Getting mixed messages: Our iQ's impressing in many areas, but disappointing in others

摘要

A FEW MONTHS before the Toyota iQ was launched, I said the car would sink or swim on its ability to be the vehicular equivalent of the iPhone. The idea was that iQ drivers needed a car that did everything for them except change speed and direction. In many ways that vision for the future of city motoring has been borne out through experience. A CVT gearbox that really only allows for D, R and P, with a token N thrown in for good measure, makes thinking about gears a thing of the past. The air-con has that intangible quality of the best executive saloons: you set it on a temperature when you get in the car for the first time and that's it. You don't spend your hours tweaking it up and down a half degree to compensate for a particularly warm gust of wind or strong sunlight.