Hasta La Ideas

The Scion iQ is a cool and zippy car. The thing is tiny. At 10 feet long, I put it in unimaginable parking spots. At around $15K, it will have a tiny price. And the thing has a tiny, tiny turning radius—it can turn on a 13 foot dime (12.9 according to their marketing materials). While I laughed at the idea at first, when I test drove the car…it really became a talking point. Everyone went out and did donuts in tight alleys during the test drive. It delighted all of us, and we talked about it a surprising amount.

The big idea: It’s like a Smart car, but solid-feeling, zippy and nimble. Several people commented that when they turned around while driving, there was the thought “where is the rest of it?” because it really felt like a full-sized car. For a side-by-side totally unplanned comparison, see below.

What did they sacrifice for the size? Obviously, there is no way you can get 4 people and their bags in this. But in contrast with the Smart Car, Scion made a clear choice to make this what they call a 3+1 car. It seats two people and some bags very well. But you can get a third person, behind the passenger side. You lose most of your cargo space (You have to choose one or the other) but you can give a ride to 2 friends. I think it should be called a 2+1 car, but that’s just me.

How do they do this? With a quick peek under the hood, we see that they moved the differential in front of the trans-axel, making a longer wheelbase and consequently a larger interior, possible. In the pic below, you can see that the wheels are super close to the front bumper.

Another invisible change is moving the gas tank from the rear of the car to the front, and flattening it out, leaving more room for cargo and people in the back.

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