The car Toyota is touting as its next trend-setting success boasts just 93 horsepower and measures barely ten feet long. To the automotive press, it means the days of marketing giant Sequoias to combat Surburbans and Expeditions are over. But the tiny Scion iQ may have a future in America.
"It appears that the horsepower wars are over," comments Edmunds Inside Line. "Scion took the wraps off its three-passenger iQ concept on Wednesday at the 2009 New York Auto Show, trotting out a 93-horsepower micro-subcompact that seems to take direct aim at the Smart Fortwo."
The iQ is being called a concept car in New York, but it's already a production car overseas. Kicking Tires explains, "The iQ is already sold in Japan and other countries as a Toyota model, but the company feels it would do better in the U.S. as a Scion."
According to Jalopnik, "Scion says it will gauge response to the concept and possibly put it into production."
But Autoblog comments, "we would be shocked not to see it sold here soon."
Though aimed at the two-seat ForTwo, the iQ can seat three fairly comfortably. Autoblog explains, "the concept iQ features 3+1 seating with a very compact air conditioning unit that facilitates an asymmetrical dashboard. This allows the front passenger seat to slide forward so that one adult can fit in the back. The seat behind the driver, however, is strictly for the legless. One new innovation in the iQ is a rear window airbag that provides protection to rear seat passengers whose heads are butted up against the rear glass."
The car displayed in New York isn't exactly the Japanese market iQ. Edmunds Inside Line explains, "the concept was customized inside and out by Five Axis of Huntington Beach, California, a high-profile tuner." The car features more aggressive bodywork than the overseas version, in keeping with Scion's history of marketing to the young.
Inside, Autoblog notes, "The concept also features lots of special lighting and a pop-up 10-inch LCD embedded in the dash."
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