New Iq2 Auto Experience

[Hicardo]

Hi folks,

Picked up my new Red IQ2 Auto on 5th December 2012.

My thoughts on the new arrival are summarised as follows:

1. Fun to drive. For some reason i find it more entertaining to drive than even some quite flashy metal I've owned in the past. Mine's the 1.0, and it suits the car absolutely fine

2. Turning on a sixpence is a great feature, especially in my driveway!

3. Have registered with Fuelly. First 2 fill ups yielded 49.9 / 45.4 mpg, so i think thats pretty good start, understanding from discussions here, that the engine will loosen and become more economical as time goes on.

4. The auto box suits the car really well. We already have a Prius, so used to the CVT, and a fan of it.

5. Car was delivered with some paint blemishes, about which i have complained to the dealer. They have taken it very seriously and are sorting it out for me in the new year. As i have been a Toyota customer for many years, it feels to me as if standards at dealers have gradually slipped. They're more interested in the hard sell, than customer service, these days. Sign of the times?

6. 2 weeks into ownership the front screen cracked. Ten inch crack! Happened going over a bump, which is slightly worrying, but dealer says its an impact break. Doesn't look like it to me, but i guess Autoglass will sort it out / one way or the other.

7. Find myself wanting to drive the IQ more than the Prius. Prius is lovely and comfortable etc etc, but it doesn't have the same fun factor, when there's just the two of us to transport.

8. I test drove a new 2010 / 2011 IQ way back (24 hours), and my new 2012 one has definitely been improved in a few areas. The most noticeable is that the suspension is less bouncy, so i think Mr T may have made some adjustments.

Thats it for now, if i come up with any other stuff, will post up.

Cheers!

[Dark Matter]

I agree it is fun to drive. More fun than many much more expensive cars I have owned.

Cost of ownership alone brings a smile. There are intangibles .... I am sat having coffee having parked in Bath , quite legally and securely in a very small space, for free ... all day. Others are struggling to get into car parks at £3 an hour. Last weekend I parked in another tiny space ... in Islington ..... free. If you are willing to spend 5 minutes looking you can usually find an ' iQ only 'size space !

[David Ke]

Lets start taking these cracking windscreens seriously. There is a major problem here,this has happened to me too,car parked overnight and huge horizontal crack across the window in the morning.The car never moved.

[Hicardo]

Ah.. didn't realise the cracked windscreen was a known IQ problem.

I literally went over a bump and heard a loud crack, and thought, that sounds like glass, but a quick scan around, and i could see nothing immediately amiss. Carried on, parked at the gym, worked out for an hour, then came out, and there was this large crack. The crack looks to have started under the drivers side wiper blade, and (viewed from the drivers seat) goes up vertically maybe 7 inches, then hooks around and goes horizontal to the left.

Took it to the dealer. The service guy (before even looking at the car) said it was 99% going to be a chip which had expanded. He looked and then sure enough pronounced this very same judgement. As i said before, i don't remember the screen being hit by a stone, and certainly when i went over the bump, there was no other traffic around at all to throw up a stone. The service guy said you could "feel" the chip, and i saw what he was talking about, the tiniest blemish under the wipers, but you couldn't see it at all. He said i could always claim that despite being hit by a stone, a screen shouldn't split like that.

My own thoughts are unchanged. I don't think my screen had a stone impact at all. It looks to me (albeit an untrained eye) like there was a weakness there which suddenly "went" as i hit an unexpected (but not huge) bump.

I guess there's no way of proving either way, and i'll end up forking out an insurance excess :-(

[Hicardo]

Well the paint on my IQ2 was sorted out...the dealer did a perfect job on it, and presented the car back to me as if it were new. So looks like the wrong has been righted.

Also they changed the cracked windscreen under warranty....which was a 50/50 decision I was told. Nevertheless I don't expect a windscreen to fracture horizontally by over 30cm (in the end) after a tiny stone chip impact. So I think there was a manufacturing issue with the screen.

Today I had the proper new car experience which was denied the first time. Having put 1000 miles on her now at an approx av 48mpg, and getting used to the quirkiness, i'm thoroughly enjoying owning an IQ. Hoping that by summer the mpg will be in the 50's. Early signs positive.

[chezwot]

The roads around where I live are appaling, when the road is dug up for repairs to water mains etc, it is then left for weeks before it is properly reinstated and tarmaced and even then the job is pretty awful., how motorcyclists manage to navigate the potholes and subsided excavations is beyond me. I would therefore expect that if there was a manufacturing fault in the windscreen, I would by now have also experienced a cracked windscreen, but after 20 odd thousand miles driving on the worst roads in Europe, it is still intact.

[Guest]

The roads around where I live are appaling, when the road is dug up for repairs to water mains etc, it is then left for weeks before it is properly reinstated and tarmaced and even then the job is pretty awful., how motorcyclists manage to navigate the potholes and subsided excavations is beyond me. I would therefore expect that if there was a manufacturing fault in the windscreen, I would by now have also experienced a cracked windscreen, but after 20 odd thousand miles driving on the worst roads in Europe, it is still intact.

