At $4,999, Is Buying This 2012 Scion iQ The Smart Thing To Do?

Buying today's Nice Price or No Dice Scion is probably as close to owning an Aston Martin as any of us will ever get. That's because the iQ served as the basis for Aston's wonderfully weird Cygnet model. Let's find out what such a bougie association should rightfully cost.

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, the Elizabethan-era philosopher and high-government muckety-muck, famously posited that "Consistency is the foundation of virtue." Should that be true, we all should take pride in being as virtuous as they come. Actually, don't be too proud, as that's not particularly virtuous. Alas, I digress. 

The evidence for our collective virtue is gleaned from the mad run of "No Dice" votes that have come down the pike this past week and a half. At a $10,000 asking, Monday's 2015 Mini Cooper S broke that streak, earning the car a narrow but decisive 54% 'Nice Price' win once the votes were counted. That was also supported with praise for both the car and the price in the comments. Today, let's see if size still matters.

When it comes to small cars in the modern era, you don't get much dinkier than today's 2012 Scion iQ. With its sub-80-inch wheelbase and an overall length of just 120 inches, Toyota's tiny take on the commuter car makes the British Mini, with its luxurious 97-inch wheelbase and nearly two feet of added length, feel shamefully extravagant.

Those of you positing that the Smart ForTwo is of equally parsimonious scale should note that, while true, the Smart only offers two seats in its cabin, while Toyota, amazingly, managed to fit room for four clowns... er, passengers in the iQ. That was all made possible by clever engineering, including mounting the engine behind the final drive rather than ahead of it, placing the steering rack above the drivetrain rather than in front of it, and using a compact beam rear axle with dropped spring mounts to free up more rear space. While not overtly accommodating four for any length of time, the iQ offers reasonable room for two, with the rear two seats available in a (literal) pinch. 

Toyota sold its smallest car through its Scion subsidiary, a brand intended to sway younger car buyers with hip, happening models. That didn't pan out the way Toyota intended, but even though Scion is now a barely remembered blip in the automotive history books, this orphan car has a Daddy Warbucks-like benefactor in its parent company, so finding parts shouldn't be a problem.

And why would anyone want a car of such diminutive dimensions? Well, to be honest, not too many people did when the iQ was new. Priced comparable to many larger, more versatile cars (i.e., you could take them on the highway without permanently puckering your butt from fear), the iQ only made inroads into a small enclave of car buyers who wanted to give off the impression of parsimony and who had limited parking space. The iQ's main superpower is its ability to fit into the tiniest of parking spots. With its 10-foot overall length, it could conceivably fit three-wide in a traditional street space.

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There's a good bit of appeal right there. And for anyone with a modest commute and the desire to fit into the smallest gaps in traffic, the iQ might be a reasonable choice. This one, offered by a Nevada dealer, seems perfectly capable of such duties. The burgundy paint is more elegant than one might expect of such a small car, and the interior, while weirdly upholstered, seems clean and suitably kitted for reasonable comfort. There are also niceties such as working A/C with space-saving vertical controls and a modestly sized double-DIN full-screen stereo here.

Power for the iQ, if you can call it that, comes from a 1.3-liter naturally-aspirated inline-four. It produces 94 horsepower, which is doled out to the front wheels through a joy-sucking CVT automatic transaxle. Suffice to say, the iQ was intended for a singular purpose, and "fun" wasn't it.

On the plus side, the ad notes a good bit of work having been done on the car, or at least that's the seller's interpretation of the CarFax report. That, they say, details "preventive recent maintenance includes serpentine belt, fuel injection cleaning, spark plugs, air filter, brake pads, rear shocks, intake manifold, catalytic converter, oil changes, and more."

To be honest, that list feels overly long for any Toyota product. A couple of those items—the intake manifold and cat—seem suspiciously like oddball failures or perhaps misquotes from the Carfax, considering the car's fairly modest 111,000-mile history. Regardless, the car has a clean title, and, per the seller, "Starts-stops drives down the road as expected." No mention is made in the ad about the myriad tight places the iQ could conceivably be parked, which feels like a missed opportunity.

As noted, one of the iQ's downsides when new was that it was just as expensive as larger cars, and it didn't offer much in the way of fuel savings commensurate to its small stature. That meant sales suffered, and today, you just don't see many iQs (or Scions at all, if we're being truthful) out on the streets.

This one asks $4,999, which feels more in line with its size and appeal. Of course, that will be for you all to decide.

What's your take on this city Scion and that $4,999 asking price? Does that feel like a fair deal for the ability to squeeze into small spaces? Or is that still, by and large, too much for so dinky a car?

You decide!

Facebook Marketplace out of Las Vegas, Nevada, or go here if the ad disappears.

Hat tip to Don R. for the hookup!

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