The future has arrived and it’s come in a pocket-size urban runabout designed for utility, not speed. The 2012 Scion iQ measures barely 10 feet long, can spin around in a turning circle about the size of two king-size mattresses and gets 37 mpg on the EPA combined cycle. Toyota reckons that this makes the Scion iQ the perfect expression of personal mobility as urban living becomes more popular among a younger generation in search of jobs and affordable housing.

Though it looks like a grown-up Smart Fortwo, the Scion iQ actually performs like a downsize Toyota Corolla. It’s usefully calm and composed, keeps pace with freeway traffic with confident stability and churns through city errands without protest. The combination of a 94-horsepower engine and a continuously variable transmission (CVT) gives it a kind of untroublesome performance that we might otherwise associate with an electric vehicle.