For All the must-have items such as air-con, nine airbags and stability control are available at this level. The 67bhp 1.0-litre engine is sprightly and clean enough to be VED road tax-free.
Against Expensive to buy compared with more practical, four-seat rivals. The interior plastics are drab in places. The iQ can cope with motorway speeds – but it's no long-distance cruiser.
We have no doubt that this, the cheapest iQ, is the best model in the range. However, owners may still be left wishing they'd spent less on something more practical and with a higher-quality interior.
The Toyota iQ is cleverly packaged, using all sorts of tricks to try to fit four people in a car that’s less than three metres long.
Buyers tempted by the car’s image can choose between 1.0- and 1.33-litre petrol engines, but we’d stick with the 1.0-litre because it’s reasonably sprightly and exempt from road tax.
Both of the trims available with the 1.0-litre engine feature bags of kit – and go some way to explaining the high asking price. In our view, the cheapest provides all the must-have items such as air-conditioning, nine airbags and stability control, although some of the switchgear on this model looks rather cheap.
The list of options on the iQ includes part-leather seats and satellite-navigation, but these aren’t available on the entry-level car. The sat-nav system seems particularly expensive at almost 10% of the mid-spec iQ’s cost, but could help with resale values for a car that’s likely to spend its life in clogged-up cities.