photo courtesy of Toyota / Scion Pressroom

Toyota’s Scion brand announced this week that the long awaited MicroCar they have promised us is finally dropping in October! We at MicroCarMag.com are thrilled – We had the chance to scope this interesting piece of automotive art when it made its semi debut in San Francisco for fans of the brand. With a wheelbase of only 10 feet this iQ will compete with SMART and to be released TaTa Nano.

With one of the most interesting configuration the iQ sports a 3+1 seating arrangement that puts the front seat passenger in an offset forward position to allow for a full size adult to sit behind, the +1 means that a younger child or small adult could fit behind the driver.

Power for the iQ will come compliments of a 1.3 liter 4 cylinder VVT-i engine that will produce 94 hp and 89 ft lbs of torq. It’s one of the smaller engines that Toyota has put in one of its modern released vehicles, however you know that many of our project car sponsors will be chomping at the bit to modify the heck out of that little engine.

Not to stand too far apart from the rest of its Scion family – The iQ will have a standard 160 watt stereo with the ability to have a custom greeting screen, use your ipod and other mp3 devices.  For a little extra you can upgrade to a 200 watt system or one with a GPS.

The iQ will be available in seven exterior colors, including Blizzard Pearl, Classic Silver Metallic, Magnetic Gray Metallic, Black Sand Pearl, Hot Lava (personal favorite of MicroCarMag), Pacific Blue Metallic and Black Currant Metallic.

Starting at an MSRP of $15,265 plus delivery, processing and handling (DPH) fee for all Scion models is $730 and is not included in the MSRP. DPH fee for vehicles distributed by Southeast Toyota (SET) and Gulf States Toyota (GST) may vary.

As soon as we are able to get our hands on one we will have a behind the wheel report of this awesome little beast!

You will be able to check out either Microcarmag.com or CarReview.com and get up to date coverage of the SEMA show!

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Cabacungan - Photoshootmycar.com

This year at the 2010 SEMA Show a new player in the car building market will make its debut and MicroCarMag.com’s founder Thomas “Logan” Musante will be showing it off!  Thats right, he has done writing about the microcar industry and now he has started putting them together.

Founding the group LoganBuilt, Thomas Musante will bring to Las Vegas a black on black 2010 Nissan Cube SL that will include products from sponsors like FIVE:AD, Tokico, Tein, Forjworks, and Clazzio.

Look for the LoganBuilt Nissan Cube on display at the SEMA Show.

During the week of November 3^rd, MicroCarMag.com will provide the readers of CarReview.com with the most up-to-date coverage directly from the show floor.  Coverage will contain daily video wrap-up, high quality photos of the latest products and industry happenings.

“We are excited to provide CarReview.com with content from the SEMA show floor,” stated Thomas Musante, founder of MicroCarMag.com. “We welcome the opportunity to reach a wider audience through this partnership.”

CarReview.com is an online community of automobile enthusiasts who take pride in maintaining and upgrading their vehicles. Visitors of the site regularly research and purchase auto parts and accessories in addition to following the latest industry and automotive technology news. CarReview.com is the perfect resource for finding the right car or truck to buy for you. Plus, it lets enthusiasts share how to make their cars go faster, handle better, and look “good“.

MicroCarMag.com, founded in 2009, is your source to the microcar industry and can be found at Microcarmag.com and on twitter.com/microcarmag.

Check out our special landing site at MicroCarMag.com/SEMA during the show starting Nov 3rd – Nov 6th for coverage from the SEMA Show floor and our makeshift HQ!!!

Prior to Install:

The exhaust comes constructed of mandrel bent T-304 Stainless Steel tubing, a nice size canister and 4″ straight cut tip.  Also in the box are complete install instructions and rubber hanger mount.

The install:

I will admit, we tried to do the install for this awesome exhaust.  However, we found that the jack points did not provide enough room for us to get a decent jack stand under the car.  Enter the folks at Toyota 101 and the ability for them to do this swap really fast.  The great part about this exhaust is that it utilizes the stock clamp/gasket for a factory-like fit and easy installation.

Our review:

Prior to our install we were sporting the stock Toyota exhaust with the TRD tip, not really a set up that will make the car growl from the outside.  Now we already had the Weapon-R Short Ram Intake on our project car, so we were already growling at the engine.  With that said, I waited at the dealership for them to drive our xD to the customer pick up area and all you could hear was growl. So we at MicroCar Magazine thought it would only be right to put the exhaust to the paces, so we set out on a 1k adventure to San Diego and Extreme Autofest show.  On the road you can really tell how well Scion was able to block out the outside noise.  During normal around town driving our exhaust provided a nice rumble and low tone sound, when we got it to the freeway that was a different story.  As we moved thru the gears the exhaust really came to life and the xD powered ahead.  The best part to this exhaust is that we notice no power loss, and we got the nice growl that Toyota engines are known to have.

Overall this exhaust performed awesome.  Can not wait to see what other products come out for the xD.

Suggested MSRP: All our research found that the exhaust goes for just under $600.00 – However we did manage to find out friends at FastScions.com selling this exhaust for under $400.00 – DC-Sports Exhaust at FastScions.com .