Small cars are finally getting the royal treatment. With gas prices rising, being more eco-conscious is chic. Small cars are becoming desirable and automakers are finally putting some polish into them.
Two new microcars are hotly anticipated in the United States for 2011. They are the Fiat 500 and the Scion iQ. I won’t go into all the specs for either car as there are many reviews online that cover them in detail. What I want to do today is go on the record with my predictions for their sales. In short, I think the Fiat 500 will go supernova (that is to say it’ll have hot initial sales with a fast cool down period) while the Scion iQ will not only find a nice niche but be a “must have” car for many years.
In my opinion, the only critical difference here is the design. On paper, these cars are so similar, that they should really just split their target markets right in half. However, the subjective parts of these cars will make all the difference.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen a lots of little cars including the PT Cruiser, Chevrolet HHR, the new Beetle, and the Mini Cooper hit the market with varying degrees of success. Adding style to an affordable car can generate nice sales since the lowest end of the market always has the most potential consumers. Some of these cars have had better longevity than others (like the Mini Cooper and the Beetle), but they all did pretty well right out of the gate. The thing that they all shared was retro or “heritage” styling. Aside from the Mini Cooper, all of the designs that these cars were based on were fairly successful in their own right back in there day. Since the Mini Cooper didn’t have as much nostalgic credit with buyers, the Mini had to come to the market and stand on its own. And it did. The Mini’s original design stayed true to the original but still looked balanced, sculpted, modern and most importantly - attractive.
The Fiat 500 has heritage too. In the 1950s, the 500 was a European hit, but it was never intended for American markets. Now, I’ll admit that the Fiat does show that typical Italian style. The car looks artfully crafted with tastefully chrome accepts, and the detailed creases in the sheetmetal remind me of the Vespa scooters. However, and I’m sure many will disagree with me, I think the car overall looks ugly. Yes, I can see the resemblance to the original, and I understand the need to tie the lineage together, but I think that the execution looks like it was a slave to the original design instead of being inspired by it. The slant back looks like an afterthought and doesn’t properly unify with the wheels or wheel arches in the back. The front end looks like a cartoon face or a character on Thomas and the Magic Railroad. To some people, the fact that this car is not manly or brutish will be what makes it charming. They’ll buy it for that carefree, European, 1950s image. I can envision a lot of women driving this car.
Personally, I would make some design changes. I would’ve liked the hood shut line to create an upper eyebrow for the headlights. I would’ve put a sharp crease around the wheel arches make some of the large swatches of flat sheetmetal. I also would’ve made the front grill opening higher and larger and tilted the front fascia forward to lean into the wind a bit. I wouldn’t buy this car in its current state though, rally version or not.
For me, the Fiat 500 falls down where the Mini Cooper found success. The Mini looked solid and the design looked deliberate from the front to the rear. With some running lights and aggressive decals, it looked like a race car and actually had some street cred. For people with a $20,000 budget and a personality, the Mini Cooper was a no-brainer alternative to the Honda Civics. I have no doubt initial sales of the Fiat 500 will be brisk. Everything unique and affordable finds a quick buyer, and Americans have been in a drought for a while when it comes to creative cars. I don’t think the Fiat 500 will find the same types of success that it finds in Europe though where buyers fondly recall the original. For Europeans, the Fiat is capitalizing on the youthful memories. Here, it’ll have to rely solely on its merits which are otherwise pretty thing.
By now you’re thinking, “so how the hell can you think the Scion iQ will do any better?” Well, I think the iQ hit a homerun in some philosophical departments first. Similar in style to theSmart ForTwo, Toyota understood the “if it’s small, embrace it” philosophy, and didn’t try and make the iQ look bigger than it really is. It’s upright and looks even a little top-heavy like the ForTwo and has a distinct “form follows function” style. Obviously, the iQ doesn’t have a heritage like the 500 or the Mini Cooper with an existing fanbase. But, I think that the ForTwo blazed a lot of trails for this car already by priming the American consumer that these small urban cars have personality. I think that most people will see a lot of the ForTwo in the iQ design and that’s a lot of familiarity that Toyota doesn’t have to reinvent.
In addition, the iQ appears to have addressed the ForTwo’s deficiencies. I think the ForTwo would’ve been a huge success if it had felt a bit more solid on the freeway, had a more durable transmission, and was cheaper. The iQ seems to make strides in all of these categories and grows a bit in size as a result. However, the basic exterior design looks like a solid car. There is subtle sculpting in the bodywork around the wheels giving the iQ a very planted look by creating the illusion of car mounted onto a much wider platform. The front fascia is cute, and although it’s not as aggressive as the original concept car, it’s still clearly more gender neutral than the Fiat. Even the modest body kit concepts that I’ve seen online significantly improve its aggressive factor. Modest changes to the iQ seem to yield far more drastic personality changes than the full-on rally edition of the Fiat. Not only am I willing to drive the iQ, I actually want to buy this car. I think others will too. Specifically, I think that this car will entice the much younger buyers that Scion has already been targeting, but also the iPad-wielding thirty-somethings that need a daily driver with modern style.
I think more people are realizing that they can live with a smaller car on a day-to-day basis, and that bodes well for any automakers that are willing to invest premium materials and creative design into smaller packages. It also means that the competition is getting more fierce and ugly cars won’t be tolerated anymore. I even think the Fiat 500 is a giant leap forward from the previous options like theChevrolet Aveo or the Dodge Caliber, but I just think the upcoming competition is a step ahead of the Fiat. There is no doubt in my mind that the 500 and the iQ are certainly helping to raise the standard. But between them, I think we’ll see that the iQ did more things right and will ultimately have the legs to lead the small car race.
Why The Fiat 500 Will Bomb And The Scion iQ Will Rock
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