For The Toyota iQ looks funky, fits in tight parking spots and is nimble in town. It’s well equipped, cheap to run, and emissions are low, too.
Against You have to choose between rear passengers or boot space and it’s not cheap for its size. The interior plastics are rather dour and it struggles a bit on faster roads.
The Toyota iQ is a great city car, but it’s compromised and rather pricey.
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.
Sold on the quirkyness of this car, the equipment level and the quality feel compared to other much cheaper city cars. But after driving it for a…