, but a Smart looks to you like Abe Lincoln’s hat dropped acid and grew wheels.

• There’s no shortage of “Toyota is out to get Smart” takes on this odd little newcomer. Indeed, the ForTwo from Mercedes-Benz’s Smart division is a natural frame of reference for any car that seems taller than it is long. And while the 2010 Toyota iQ fits the microcar mold, it differs from the ForTwo in important ways. It’s strategically larger, with seats for four passengers instead of two and enough additional power and mass to feel more substantial on the road. It has front-wheel drive versus the Smart’s rear-wheel drive. It does come from the high-top sneaker school of design, but the 2010 Toyota iQ has already been displayed at London’s Royal College of Art as an example of an inspired solution to the challenges of modern urban living.

• Should you wait for the 2010 Toyota iQ? Yes, if you’re even remotely in the market for an easy-to-park, 40-mpg runabout. There’s more engineering innovative here than in rival road rats like the Scion xD, Mini Cooper, and the coming 2010 Nissan Cube. But you’ll pay a price for its precedent-setting packaging efficiency: the 2010 Toyota iQ is likely to start around $20,000, far higher than any other microcar.  

2010 TOYOTA iQ CHANGES

• Styling: The 2010 Toyota iQ’s dimensions dictate its look. The 2010 Toyota iQ is just 117.5 inches long, 66.1 inches wide, and 58.3 inches tall. It could easily fit sideways in a traffic lane. Among cars for sale in the U.S., only the Smart ForTwo is tinier, and considerably so: the Smart is 106.1 inches long and 61.4 inches wide. The ForTwo is about 2.5 inches taller than the iQ, but its wheelbase – the distance between the front and rear axles and a key determinate in passenger room – is 5.2 inches briefer. As for “styling,” the 2010 Toyota iQ looks in profile like little more than a big car door with tires. But interesting details abound, including the sensual wave of the rear roof pillar, some tarty tail winglets, and a no-nonsense nose that lends it an essential air of seriousness. The iQ concept, incidentally, came not from Toyota HQ in Japan, but from it’s styling center in France.

• Mechanical: Here’s where the 2010 Toyota iQ shows true intelligence. To create what it calls the world’s smallest four-seat car, Toyota started with a clean-sheet design that rethinks traditional automotive packaging. About the only bow to convention is a transverse-mounted engine driving the front wheels. From there, Toyota repositioned mechanisms such as the differential and steering system, and miniaturized the air conditioner, fuel tank, and starter motor, compressing the features of a modern car into shell shrink-wrapped around the passenger compartment. The iQ will be sold in overseas markets with both gasoline and diesel engines, but America’s version will come with a 100-horsepower 1.3-liter gas four-cylinder and a choice of manual and automatic transmissions.  

• Features: Most of the 2010 Toyota iQ’s notable features are in service of its size. This is the first car with a curtain air bag that deploys behind the back seat, an innovation necessary because there’s so little impact-absorbing crush space behind the rear passengers. (The 2010 Toyota iQ comes with a total of nine airbags.) Arrangement of the seats themselves is novel. The right side of the dashboard is concave so the front passenger sits slightly forward of the driver. This affords adult-friendly leg room for the right-rear passenger; the seat behind the driver has room enough only for a child. In fact, it’s not inaccurate to call the 2010 Toyota iQ a 3 ½-seat car.

2010 TOYOTA iQ PRICES

• Clean-sheet engineering is expensive, so the 2010 Toyota iQ is expected to have a base price of around $20,000. Toyota hopes upscale urbanites accustomed to diminutive design in their dwellings and portable electronics will regard the iQ as precision gear, not just a small car. Toyota also plans to amortize the cost of development by modifying the iQ’s basic platform to underpin other models, most immediately the next-generation Toyota Yaris small car, due around model-year 2012.

2010 TOYOTA iQ FUEL ECONOMY

• Small engine and light weight spell outstanding gas mileage. Figure the 2010 Toyota iQ to be among the most fuel-efficient cars on the road with ratings around 30 mpg city, 40 highway. That weight, by the way, is about 1,900 pounds. By comparison, only the Smart ForTwo is lighter, at around 1,810. The Honda Fit tips the scales at around 2,490, the lightest Mini Cooper at 2,546.

2010 TOYOTA iQ RELEASE DATE

• Look for the 2010 Toyota iQ in showrooms in mid 2009.  

2010 TOYOTA iQ COMPETITION

• Smart FourTwo: It alighted on these shores as a 2008 model, introducing Americans to the small-and-tall transportation modules common in Europe and Japan. Available as a coupe and semi-convertible, both have a 70-horsepower rear-mounted three-cylinder engine. The Smart is ultra maneuverable and surprisingly roomy for two big people, but it’s noisy, harsh-riding, and very stingy with cargo space. Fuel economy ratings are 33 mpg city/41 highway, and prices (including destination) range from just over $12,000 to around $19,000 for a loaded convertible.

• Nissan Cube: Set to debut as a new-to-America 2010 model, the Nissan Cube is a little brick of a car, a four-door, front-wheel-drive wagon inexpensive to buy and operate. There’s good room for a quartet of grownups and plenty of luggage volume with the rear seats folded. On the innovation front, a 95-horsepower four-cylinder engine drives the front wheels and if those should slip, Nissan’s “e-AWD” system kicks in with a compact electric motor to automatically power the rear wheels. Projected price range is $14,000-$16,500, fuel economy around 26/40.    

• Honda Fit: Hard to fault for build quality, ingenious arrangement of passenger and cargo room, and just plain driving enjoyment. It’s the largest of the cars discussed here, but still just 162 inches long. This front-drive four-door wagon was redesigned for 2009, adding such desirables as an available navigation system. It’s got 118 horsepower and is among the few really small cars that’s big-car composed on the open highway. Base price range is $15,220-$19,430, including destination fee. Fuel economy tops out at 28/35.