By Edward Niedermeyer
October 20, 2008
From the moment it announced it gray-matter-celebrating name, it was pretty obvious that Toyota was developing its iQ city with one eye fixed firmly on the Smart playbook. So it comes as no surprise to hear that ToMoCo will leverage its “small-but-premium” city car platform with a small roadster version, set to debut at the next Tokyo auto show. Auto Motor und Sport hired veteran Swiss illustrator Mark Stehrenberger to speculate on the iQ Spider’s styling, coming up with a design they say follows in the footsteps of the Suzuki Cappucino and Daihatsu {Cuore} Copen. With only 1.0 and 1.3 liter gas and diesel engines on offer, don’t expect the iQ Spider to offer much more performance than the Smart Roadster or the previously-mentioned Kei-class ragtops. The standard iQ’s generous safety equipment should be found in the Spider as well, which will boast ESP, ABS and more airbags than a Senate quorum. There’s no saying when the Spider should arrive on the market (likely sold as a Scion), but it will be interesting to see if this fares better than the ill-fated Smart Roadster.
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POWERED
October 20th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
They could even BUY the design of the original Smart Roadster, as Mercedes canned it in 2005 after only two years and some 43 000 cars.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
The Suzuki Cappucino is a brilliant car. A few older ones trickling into Canada. I’d love to see Toyota bring one here – would do wonders for their image and provide me a nice option for a commuter/auto-x car.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
If has kei dimensions it will be big in Japan (they can throw in the Daihatsu 659cc turbo to make it fully kei compliant), big enough to support limited sales in Europe and the US. In Europe and Japan it will cannibalize the hell out of subsidiary Daihatsu’s Copen (GM 2.0).
The MX-5 is cheap, relatively powerful, and right wheel drive, and used Miatas and MR2 Spyders are really cheap, so this will be a tough sell in the US except for some urban cutesy buyers.
Dave: I can’t believe you lucky bastards get all the sweet rwd kei cars (Suzuki Cappuccino, Honda Beat, Mazda Autozam AZ-1). At least in the US we don’t have to live in igloos :)
October 20th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
What’s missing here is that am&s speculates that the iQ’s drivetrain could/would easily be relocated to the rear, creating a mid-engine platform for a roadster/coupe.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
If it has a Diesel, I’d buy one.
As for expectations of performance, who the hell cares? If it can return 40-60 MPG, have a drop-top, and costs very little, it will sell like hotcakes. Trimuph & MG sold a LOT of cars just like this, with mid-double-digit HP numbers and more fun than you could possibly imagine. Well, that is before they were “Leylanded” into oblivion.
I need to commute, not drag race, to work. I’d love to have the option of doing so in a nice little two-seater with something that will burn homebrew fuel. Whomever brings that to market first gets my money.
–chuck
October 20th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I wouldn’t call the MX-5 cheap. It starts at 22.5k, and if you want the 6speed it’s 24.5. I’d like to have an MX-5, but I decided that a Mazda 3 and $7,500 sounded better. I think this is supposed to be closer to 15k.
I’d go for the regular IQ, but if they’re only offering a 1.3 liter tops, I may not be interested. Hopefully if it comes over as a Scion they can shove the Yaris 1.5 in there.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I sort of want a honda beat. I wish we could import older kei cars like those damn canadians.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Paul Niedermeyer:
That is a very important detail. If Toyota comes over with a mid-engine roadster they would have much better chances of competing against the MX-5.
Demetri: Yeah, for what it is the MX-5 is amazingly cheap.
Who said this would cost $15K? The regular iQ has been projected to cost around $14-15K. A limited production roadster version would easily run in the low $20s – MX-5 territory – at which point it really doesn’t stand a chance unless it’s mid-engined.
Especially since I see current generation low mileage used MX-5s selling for ~$15K all the time.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I’m thinking Suzuki Swift/Geo Metro convertible.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
They already make this: it’s called the Daihatsu Copen.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
That is a very important detail. If Toyota comes over with a mid-engine roadster they would have much better chances of competing against the MX-5.
Hey, great idea! They could have a mid-engine, rear-drive, two-seat sports car. They could even name it thusly, something like a concatenation of Mid, Rear and Two. It’d sell like hotcakes!
Oh, wait..
October 21st, 2008 at 1:17 am
Toyota? Roadster? Fun?
Pffft…next thing you’ll be telling me Chyrslerberus is trying to get GM into bed!
Oh, right…
October 21st, 2008 at 6:07 am
@psarhjinian
They already make this: it’s called the Daihatsu Copen.
The Copen is FWD, so would this be if it was iQ-based. The Smart Roadster is RWD, and
one of the best handling carsthe best handling car I have ever driven in my life.