Toyota Gets SMART With the iQ; Sells it as a Scion in the US

  • Thread starter YSSMAN
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I quite like it, but it'll have to be damn impressive... like VERY impressive... if it's to have any point in Europe, with the Aygo already in existance. The Aygo is already comparable to the Smart in terms of economy, price (in fact, the Aygo is a grand cheaper than the equivalent Smart fortwo), engine size, power and torque, it has twice the seats, and similar performance - and it has a manual transmission and not Smart's lacklustre auto.

What can the iQ possibly offer Europe over the Aygo, except the ability to park it more easily? If it's priced anything like the Smart too it'll be more expensive than the Aygo. I'm sure it'll be a better car than the Smart, but what's the point of it?
 
Jim Prower
Toyota. A Scion has to accept a wide range of performance parts...this has such a short wheelbase that applying performance parts to it probably isn't prudent.
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Unless you wanted to make God's autocross car, where short wheel bases are extremely handy. And you said it'd make a great Scion a few posts back.

Either way, I like it and we need it state side...
 
-> I primarily like it because it a M/T, compared to the Smarts retarded semi-auto tranny.
 
Azuremen
I'm interested in it. And I could see it coming state side if the Smart is successful. Which would be good, because we need more interest in small cars in the US. Preferably with an electric plug-in option.
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Small cars... I'd feel safer in a street bike sometimes. At least I wouldn't have any blindspots.
 
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Azuremen
Unless you wanted to make God's autocross car, where short wheel bases are extremely handy. And you said it'd make a great Scion a few posts back.

Either way, I like it and we need it state side...
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Sorry...that must've been before I saw a handling test of a Smart ForTwo. There may be issues of a car with a roughly square wheelbase. on the other hand, it may be better than the Smart, for being Front wheel drive, where the front tires can pull the car around hard corners, instead of being pushed by the rear tires.
 
One problem with getting it to the good ol' USA:

Crash standards...

That always spoils the fun.
 
Slicks
Efficient? Yes, but it won't come close to the Smart. Fail.
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Fuel efficiency? If so, you are probably talking about some Smart model that's not available in the States. I looked into American market models, and I was so not impressed. If Toyota's wannabe's actually less fuel efficient than Smart, I'd agree with you, we don't need it. It would be a pretty pointless car.
 
Hmmm... Well, from what I can see it doesn't have the appeal of the Smart in terms of looks. It just looks like an Aygo got half way through the car crusher and stopped. The interior isn't as funky, either - it looks like Premier Inn took a Prius, chopped out the unnecessary bits and introduced some of their lovely indigo colour scheme. And I'm sure I read somewhere it's going to be around £10k, which is far too much for a car of this size with virtually no image. Particularly when you could have one hell of an Aygo for that. And if the bigger Aygo got 4 stars at EuroNCAP, it's going to have to work hard to do the same.

Who's going to buy this over an Aygo? Or a Smart? Or a Yaris?
 
-> I'd think the iQ would make perfect sense as a Scion. Since the iQ name itself is already a designation of a Scion marque (xA, xB, xD, and tC). :indiff:
 
Not me, for sure. And not just because I can't afford it.

As I said further up, the iQ will literally have to be amazing for it to have any point over an Aygo in Europe. It's too long to park nose-in to the kerb so it's shortness isn't an advantage over the Aygo (the Aygo isn't exactly an aircraft carrier itself so you'd have to be pretty pathetic at parallel parking to thing "hmm, what I need is something like this, but shorter") and it could even be considered a disadvantage given that the Aygo will have more room. And I'd lay a bet that the Aygo is more fun. I'm still yet to test drive one... but actually, I'd be interested to test an Aygo and an iQ back to back.

And as Jon says above, the iQ doesn't really have any image, certainly not compared to the smart, which at least people know is a company that makes tiny cars.
 
Whos willing to bet that if they bring the iQ over that we'll see the Ford Ka and Chevy Beat on this side of the Atlantic too?
 
A little update to this thread. I've previously been quite cynical about this car and until launch we probably still won't know if it's actually any better than Toyota's own Aygo (though from initial tests it seems to be of higher quality than the cheap and cheerful Aygo, and is effectively only useful as a 3-seater), but I found this Japanese promo video of the car and it's mighty impressive!



Stunts aside, it certainly looks fairly stable if it's capable of those sorts of manoeuvres. I'd definitely be interested to drive one.

