Fire up the... Toyota IQ

TOYOTA'S tiny IQ isn't new but it's still top of the city car class thanks to a blend of zany styling and clever packaging.

Smart drivers definitely won’t need a high IQ to get the point of Toyota’s smallest model, which defies conventional car logic by squeezing four seats into a space where you'd normally struggle to get two. The IQ is similar to the Smart in so many ways and yet so much smarter where it matters, with a better Euro NCAP safety rating, cheeky styling straight out of a Pokémon cartoon, and surprisingly surefooted handling.

Admittedly it’s not going to give you hot-hatch style thrills if you venture out of its natural habitat of crowded town centres and onto the country lanes but it’s still fun to drive, mainly because it’s so easy to hustle through tight spaces and because of how its engine sounds.

Toyota say it has a 1.0 litre petrol engine but – sounding like an F1 car when you push it and eerily quiet when you don’t – this particular powerplant is one which will delight most drivers. It's just a shame then that the nannying dashboard reminders to change up and down through the gears are constantly pestering you, proving an annoying bit of gadgetry you don't need when you're trying to make progress.

Anyone who expects MPV levels of space is going to be disappointed, the boot is practically non-existent, and it’s not cheap in the way the Aygo, Toyota’s other baby offering, is.

But what it does do is answer age-old questions about how to fit four people into a very small amount of space very intelligently, and its styling is cool in a uniquely Japanese sort of way.

It’s not perfect but you can’t help loving it.

As published in The Champion on September 29, 2010