2009 New York Auto Show
Scion displayed an iQ concept at the 2009 New York Auto Show.

­Consumer Guide's Impressions of the 2011 Scion iQ

Toyota is out to get Smart with a clever new microcar. Though designed for Europe and Japan, the iQ is coming stateside with Scion badges to help us cope with soaring fuel prices and growing urban congestion.

What We Know About the 2011 Scion iQ

As if to answer critics of its big, thirsty, and environmentally hostile trucks, Toyota is launching a thrifty Earth-friendly microcar called iQ. The petite 2-door hatchback bowed as a concept at the autumn 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany and was shown in production trim at the March 2008 Geneva Auto Salon in Switzerland. Billed as an "intelligent solution to urban transport," the iQ was designed at Toyota's ED2 studio in southern France, but is built in Japan. Toyota hopes to sell 100,000 in 2009. Europe and Japan are the intended markets, but the iQ is being whispered for U.S. sale as a 2011 Scion model. If it comes here, it would be our market's first direct alternative to the Smart ForTwo from Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG, a car generating much interest amid soaring fuel prices and a worsening economy.

The 2011 Scion iQ uses a new, dedicated architecture and differs from the Smart in many ways despite a similar phone-booth silhouette and wheels way out at the corners. Where the German-brand mini drives its rear wheels with a small 3-cylinder engine mounted in back, the iQ has an up-front engine and front-wheel drive. The Scion is also larger than the Smart, standing some 10 inches longer, nearly 5 inches wider, and 2.4 inches lower on a 4.7-inch-longer wheelbase.

These larger dimensions combine with several packaging innovations to make the iQ a nominal four-passenger runabout versus the two-seat Smart. Toyota says the interior furnishes "3+1" accommodation, with room for one adult behind the front passenger and a second rear seat that can carry a small child or be folded up for cargo.

Updated by Don Sikora II 08.25.2009


For more inside information on hundreds of new cars of today and tomorrow, check out:

  • C­onsumer Guide New Car Reviews and Prices: Road test results, photos, specifications, and prices for hundreds of new cars, trucks, minivans, and SUVs from the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide.
  • Subcompact Cars: The 2011 Scion iQ will compete in the subcompact car class. Here's Consumer Guide's roundup of all the subcompact cars on sale today.
  • Future Cars: Step into the automotive showroom of tomorrow with reviews, analysis, pictures, prices, and preliminary specifications on scores of vehicles that will be appearing next year and beyond.