Toyota Urban Cruiser news - Cruisin', no bruisin' - 2008

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new front-runner in the 'most anodyne and inoffensive soft-roader ever' contest.

We thought the Renault Koleos - which we brought you earlier this week - would be tricky to top, but Toyota has gone ahead and shown us the first image of its baby SUV, the Urban Cruiser, which will be unveiled at the Geneva show next month.

Described as an 'urban all-road vehicle', it's a mini-SUV that will slot below the RAV4 in Toyota's line-up. Though details on the Urban Cruiser remain sketchy, it seems to share plenty with the ScionXD, but that front end is friendlier and more European than the aggressive US favourite.

Expect the Urban Cruiser to come in front-wheel- or four-wheel drive with a small petrol engine mated to a continuously variable transmission, and to spend as much time off-road as Steven Spielberg will spend at his local Chinese takeaway.

Toyota will also show off the production version of the tiny iQ in Geneva. We saw the three-metre city car in concept form back in Frankfurt last year, but this time we'll see exactly how the tiny 3+1-seater will look when it reaches our roads in early 2009.

Still rather like the illegitimate offspring of an Imperial Stormtrooper and a well-sucked Polo mint, by the looks of things.