I didn't mention it here before either but I talked about it in my blog, but there have been rumours of a small sports car based on the iQ platform, which would be fantastic. They are still just rumours but apparently Toyota are going to be showing something along those lines at next year's Tokyo Motor Show.
 
YSSMAN
Whos willing to bet that if they bring the iQ over that we'll see the Ford Ka and Chevy Beat on this side of the Atlantic too?
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Not me. They can't afford it.
 
Probably too expensive. It's expected to sell for a couple of grand more than the Aygo over here, and doesn't look like it's designed to be cheap, like the Aygo.
 
homeforsummer
What can the iQ possibly offer Europe over the Aygo, except the ability to park it more easily? If it's priced anything like the Smart too it'll be more expensive than the Aygo. I'm sure it'll be a better car than the Smart, but what's the point of it?
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I've got it! The point is to unconvince the Americans of the Smart's intelligence.

I love these intelligently named nanocars. I can't wait until we can give the segment a fitting name!
 
Not my kind of a car but it is getting interesting with these small car. I'm a person who has a 6 foot frame so I would want a large amount of space for my legs.
 
nick09
Not my kind of a car but it is getting interesting with these small car. I'm a person who has a 6 foot frame so I would want a large amount of space for my legs.
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I'm 6ft even, and give or take, there is an abundance of room inside the ForTwo. I pushed the seat all the way back, fiddled with all the adjustments, there was far more room than I ever would have expected. I'd imagine that the iQ would be much larger, especially having the "back seat" (if you can call it that) and all.

I imagine that the only way we're going to get this thing easily in North America is if the market conditions change up enough to make a good reason for importing it. Shouldn't take much, but you never know. Toyota is having enough issues here as it is...
 
YSSMAN
I imagine that the only way we're going to get this thing easily in North America is if the market conditions change up enough to make a good reason for importing it.
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They never will. The reason smart's and the like sell in meaningful numbers at all in Europe and Japan is because they fill a niche that doesn't exist in America. Very few areas in America have such space problems on roads or in parking areas that the iQ would ever be necessary over, say, a Fit. Its the same reason SUVs exploded in America but nowhere else. We may get the Aygo (that could fit quite well into the Toyota portfolio), but we will never get the iQ, at least not in meaningful numbers. Mainly the only people who would probably buy it are the same uninformed yuppies who flocked to the ForTwo: the ones who feel the need to make a statement about something or other who mostly just come off as ignorant.
 
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Just when I was starting to like the iQ (well, I still am beginning to like it, but there's a problem, as I'm about to discuss), a look around at some of the "first drives" on different websites took me to Auto Express's review. It was generally favourable, but what caught my attention was one of the (presumably Toyota-supplied) illustrations of a family happily enjoying the four seats, something the car "benefits" from over the smart:

car_photo_294891_25.jpg


Anyone care to guess where the problem lies? Well, I'm certainly not one to make ignorant and uneducated comments about small cars being unsafe, but that looks like a mighty small rear crumple zone before the rear passengers (likely to be children, in a space that small) become the crumple zones themselves. There's what, maybe a foot of fresh air between the heads of those in the back and the bonnet of a 4x4 charging into the back of the car?

Of course, it's designed as a city car, and of course, it'll probably be safer than a '90s Fiat Cinquecento, which has the same issue - but even so it's making me think about how it'd perform if rear-ended.
 
Which in itself has been rumoured to have scrapped the RR drivetrain when it comes out, showing just how badly VW has misread the market again.
 
Yes, the UP! is going for FF instead of RR as promised, but I remember that the concept car of iQ is MR/RWD.
 
Though I was reading somewhere that VW are thinking of bringing out a city car even smaller than the Up! which probably will be RWD, and they want it capable of 120mpg or something. In fact, the article is here, the "Chico". I know the pic is of the Up! but the text isn't.

I wouldn't get so hung up on RWD anyway in these city cars. They aren't E30s or Mk2 Escorts - you aren't going to get any massive powerslides out of them and they certainly won't be quick. The fun will be from them being tiny and managing to nip through tiny gaps like an old Mini.

RWD is an interesting one with packaging too, especially if you're trying to fit 4 seats in. I know the old Fiat 500 and 600 etc did it, but it rather requires a sloping or a longer back end so that the rear seats don't end up being compromised by the engine too badly.
 
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