Tiny Cars With Pretentious Names

There it is, posing by the Seine on the Quai de la Tournelle early on a Paris Sunday morning.  It's a 2009 Toyota iQ.

A what?!?

Well, the name strikes me as being utterly unimaginative.  That's because it was intended to compete with Daimler-Benz's Smart Fortwo.  And the name "Smart" also strikes me as being condescending.  That is, you are a half-brain-dead idiot if you fail to discern the wonderfulness of this tiny example of fatal-collision bait.  (Yes, I know Smarts were given crash tests, but I'd hate to be in one getting smashed by a camion at 130 kph on an Autoroute.)

Anyway.  Given that the Smart brand had been around since 1998, one might think that, ten years later when the iQ was introduced, Toyota marketing management would have come up with a non-aping, more creative model name.  As it stands, iQs are no longer on the new car market, production having ended March 2016.

Smarts continue in production, but have never sold well in the United States.  Their natural habitat is a large city such as Paris where street parking is hard to find for standard cars, but occasional small spots might be found that would accommodate tiny cars.

This post presents the second Smart version, produced 2007-2014, as compared to the iQ that was produced 2008-2016.  Due to their very small size, there was little for stylist to work with when designing them.

Gallery

Stylists on the Smart Fortwo project included side sculpting and headlight assemblies patterned after what is found on standard cars.

Due to its minimal length, all that décor yields little more that busyness and clutter.

I'm not sure that the rising character line should rise.  A horizontal line might make the car seem a bit less stubby.

The Fortwo, as the name implies, seats only the driver and one passenger.  But in 2004-2006 Smart also made a Forfour with four doors and, in theory, room for four people.  A Renault-based Forfour re-emerged in 2014.  Above is a 2004 version.

Now for the iQ.  It was designed to accommodate a driver and two or three others -- its small back seat was fit for an adult sitting crosswise or for two small children.  In terms of carrying capacity it's between the Smart Fortwo and Forfour, though it was basically competitive with the Fortwo.

Unlike the Smart, iQ's styling is largely decoration-free.

This rear 3/4 view of a black iQ shows the effort put into sculpting instead of visual jazz.  Its front end seems awkward, but what we see here is more pleasing.

The Cluttered Toyota C-HR

The Toyota C-HR is a small vehicle suffering from over-decoration: yet another Styling Crime.  Previous similar examples I've written about include the Nissan Juke and the BMW i3.

A brief Wikipedia entry on the C-HR dealing with its international production status is here.   And a not-very-favorable reaction by Motor Trend magazine is here, in which it is noted that "C-HR stands for 'Coupe-High Rider,' and it’s neither."

Let's consider its styling.  Generally speaking, it is one more example of Toyota over-reacting against criticism of its cars' styling being too bland.  The result is a confusing mess.

Gallery

I have to admire the Toyota engineers responsible for the body stampings.  Note the door cut lines and how they cross the various bulges and creases while not interfering with the shapes of same.  The Motor Trend article linked above criticized the small windows on the rear doors, mentioning that they made it difficult for back-seat passengers -- especially children -- to see out.Try imagining the C-HR without all the visual jazz but with the same windows.  The underlying shape would have too much of a flat, empty surface aft of the center door cut -- the only cure being enlargement of the windows.  Yet the small windows have the "advantage" of reducing the car's weight and thereby enhancing fuel economy.

The side bulges that mimic separate fenders are linked by an Art-Nouveau curved bulge and a plastic protection panel lower down.  I suspect the design might have been improved if the separate fender scheme had been altered to eliminate the swoopy connection zone.

Given that the C-HR is a hatchback, it is interesting to observe the upper part of its cut line as it crosses over the top by the aerodynamic lip over the back window.  The upper curve of the side window line continues towards the rear of the car in a nice way.  I would have considered extending the rear side windows farther aft to coordinate more with the upper edge of the back window, styling cliché that it might be -- though perhaps Toyota stylists chose to avoid that.

The front is similar to other Toyotas, therefore providing some useful brand identity.  Its theme is better integrated than that of the rest of the car, though the effect strikes me as being slightly too heavy-looking.