Chez, I agree. I have two stone chips on my screen, one where our Tax disc is stuck to the screen -bottom left corner- and the other above the drivers line of sight. Our roads in rural Shropshire aren't exactly great, and the biggest annoyance I find when out on the road is the poor roadside maintenance. The drains at the side of the road always seem to be much lower than the tarmac around them, creating a large dip in the level of the roadside (on the left for us) and as a consequence of these road workers not raising the level of the drains to suit the new tarmac they have laid, you get a dip. So driving along on some areas is fine as the drains are level with the tarmac, then you get to parts where it isn't, it's like driving your car over an unpaved road, like a muddy potholed farm track. It reminds me of seeing -years ago, repeats of course- the old black and white short movies, with Laurel and Hardy in, or the Keystone Cops, where one side of the wheel/vehicle is out of shape and it is going up and down on that side. In such a small car as our iQ's, you can't do anything but lump it (deal with it) when on such a road. But we pay for a hefty fuel and road tax in this country (not the road tax at the moment anyway) and we expect the roads to be up to standard, but as long as the thieving Government use that money to spend on other things, like anything BUT roads, we become extremely frustrated having to pay for screens or repairs on them because of the state of our roads. Bills to Cameron at Number 10 I say, get them in the post.

[Hicardo]

Good to hear the IQ can normally take a few screen chips without further problems! Maybe mine was a Friday afternoon windscreen. Well hopefully that doesn't extend to the rest of the car!!

[Hicardo]

So after 3 months behind the wheel of the IQ, a few observations:

1. Engine seems to take a long time to warm up. Our local village is 2 miles away, and this accounts for quite a lot of journeys. Often the car has only just put the cold engine light out as i get there. Suspect its still not very warmed at that point. Then i leave the car for an hour say, and drive on after another almost cold start. As the engine is such a tiddler, it seems to lose its heat easily. There's no way around this short journey frequency, but it clearly has a negative effect on overall mpg, although i'll certainly see an improvement come the summer. I'm currently at av 48mpg.

2. Grin inducing turning circle. Amazingly manoeuvrable.

3. Interior light is frustratingly dim. Form over substance design.

4. Comfortable front seats

5. Don't find the fuel gauge a problem at all. Might be a bit illogical, but its consistent in its behaviour. However, when the low fuel block blinks, there's still at least 8-10 litres in the tank from what i can tell. Nevertheless, that provides a degree of comfort, and although i haven't tried it, i can see that you can conservatively rely on 50 miles to find some fuel. Works for me. I wish you could manually zero the consumption average.

6. Sound system is pretty good once you've tweaked the tone and fade a bit to taste. I'm not a fan of the steering wheel multi-way control - find it neat but frustrating to use, and it would be nice if the passenger could take care of music on occasions. But sound quality is perfectly acceptable.

7. Love the auto CVT gearbox. Makes the iQ feel very refined, and super relaxing to drive.

8. Would like a bit more power, but find it fun trying to get the best out of the 1.0. I find that cruising, you can pick up torque at quite low revs on the CVT, and make pretty good low rev progress. If you give it some beans, it does go pretty well, so long as you're not trying to accelerate up hill!! :P

9. Not even turned on the a/c yet!

Despite a few odd quirks, i think the IQ is a really fantastic design, and great fun to drive

[FROSTYBALLS]

Think it is advisable to use the air con at least once a month to ensure the seals are lubricated, etc. Using the air con can also provide faster demisting.

[Dark Matter]

Since I got my iQ last August I haven't switched the air con (climate control) off. Not once. Whatever the ambient conditions the cabin stays perfectly comfortable and the windows mist free even under the most wet and cold conditions.

[craggle]

I did a modification on my interior light to take out the single LED and replaced it with a cluster of 20 odd LED's. It's a hell of a lot brighter now and it was very easy to do.

I put details on my thread here...

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=134890&st=20

If you would like to do this mod or take a look at mine first you may not be far from me. I live a few miles South of Horsham, West Sussex.

Craig.

[Hicardo]

Craig...read your thread..very interesting. You made some nice mods. I'm in E Sussex near Mayfield. Despite shortcomings, I'd like to keep mine totally standard....at least for a few years. Interested in the Eibachs...how is the ride and handling compared to standard?

[craggle]

Hi Rich

Eibach springs are really good so far. I don't think the ride has deteriorated at all but handling has got better. I know it's no sport car and I don't drive it as such but I think it's more stable on corners, bumpy roads and at speed on dual carriageways.

I haven't had any issues yet with ground clearance or speed bumps either. It's only 25mm lower anyway so not a huge drop but it does make the car appear different. Overall, very pleased with them and easy to fit yourself if you have a few tools and jacks.

Craig.

[Guest]

Just for your information Rich. With regard to your points about your iQ, point 1 in particular, I made a note of how long it took for the little light to go out to say the car has warmed up the other day. Outside, it was about 5'C, I did 1.1 miles and then the light went out. I was also using the normal fan -as opposed to air-conditioning- with the temp all the way around to the stop on the red part of the temperature selection. We have a 59 reg, iQ1, 1.0 manual, with manual setting of the air-con, heater controls. I wasn't thrashing it to get it warm either, I had my Eco-boots on, light foot on the pedal. The car average is showing close to 60mpg most of the time, but for some reason, maybe as it was only a 3 mile (6 round trip) journey it dropped to 57. somthing. Still good though I think.

[Hicardo]

Hi Bob...thanks for the response. Maybe the auto box on mine effectively warms the engine slower, as my engine cool light at the same temp will take 2 miles ish to go out. I wonder what the most economical way of warming the engine is? My 2 mile example is down a steepish hill for a mile then up the other side to our local village...total 2.2 miles or so. Wonder if putting it in B going down the hill will raise the revs and warm it up faster? If foot is off throttle when hot, that would I think use no fuel, but not sure about that when using cold start warm up program.