Great things come in small packages. iQ wins Japanese Car of the Year

Great things come in small packages. iQ wins Japanese Car of the Year

Filed under: Economy, Green, Japan, Toyota

Click above for a high-res gallery of the production Toyota iQ

Any guesses on what car Japanese jurors might pick as their Car of the Year? Guess again; and again. That's right, the Nissan GT-R only managed to snag enough votes to garner a bronze finish in Japanese COTY voting. Wondering what epically amazing machinery bested the mighty Godzilla? That would be the miniscule Toyota iQ. Once again, it is clear just how far the priorities for transportation have changed. Supercar levels of acceleration, on-board supercomputers and remarkable handling prowess just aren't enough to woo the top pick from judges in Japan. Not only was the iQ the top overall choice in a landslide victory, the Citroën C5 managed to garner enough votes to steal second place from the mighty GT-R.

Don't get us wrong, the Toyota with the funny name is a vehicle deserving of all the recognition it gets. A packaging miracle, the smarty-pants iQ manages to cram four real human beings inside a footprint that's pretty darn close to that of the smart fortwo, a car that seats just two people including the driver. These days, exceptional fuel economy, low emissions and intelligent packaging are apparently the way to a Japanese heart, and likely many from the rest of the world, as well. What do you think? Is the Toyota iQ the, ahem... smart person's COTY?

Gallery: 2009 Toyota iQ



[Source: Inside Line]Great things come in small packages. iQ wins Japanese Car of the Year originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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Now bring it over to the US...

WHY?

So Toyota can charge 15k for it and stuff a larger engine in it?

Yea seriously. Toyota has gotten to be an expensive brand. If the IQ was comptitvley priced at around 11 12 grand NORMALLY EQQUIPED. It would beat out many used car sales as well as the sub compact genre. But the floor mats will ultimately bump the car to 15 grand. I dont get why ppl buy a yaris well equipped when they could have a bought a better deal with a CE corolla.

What I meant is to bring it over as it is. In America, bigger is better apparently. I can't stand it anymore. Prices are a separate issue altogether. I'm just talking about the compact design and carbon footprint.

EXACTLY. People demanding nothing but big behemoth monsters with bigger, more powerful V8 engines and making the cars, trucks, and SUV's heavier and heavier. That's why the "big 3" US automakers are facing bankruptcy!

/rant about bailout crap

Exactly, they made the most fuel inefficient vehicles (Hummers), and now they want us to bail them out. :wallbash:

It's too late for the big three to catch up with Toyota, Honda, etc with fuel efficient cars. They're just going to bleed slowly until they completely go belly up. Not using American labor is another downfall.

Biggest cause for downfall (besides stupid manufacturing choices) is one word: UNION.

I can't believe I forgot about unions. Never mind then.

if you are that worried about the carbon footprint, sell your car, and plant some trees with the money. dont think just because you buy a car that is SULEV you are saving the environment. you are forgetting about the production of that car...a nasty pollute the environment procedure.

EXACTLY. And if you own a plasma TV, shame on you. Nitrogen trifluoride is produced in the manufacture of them, and it's found to be at least 300x more effective at trapping heat than CO2.

Wait wait wait... So what is the new corolla now?

@ topic: IMO they should do their research about bringing it here... I am starting to see more of those 2 seater things around town...