Toyota IQ "a door on wheels"
25/08/09 15:36 Filed in: Road
tests
“It’s a door on wheels!” That was the
first reaction from interested onlookers when the Toyota IQ first
rolled up into the office car park. Sure enough in profile it looks
as though the side of the car is almost entirely composed of
door.
The Toyota IQ is the Japanese manufacturer’s take on a compact town car. At less than three metres long, it certainly is small. The IQ is a substantial 700 mm shorter than a Mini, but 300 mm longer than its obvious competitor the Smart Fortwo. That extra length allows the Toyota IQ to offer two rear seats, of sorts.
In reality only children would fit in there and ,even then, there might have to be compromises. With the driver’s seat in my preferred driving position, there is absolutely zero space between the seat back and the rear seat cushion.
It would take agile, pliable adult to wriggle their way into the back. In the process I expect they would be fervently hoping that they could get back out again.
I was a little concerned to see quite how close the rear seat head restraints are to the rear window glass, but, in this respect, I suppose it is no worse than many rearmost seats in MPVs.
From that comment about the closeness of the rear seats to the tailgate you will deduce that there is not a huge amount of space for luggage. Officially there is 32 litres of luggage space with the rear seats up. But, the reality is that you would not even get a full supermarket bag in there without dropping one of the rear seat backs.
At this point, lest we get too hung up on rear seat and luggage space, let us reflect on the fact that most cars on the road carry only one or two people. So, most of the time, the rear seat is not needed. And how many of us spend our work days or weekends transporting sizeable amounts of luggage?
For those who normally travel only in ones and twos, the IQ is pretty civilised. Space for front seat inhabitants is quite civilised. Oddments storage is a little restricted. There are big door bins with bottle holding space a the very front. But, there is no glovebox. Instead there is rather an unusual fabric bag fixed to the dashboard to hold the owner’s handbook, with space for a few other oddments.
The net result is that, for two people, this is a practical and civilised city runabout that is also quite at home on country roads and dual carriageways. That said we did discover that it is a bit unsettled by strong cross winds.
The test car was the Toyota IQ3, which has a three-cylinder 1.32-litre engine. It has the characteristic slightly off-beat three-cylinder engine note. It delivers a reasonable 0-62 mph acceleration of 11.8 seconds. Official combined economy is 55.4 mpg, but I found I was achieving around the mid 40s on a mix of city and country driving.
In its £11,615 IQ3 guise, the Toyota is £1783 cheaper than the 1.33-litre Smart Fortwo. Although it is longer and perhaps not such a pure city car as the Smart Forfour, I can see it appealing, not just on cost grounds, to people who want a more conventional car with a straightforward manual gearbox.
For those who want even lower-priced city transport there are two models of IQ with a 960cc two-cylinder engine with prices starting at £9,615.
The Toyota IQ is the Japanese manufacturer’s take on a compact town car. At less than three metres long, it certainly is small. The IQ is a substantial 700 mm shorter than a Mini, but 300 mm longer than its obvious competitor the Smart Fortwo. That extra length allows the Toyota IQ to offer two rear seats, of sorts.
In reality only children would fit in there and ,even then, there might have to be compromises. With the driver’s seat in my preferred driving position, there is absolutely zero space between the seat back and the rear seat cushion.
It would take agile, pliable adult to wriggle their way into the back. In the process I expect they would be fervently hoping that they could get back out again.
I was a little concerned to see quite how close the rear seat head restraints are to the rear window glass, but, in this respect, I suppose it is no worse than many rearmost seats in MPVs.
From that comment about the closeness of the rear seats to the tailgate you will deduce that there is not a huge amount of space for luggage. Officially there is 32 litres of luggage space with the rear seats up. But, the reality is that you would not even get a full supermarket bag in there without dropping one of the rear seat backs.
At this point, lest we get too hung up on rear seat and luggage space, let us reflect on the fact that most cars on the road carry only one or two people. So, most of the time, the rear seat is not needed. And how many of us spend our work days or weekends transporting sizeable amounts of luggage?
For those who normally travel only in ones and twos, the IQ is pretty civilised. Space for front seat inhabitants is quite civilised. Oddments storage is a little restricted. There are big door bins with bottle holding space a the very front. But, there is no glovebox. Instead there is rather an unusual fabric bag fixed to the dashboard to hold the owner’s handbook, with space for a few other oddments.
The net result is that, for two people, this is a practical and civilised city runabout that is also quite at home on country roads and dual carriageways. That said we did discover that it is a bit unsettled by strong cross winds.
The test car was the Toyota IQ3, which has a three-cylinder 1.32-litre engine. It has the characteristic slightly off-beat three-cylinder engine note. It delivers a reasonable 0-62 mph acceleration of 11.8 seconds. Official combined economy is 55.4 mpg, but I found I was achieving around the mid 40s on a mix of city and country driving.
In its £11,615 IQ3 guise, the Toyota is £1783 cheaper than the 1.33-litre Smart Fortwo. Although it is longer and perhaps not such a pure city car as the Smart Forfour, I can see it appealing, not just on cost grounds, to people who want a more conventional car with a straightforward manual gearbox.
For those who want even lower-priced city transport there are two models of IQ with a 960cc two-cylinder engine with prices starting at £9,615.