2011 Scion iQ: A Smarter Smart?

Being that you can now get 34mpg out of 274hp, 38mpg out of 90hp is less than impressive.

My opinion is subject to revision once I've read a road test, especially since it's a CVT, and I the one time I drove one (in a Mini I rented) I was not impressed. I think that it will sell much better than the Smart.

First, Scion is an established name in the US, while Smart was the name of a watch, not a car. 90 hp from regular gas makes a shitload more sense in the US market than 70 on premium. Finally, while the back seats are pointless given its size (20+inches shorter than a gen 2 CRX), it will offer a bit more cargo room than the Smart while being just as easy to park.

The Smart is a car that makes sense for European cities with 500 year old streets designed for horses and not cars. The slightly larger and more powerful Scion will work better on the wider US streets and should hold its own better on the highway.

This is a City Car. What's the city mpg?

Does this mean the Aston Martin version is not far behind?

Why do people keep using hwy mpgs to compare? As brn said this is a city car and the hwy mileage is almost meaningless.

Compare the city mpgs to arumages 274 hp car and you'll see where this car shines.

Love it! i would expect 38/42 from this. Its butch and cute at the same time... !

Ditto on the Highway mileage only complaint.

Frankly this bugs me about ALL cars though. There is way too much emphasis on highway economy when such a huge percentage of the population lives in urban areas like LA, Chicago, NYC etc where a car might only get 25% of its miles from steady state highway driving.

Well honestly all this needs is to burn Regular instead of premium and a suspension meant for a modern car rather than a wagon and it's way ahead of the smart. I don't see it being a run-away hit, but when gas prices surge again, I think this should finally put smart out of the NA market.

We need to see what will be the price in the US. (in Europe the iQ is more expensive than a Yaris)

In many European cities the smaller size of the iQ may be an advantage.

In the US, I believe a Yaris is small enough for most of the people that want a small car.

I am pretty sure that, with some changes in the ECU programming, the Yaris could give 5 to 6 mpg more than it gets now, so what is the point of a smaller (and more expensive) car.

"Think it'll catch on where the Smart failed?"

No.

Just remember, the name is not pronounced "eye-queue" but rather "ick."

Doing better than the Smart won't be difficult. As for selling "well", what will gas prices be next year?