SAN FRANCISCO — This eye-pleasing city has plenty of popular tourist sites as well as a less famous but equally beguiling attraction, the 49 Mile Scenic Drive. This meandering route ties together many well-known landmarks — including Coit Tower, Fisherman’s Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge — while also venturing into areas seldom featured in travel guides.

I’d been meaning to take the drive for nearly as long as I’ve lived here — some 20 years — but until recently I never got around to it. Procrastination was a factor, but it was also a matter of waiting for the right opportunity. Such an occasion finally presented itself a few weeks ago in the form of a test car: an urban-oriented subcompact that could, in theory, complete the 49-mile loop on less than a gallon of gasoline.

The car was the 2012 Prius C, the newest, smallest and — with a base price of $19,710 — least expensive member of Toyota’s expanding Prius family of hybrids. Aimed at young, budget-wary city dwellers, this more petite Prius (the C is for city) deploys Toyota’s gas-electric drivetrain in a sporty-looking four-door hatchback.

On the face of it, a Prius C with a gallon in the tank should be able to handle the scenic drive with miles to spare: Its city fuel economy rating is 53 miles per gallon. Toyota says its new hybrid baby has the “highest-rated city fuel economy of any vehicle without a plug.”

Still, I wondered how it would fare on an urban road course punctuated with preposterously steep hills and intermittently horrendous traffic, as well as some less congested stretches of curves and twisties that encourage the right foot to explore its primitive urges.

Unlike its larger sibling, the familiar hybrid now called the Prius Liftback, which has the aesthetic appeal of a slug on wheels, the Prius C is an attractive little car. Where the Prius Liftback is all monolithic planar mass, the Prius C is all curves and flares and bulges. And while the Liftback’s top-heavy look suggests a predilection for straight-line travel, the C’s wide, low-slung, wheels-to-the-corners stance hints at a penchant for playing.

The sense of sportiness continues indoors. The front seats are firm and assertively bolstered, with excellent lumbar support. The thick-rim, flat-bottom steering wheel has easy-to-reach thumb pads for the radio, navigation and climate controls, and for toggling among the hybrid information displays.

The dashboard, clad in handsome plastics, is pleasingly spare and uncluttered. The test car, outfitted at the top trim level (the so-called Prius C Four, with a sticker price of $25,140) featured a touch screen with audio and navigation controls as well as the Entune interface for smartphones.

After examining a map of the 49 Mile Scenic Drive, I chose a starting point: an Inner Sunset gas station.

After filling up with regular-grade 87 octane and clicking the hybrid system into Eco mode to hedge our bets — it slows the throttle opening and dials back the air-conditioner — we made our way toward Twin Peaks.

At an elevation of 922 feet, it is San Francisco’s second-highest point (after Mount Davidson, not far to the southwest). The road that winds to the top offers panoramic views, and for the skittish, an unnerving proximity to many long, steep drop-offs.

Happily, the car’s handling lived up to its looks, its suspension (MacPherson struts in front and torsion beam in the rear) dispatching curve after precipitous curve with sure-footed confidence — no trace of jitters or notable body roll.

On the convoluted streets of Ashbury Heights and the Upper Castro, the Prius C felt decidedly nimble, partly owing to the test car’s optional 16-inch alloy wheels, which come with a quicker steering ratio, and the electric power steering system’s surprisingly convincing simulation of tactile feedback.

From Ashbury Heights, the route swooped down through the Mission District, then east toward Mission Bay, an area in transition from industrial grit to biotech sparkle. On a section of road under construction, the taut suspension did an admirable job of soaking up bumps.

From Mission Bay, the route zinged over to the Embarcadero. The rest of the trip was a blur of starts and stops for photo ops.

As we pulled back into our designated filling station, I tapped the steering-wheel-mounted thumb pad to summon the trip odometer, which claimed that in the course of traversing 49.1 miles of San Francisco streets, the Prius C had achieved no less than 53.7 mpg.

2012 Toyota Prius C

Base price: $19,710

Price as tested: $25,140

Type: Four-door hatchback

Engine: Gas-electric hybrid

Mileage: 53.7 mpg city