Junkyard Find: 2013 Scion IQ
When I write about interesting cars I run across while making my junkyard rounds, I try to choose lead photos that give the subjects a bit of dignity in their final days. This isn't possible with an IQ, so I've chosen a photo that emphasizes how tiny it is next to a fourth-gen Honda Odyssey.
This publication covered the IQ tale from start to finish, including the moment at which everyone realized it would be a Scion instead of a Toyota here, a pre-production review, a Vellum Venom piece, a couple of reviews, and a Used Car of the Day article.
The IQ was sold in the United States for the 2011 through 2015 model years, and its sales numbers never came close to those of its European rival, the smart fortwo/ forfour (when I'm the All-Powerful Intergalactic Warlord of the Cosmos, I will make vehicle names using all-lower-case, all-upper-case and/or punctuation marks illegal).
That's kind of a shame, because the IQ offered more interior space than the ₛₘₐᵣₜ thanks to a front-engined design and great engineering that shaved precious millimeters in places DaimlerChrysler didn't bother with.
This is the first IQ I've ever found in a car graveyard. I think most American IQ owners these days are hanging onto their cars as long as possible.
The Scion brand confused everybody and Toyota finally killed it in 2016, but would this car have done better here with Toyota badges? Tiny-car-seeking Americans who would rather brag about European design (beautiful!) than Toyota manufacturing competence (boring!) in their vehicle-buying decisions were going for the fortwo no matter what, but maybe browsers in Toyota showrooms would have been put off by seeing the Prius's superior fuel-economy figures right next to those of the IQ.
Toyota built some electric Scion IQs (all for fleet and demonstration use), but any IQ you might see on the street today is almost certainly powered by the 1.3-liter 1NR-FE engine, rated at 94 horsepower.
There were manual transmissions available in the IQ in Japan and Europe, but the US-market version got a mandatory CVT.
This car is heavier and much more powerful than the first-generation Honda Civic, though it's more than two feet shorter than that car. It was too wide and too powerful to meet Japanese-market kei requirements, but Toyota offered the (Daihatsu-built) Pixis for that.
The white Apple sticker from the "I'm a Mac" era might as well have been factory equipment on the US-market fortwo, and this car has one as well.
But then the other side of the hatch glass has a logo you might not expect to see on car like this.
There's also this.
Why is it here? It's not crashed, so I'd guess that the IQ-only CVT transaxle gave out and repair/replacement cost too much.
If you're looking for rare IQ parts, head over to the Denver U-Pull-&-Pay before they crush it. This car is located within a few rows of a 1942 Plymouth De Luxe Town Sedan, by the way.
The JDM version had nine airbags, one for each member of your security detail.
You'd get disapproving glares from JDM grannies if you parked like this in your Toyota IQ, but durifuto-loving youngsters would approve.
In theory, four people could fit in the IQ. But Scion also made that claim about the FR-S (the back seat of which had insufficient room for my 12-year-old niece when I reviewed it, and she was a skinny 4' 8" at the time).
The IQ sold better in Europe than in North America, but it never did beat the smart fortwo/forfour in the showrooms. Sadly, the badge-engineered Aston Martin Cygnet was a flop.
I'm just impressed that Cygnet commercials were even made.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
2013 Scion IQ in Colorado wrecking yard.
[Images: The author]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
Day late and a dollar short. By the time this came out the short lived fad of these (smart car) things was already over. I assume the 6 or 7 people that bought these ones only did so because of parking constraints or blind thoughts that it got better gas mileage because it was smaller than a corolla (they were probably the same). Or, they were fire sale priced.
The introduction of the Fiat 500 accelerated the demise of the IQ. For the same amount of money, you could get a 4 cylinder (normal or turbo) and a 5 speed manual which was more fun to drive. 🚗🚗🚗