SCION AN UNFUSSY CHOICE
Toyota’s experimental hatch no rocket, but it offers value and practicality
Youths! The throbbing music, the improbable haircuts, the expensive tattoos, the need to look like a lumberjack who buys his clothes from Gap Kids; they are a strange, seemingly unfathomable breed, yet at heart their needs are relatively mundane. Thus, the all-new 2016 Scion iM should be destined for sales success.
Scion is Toyota’s youth-oriented brand, with a median buyer age of 37. As a parent of young children, lemme tell ya: mid-30s don’t feel so youthful.
Still, that’s considerably lower than the average age of new-car buyers, so perhaps Toyota’s onto something.
As an experiment, Scion is just doing OK. The rear-drive FR-S is genuinely sporty, and the tC coupe at least somewhat practical, but the rest of the lineup is more cheap than cheerful. With expected sales of 4,000-plus cars in its first year, the iM is expected to carry a lot of water for the brand. It arrives Sept. 1, with a starting price of $21,165.
First impressions are quite good. This is essentially the same car as the European Toyota Auris, and manages to pull off a sporty look without overdoing it. Consider the current Yaris and its Mexican-wrestler fright mask of a grille, and the iM actually looks pretty understated. As is typical with Scion products, this is a mono-spec car, meaning you pick your colour and transmission and that’s it; standard exterior trim runs to 17-inch alloy wheels, LED running lights, HID headlights, chrome exhaust finisher and a pseudo-aerodynamic package of side skirts. It pulls off the blue colour particularly well.
On the inside, interior design is now mid-pack, representing a huge leap forward from Scion’s previous plasticky cargo bins. Lots of contrast stitching and acres of piano-black trim liven things up. It isn’t upscale, exactly, but it does look perfectly acceptable, and the seat fabric, in particular, feels durable.
Compared to the Corolla, which shares this platform, the iM gets a double-wishbone rear suspension instead of a torsion beam, and loses rear seat space. The back seat is actually a bit cramped for adult passengers, and the trunk capacity of 588 litres is smaller than the Impreza hatch or the Elantra GT.
While a mono-spec trimline simplifies the buying process and keeps prices reasonable, it does have a few drawbacks. In the cockpit of a manual-transmission iM, for instance, you will find no fewer than five blank spots where buttons would be. You also don’t have the option of a sunroof, nor is a push-button starter available.
What you do get is a seven-inch touch screen with a high-res rear-view camera, a six-speaker audio system that’s actually quite impressive, and easy-to-use onboard infotainment. Navigation will be available at some point as a downloadable option, using the same head unit as on the standard car. Just below this are the simple air-conditioning controls, and below that is a very useful rubber-lined bin big enough for larger smartphones, complete with a USB port and a closing lid.
There’s a further smattering of niceties in the car, including leather-wrapped steering wheel, automatic headlights and power-folding side mirrors, but then some things, such as heated front seats, aren’t available. Dealer-installed options will eventually include some Toyota Racing Development (TRD) sport items, like lowering springs and exhaust. Listen up, youths: I wouldn’t bother with either.
Sporty though it may look, the iM is no rocket ship. Under the hood is the same 1.8-litre fourcylinder engine that powers the Corolla, making 137 horsepower at 6,100 rpm and 126 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm.
The result is some pretty leisurely acceleration, particularly when paired with the optional CVT transmission, here tuned for a bit more sporty feel.
The six-speed manual livens things up a bit, but come on, how many young people bother to learn to drive a manual transmission these days? Artisanal butter-churning, yes; moving a stick around in any other capacity, no.
The Corolla is similarly a slow-roller, but it has the advantage of being a very comfortable machine, particularly for backseat passengers. The iM’s sporttuned suspension can be quite busy over rutted city streets, although once out on some curving rural roads, it soaked up larger imperfections without too much difficulty.
In handling, the iM is surprisingly competent through corners; grip and composure here exceed the available thrust. It is not, however, a great deal of fun, with the usual numb feeling imparted by electric power steering and, again, modest power.
If you’re looking for a sporty hatchback, this isn’t exactly going to be your cup of locally sourced cold-pressed coffee. However, I’m not sure that really matters all that much.
If you look at sales of the reardrive FR-S versus its far tamer tC cousin, you’ll note that the frontdriver is nearly as popular as the hooligan machine. You can find examples of preference for the humdrum all through the history of the car, stretching all the way back to early Japanese cars. For instance, the Datsun 510 never outsold the homely fuel-saving B210.
Thus, the iM represents good competence and value, likely good resale and a generally unfussy ownership experience. It’s what you expect from a Toyota product, which prompts the question: would this not do better with a Toyota badge on the front?