Everything Reduced on Scion iQ Except Price

When thinking about the all-new iQ microcar's origins, imagine engineers at Scion and parent company Toyota Motor Corp. grabbing a shrink ray and going to work downsizing a normal-size hatchback. They shrank the engine; they shrank the cargo space; they shrank the overall footprint.

Then the ray disappeared, and they were never able to shrink the price.

The result is a tiny get-about that surprises you with it charm and livability but also with a sticker price of more than $20,000 for the loaded version I tested.

The iQ is officially known as a micro-subcompact. It's aimed at urban buyers who need little more than a pair of seats and a dollop of cargo room. It's been puttering along in Europe and Japan for a couple of years under the Toyota brand.

The car measures in at a tidy 10 feet long. That may not seem micro until you consider that a Toyota Camry is almost 6 feet longer. The beleaguered Smart Fortwo, the only other high-profile car in this class to sell in the U.S., is about a foot shorter.

Yet the iQ succeeds in almost every way the Smart Fortwo fails. Driving this Scion on the freeway at full speed reveals none of the inherent drama or feeling that you're strapped to the front of a cannonball that plagues the Smart.

The car is stable and well planted, and only when you step firmly on the brakes at high speed (they're disc brakes in the front, drum brakes in the rear) does the car become a little unsettled.

The cabin relies heavily on hard plastics, but their textures and finishes vary to avoid looking drab or cheap. A large radio or navigation screen sits in the center of the dashboard. Below, three simple knobs for the heating and cooling descend vertically.

The two front seats offer plenty of comfort and space for a pair of adults to ride in without feeling like they're violating each other's personal space.

Another feature not mentioned on the window sticker is how the iQ's size and a turning radius of a shopping cart mean an entire world of previously impossible parking spaces is available to you. It's hard to put a price on that.

But Scion manages to put a price on nearly everything else on the iQ, it seems. The above features are respectable for the base model of a car in this segment, especially since Consumer Reports recently rated Scion as the most reliable car brand on the market. But when the iQ hits dealerships at the beginning of December, it will start at $15,995.

Bigger cars such as the Hyundai Accent, Honda Fit, Chevrolet Sonic and Toyota's own Yaris have lower starting prices, even with optional automatic transmissions.

You would think that if you're buying a washing machine on wheels, you'd be rewarded with an equally diminutive price tag. You're not.

Anyone have a shrink ray Scion can borrow?