Video: 2012 Scion iQ

Now Scion calls this a micro subcompact. You might compare it to a mini cooper or a smart fortwo. It's actually about as wide as a mini cooper but taller. About as tall as a smart fortwo. It splits the difference in length from bumper to bumper. Kind of in between. Scion says it'll have a turning circle of about 26 feet. All right, small on the outside doesn't necessarily mean small on the inside. I've got tons of headroom even though I'm six feet tall. Leg room's pretty good. Actually, probably getting it you back a little bit farther than I want to. The interior, I like a lot. Now you look at some of the small cars the mini cooper the smart fortwo I don't know. They got kind of crazy styling. The materials are questionable. I really like the materials in this one. The center stack. Very nice. Now the drive train will be a 1.3 liter four cylinder engine and a CVT continuously variable transmission. Scion says the mileage will be in the high thirties. Not bad. Just like most Scions You get some good standard features. You've got your audio controls right here. Pretty well equipped. Quality, again quite good. Now the interesting thing about the seating they call it three plus one basically the passenger side front here it actually sits farther forward. There's more room here. The driver sits a little bit farther back. So as a result you can put a full sized person behind the passenger or so they say. So here I am. Full-sized passenger. And again, headroom works. Leg room as usual. It depends on how much the passenger in front is willing to give me. Back here They say there is a seatbelt. You can put a child in there. Obviously not someone who's much bigger than that. Now in terms of cargo lift the lift gate there's practically none obviously. You can see with the backseat right here why this is the first car to have a rear window curtain airbag. There's also nine other airbags. There's actually one in the under the driver's seat. It's not clear what it does, but they say it protects you. So if you want space and you don't have people in the back you can fold both seats down and Scion says you can put two golf bags in there. So our prediction is when the IQ comes it will be quite successful. It has the small size you need. It has four seats three and a half when you need them but more cargo space and you'll get something like the smart fortwo. A car we're not particularly fond of. Generally speaking, we can't wait until it comes. The beginning of 2011. <v Narrator>For more car related news go to cars.com or our blog kickingtires.net.