diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
index 94b3ac1057..bf5ee1854d 100755
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
@@ -1814,7 +1814,7 @@ module ActiveRecord #:nodoc:
 
       # Format attributes nicely for inspect.
       def attribute_for_inspect(attr_name)
-        raise "Attribute not present #{attr_name}" unless has_attribute?(attr_name)
+        raise "Attribute not present #{attr_name}" unless has_attribute?(attr_name) || new_record?
         value = read_attribute(attr_name)
 
         if value.is_a?(String) && value.length > 50
diff --git a/activerecord/test/base_test.rb b/activerecord/test/base_test.rb
index 60e48c763b..02ca84e782 100755
--- a/activerecord/test/base_test.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/base_test.rb
@@ -1651,6 +1651,10 @@ class BasicsTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal topic.inspect, %(#<Topic id: 1, title: "The First Topic", author_name: "David", author_email_address: "david@loudthinking.com", written_on: "#{topic.written_on.to_s(:db)}", bonus_time: "#{topic.bonus_time.to_s(:db)}", last_read: "#{topic.last_read.to_s(:db)}", content: "Have a nice day", approved: false, replies_count: 1, parent_id: nil, type: nil>)
   end
 
+  def test_inspect_new
+    assert_match /Topic id: nil/, Topic.new.inspect
+  end
+
   def test_attribute_for_inspect
     t = topics(:first)
     t.content = %(This is some really long content, longer than 50 characters, so I can test that text is truncated correctly by the new ActiveRecord::Base#inspect method! Yay! BOOM!)