Hi I am new to the board and am trying to gather up some information. For the past two months I had decided to purchase a new car and was looking at the Honda Fit. I have been researching the car on the net and just found out a few days ago that the gas tank in this car is located underneath the drivers and passagers seat. This makes me uncomfortable and I believe that this is not a safe car. Anyway, I found the Scion XA on the web and really like the look of the car. Very similar to the Fit and a 5 door with good gas milage. I was also impressed that the items on the Fit Sport are standard on the XA. I could add over $1,000.00 worth of mods and still not be spending as much as the Fit Sport would cost.

Please tell me pros and cons of this car. What you love about it and what you hate about it. I plan to test drive this weekend and would love to have your opinions.

Thanks,
Dee

 

I seriously doubt you can get 5 full size 6 ft plus 300+ lb men in the scion xa. Maybe 2 in the front and two with the rear seat folded down. On the plus side, its pretty roomie for 2.

It has the right gearing and power band on the manual to drive and I dont think twice about questioning the handling when doing 85 mph down the interestate. At that 38-40 mpg. I just got 39.87 the past fill up.

THe price, features and manufacture cant be beat either. Just be prepared to spend 3 grand in fees if you finanice it through toyota, but they did give me 6% interest.

My main beef is the rear view mirror is too low mounted in windshield

 

what are the payments & how much down

 

How often do you have 6 foot 300 pound men in your car?

The maximum weight allowed is only 2000 I believe anyway.

 

mirror mounted to low? you do know the mirror can swivel 360* right you can adjust it where ever you want ..... in the city I usually have it as low as possible and then hiway I put it as high as possible so I don't have anything blocking the front window.....

as for the stuff I don't like is I don't get 30mpg but my car is heavily modded and the 17's kill my mpg cause my speedo is about 2mph off i'm still getting about 28mpg though these cars are great though no real problems with it .....



Just hate that its Scions little bastard child.... and that they aren't making them anymore.... makes me sad

 

I don't think the question here is about weight or how many people it can take comfortablly. If that was a concern then why would you be in the market for such a small car???

If you like the look of the xA better, then well...that is that.

Now if you want to know what's wrong with the xA (or what's right.) xA is a small car and it lives up to its body style. Frame is flimpsy and parts are like toys. I hope they last because most of our car haven't reach that age yet. But don't expect it will take much punishment.

Ride are uncomfortable off the lot. but there are many suspension manufacturer who are more than happy to sell you kits that both look good and confortable.

Engine has a great punch compare to the small and light body. Stickshift is the way to go.

I hate Fit, i think it's butt ugly.

 

I dont think the interior is too bad really. Its alot better then a neons interior which is really cheap feeling and doesnt fit to well together... My only thing that I dont like about my xa is the fact that the after market is taking so long to catch up with it.... oh and maybe a little lower rpm's on the highway for the manual tranny would be nice too... other then that its a fun little car. If you put some money into the suspention you can surprise some mini's even maybe some other high end cars.... Its just a fun little car to drive..... I love mine and wont get rid of it... It will also be a collectors car some day..

 

I thought about the Fit too, but availability is a problem--I never did see one on a lot, people were buying them sight unseen, waiting months for delivery and dealers were pricing them above MSRP. For me, it was the Release 3.0 color and body kit, once I saw it I made my decision. I also loved the pure-price thing, I hate haggling. Cons: less cargo space than Fit (though it's decent for a small car), wheel gap makes it look like an AWD car, no side impact air bags (at least on mine, it is an option). I think there's less headroom and legroom in the xA, though my 6'3" husband fits just fine in the front. Back seat is cramped, at least compared to our xB. Now that I've seen a few Fits driving around, I'm glad of my choice. The Fit's styling looks like a lot of cheap cars out there (Aveo, Kia), while the xA is pretty distinctive with it's egg-shape. Good luck with the test drives!

Sheryl

 

the fit seemed bigger and roomier but it looks like a miniature minivan. that isn't a good thing in my book anyway. had the two been the same price i might have leaned toward the fit but the price of the xA was right. i'm spending all the money i saved customizing the car.

 

thats cuz they are in japan! lol! ok its an option atleast lol

 

I beg to disagree. I've owned Toyota products for almost 30 years. Celicas, Land Cruisers, Vans, Corollas.

The xA's fit, finish and quality is consistant with all of the Toyotas I've owned.
Granted, it's a small, light car. However, it's not a cheaply built car.
How will it stand up? I'll let you know when the odometer passes 250k like my last Corolla.

 

chewd0g, just pick any of my co workers or relevatives. Lets not forget the owner myself behind the wheel. I seriously doubt the fit or jazz could carry 5 extra large full size adults. For the most part its me driving and my elderly mother at 157 lbs and her 40lb walker.

My second choice was a yaris or corolla. The yaris sedan is rather large inside than it looks from the outside, but it felt like soemthing threw together from monster garage.

 

[/quote]The xA's fit, finish and quality is consistant with all of the Toyotas I've owned.
Granted, it's a small, light car. However, it's not a cheaply built car.
How will it stand up? I'll let you know when the odometer passes 250k like my last Corolla.[/quote]

I never question the reliability issues of Toyota...in fact that's was one of the factor that I decided to buy from beginning

I'm a mechanic....I like to fix, fiddle and have the sickness of not leaving things alone. I mod from my previously owned offroad Wrangler to my beloved Defender, my xA and everything I've got my hand on.

xA is a simple little car and I guess that what explains my personal view. Behind all these nicely fitted interior and exterior parts are an incredibalely clever mounting system but extremly flimpsy, one tab breaks and it looks like it's on its last leg. Don't believe me? Turn on your radio a little louder and you see a quick demonstration of what I'm talking about.

Compare to my brother 2005 Civic Si, xA built quality is far behind.

and to my Defender...it's even more embarassing. This SUV was built a decade ago and you've got to feel the solidity of a British built car.

You have to excuse my English...I'm still working on it.

 

when i was looking for a car, i was looking at the fit, sentra, focus, yaris, corolla, and nissan frontier. The PAPER said one price and i thought "hey, i can afford that." When i got to the dealership, i dont get how someone can tell me a $13k sentra jumps up to $23k? It was like that on all of the cars that i looked at. When i went to see the yaris, i saw this brand of car i never saw before, scion. I checked them out, the dealers didn't even try to make a sale or push me or nothing. COOL. I asked the price on the models, he told me the price, it was the price on the sticker. He didn't jack it!!! wow. I decided to buy the xb for it's space and weird shape. I know this has nothing to do with the xa, but they are the same engine....lol.

 

Thanks for everyone who posted your opinions - it was greatly appreciated. I ran into a friend who had just recently purchased a Scion XB. I told her that I was planning to test drive a Scion this weekend and she took me out to see her XB. She loves it and I was happy with the look and the feel of the interior.

Again, thanks for the input - now I find out on the Fit board that you can hear the gas
tank sloushing around underneath you and you can also feel it moving. I guess I will most definitely not be buying a Fit - my vanity plate was going to read "HissyFIt"! LOL! Oh, well better to find out about this issue now instead of after the car had been purchased. I do love the pricing on the Scion XA and the fact that you can mod it out for a pretty low cost. It comes with items standard where the Fit Sport for over $17,000.00 you can have the same package. I'm doing the math and thinking the Scion is a better deal. Still thinking of testing out a Nissan Versa also.

Dee

 

I too checked into a 87 hundred dollar kia rio, turns out the paper model was an earlier year with no ac, no power anything and manual tranny. This also did not include all the fees for stuff to buy a car anyways and if you wanted ac, you had to get the package to get the auto tranny too making it about 14 grand.

My mercedes 240d had the fuel tank behind the back seat, but it didnt lead to any firie crashes or explosions. They got to put it somewhere and the lower the better.

 

Actually, I've had 3-4l guy friends who are over 6 feet that fit in the car. They did however complain about how their head keeps hitting the oh ____ bar when they sat next to the window, but otherwise, it was a fun ride until they get crazy and start rocking the car left and right.

 

I also went to the dealer looking at the yaris and corolla, when we saw the xA with it's price and features we were sold. Not to mention the sport style seats make it a little more comfortable than the comparably priced competition. As well, the headroom is a little more than the others. And, the little things are cool as well. Like the speedo/tach placement, the oven, the grocery bag hooks, the customizable stereo text display(up to 16 characters), the customizable stereo display colors, the three free oil changes, the steering wheel mounted stereo controls, etc...