I'll post and update as I go.

Just bought my self a new Xa from Power Toyota & Scion in Irvine, California.

1) Called them up, was told by the nice salesman that Mark isn't working there anymore!?! (Is this true?!? Some guys there still thought he was, one guy said he left a few days ago.)

2) From entering the dealer salesfloor and greeting the salesman to signing the papers took just under 1 hour.

Add a few more minutes waiting outside while the boy took out their Karz alarm (opted out), and for the post-sales boy to come by and ask "You need me to show you the car?" (opted out; how difficult can it be to figure out a car like the Xa? or any Toyota? Note: Not so with a Mercedes C-class - you really need to read the 300+pg manual to figure out some of the details.)

Total time of about 1:15-1:20 to walk out with a Xa. Note: this was Xmas eve with just about nobody there buying a car, so they definitely had time to kill.

3) Pretty darn nice overall. Sales wasn't pushy since I knew exactly what I wanted, and the finance guy pretty much laid out the optional stuff, but didnt' push for you to buy them. Pretty much just pick whatever options you want (if any) and sign.

Beats my first experience buying a car - fought for 3 hours to get them down $3000 on a little Nissan Sentra, and boy, was the finance guy there suprised when he saw how much I got my first car for! (on the other hand, you really have to be a fighter to go the traditional route.)

4) Pretty nice car overall. I've test driving the Toyota Camry, Corolla, Rav4, Honda Civic, Mazda 3, Chevy Aveo, and sat and tried a few more in my search for a car that got me the <10 miles to work, was gas efficient, had at least 4 stars out of 5 in crash tests, drove easily, was decently quite, stable, and basically was a bargin for the price.

Low-down?

Aveo - better overall than a 93' Sentra for base model suspension, noise, and general interior space, but nothing amazing. A decent town car if you're short on cash and just want something decent. Nothing bad about it really except having to gun the engine to pass, but nothing yucky about it ala Hyundai's of years past. It's a solid buy for the $10k, has lots and lots of headroom, drives easily, and all of the controls work well. Noisier than the others (but quieter than a several gen. old 93 Sentra), so depending on what kind of car you're coming from, it may actually be a nice upgrade. Few cars are decent at the $10k price, and this is one of them. Would not be sad having one as a college student or on a tight budget since it has ample room inside for passengers, and the feel is generally 'light and airy'.

Corolla - way too cheap for the fabrics, mushy ride and seats, not very reassuring at speed, but otherwise, did the job okay. Nice styling on the S models.
Camry - big, quiet, cushy, so-so fabrics, otherwise a long-distance commuter and a bargain if you wanted something for $17k for the long LA freeway commutes.
Rav4 - think xA's prior, larger recincarnation. Similar feel, but larger all around. Drives well, so it's a nice compact car that's a SUV. My top pick of these three alternatives.

Civic - Think crisp basic black suit. It's the car that does everything well at a basic level. Nice little touches like the cute auto shifter, the lighted ignition (on the EX model), the blue & red dials are all nice touches on an otherwise plain and simple car. Makes it feel like a touch above the rest of the compacts out there and not so boring.
But, this year's revision gets rid of the classy chrome front and back (probably going cheap because of a new 2006 model to come out), so it looks less classy outside.
Drives well, but has a unusually high brake pedal pressure -- no other car I've tested requires such a high brake pressure, and even though it is 'normal', it's still higher than even a 1995 era Civic (which I've also driven). Very fatiguing in long commutes and the biggest minus against buying one.
The other minus? They got rid of the front wishbone suspension, and I'll tell you, even on the freeways here with a little wind blowing, this baby floats and wanders around the lanes like nothing was tying it down!!! It is far more likely to float and wander than the 1995 era Civics. Now the 1995 eras were like glue! Tied to the freeway even with cheap tires, very stable at speed (not even an earthquake could unglue them from where you'd pointed them), and very reassuring. The latest generation? Weak and floaty.
Very good visibility all around, so the best of the bunch here on this point.

Mazda 3 - Think 1995 era Civic but on a higher platform with a bigger engine. Zoomy like the say it is, does everything on a "very good" rating, but in the end, the exterior styling and colors just didn't work for me. Handling is very good, stability is very good, etc, but really nothing stood out as 'excellent' for me, so that's why this expensive yet very good compact didn't make it on my final list.
Also, the silly custom audio dash = how do you drop in your custom DVD/navi unit?!? (you'd have to get a custom faceplate and wiring done...) Big negative on most Mazdas since they go zoomy (ie. tuner market), but don't make it easy to upgrade as a standard double-DIN.
Have to be gentle with the accellerator pedel if you're used to mashing a econobox -- you might just zoom a bit too fast backing up or doing slow maneuvers. Otherwise, very good pedal feel.
Overall, the car to buy instead of the Civic if you have a local dealer that's nice (since Mazda dealers aren't so numerous even here in So.Cal) due to the performance, nicer interior, etc. Just expect to buy extra repair insurace and put some money away since Mazda's aren't as reliable as Civics/Toyotas. (oddly, insurance is lower than a Civic or Corolla).
Plus here? Only compact that gives you the Xenon HID option.
Biggest MINUS?!? Low 4/3 star front/side impact crash ratings (Corolla/Civic gets your 5/4 front/side), so for a car so new, it's a pretty sad sight.
(Trust me - you'll want at least 4 stars all around in an accident if not better!! I've been in enough!)
Japanese crash tests also show that rescue personnel would not be able to open the doors with one hand after a side-impact, so that reflects the USA tests of 3 stars side impact.

Here, the Corolla does the best for front impacts with very minimal dash intrusion based on USA tests. The Civic does a bit better in side impacts, so you'll have to pick a trade off. (see www.safercar.gov for the ratings) Both, however, are very good and as safe as you'll find in any compact made today.

The smaller xA does a good 4 stars all around, so not bad, not superb. Hey, it's smaller and lighter than most compacts, so what do you expect?

Anyways, the xA matched the Civic/Corolla in general quietness at speed, stability, driving ease, directional stability, general suspension feel, etc, and while it's not zoomy like a Mazda 3, heck, that's why we tune our xA's with the savings, right? (or maybe a turbo first to get this econobox to move!)

5) Decent engine and transmission for LA traffic. It won't out-zoom a Mazda 3 (w/o adding a turbo to the xA), but it definitely is easy to get up to speed, into traffic, on the freeway, and so forth. An easy commuter to push up to 80mph w/o any problems at all, and it has the umph to get there w/o having to mash the pedals. You won't be getting there much faster in a Civic or Corolla, and you won't feel like you're in a out-powered Geo Metro.

Auto is smooth and no jerkiness at all.

6) Decently quiet. Can't beat it in a Civic or Corolla, and even the Mazda 3 sounds just about the same (and a touch louder when pressed). Not anything like the older generation of compact cars (which were noisier). Opening the engine compartment reveals the usual lot of sound deadening stuff - liner under the hood, engine has a cover, firewall insulation - stuff you usually don't see in most econoboxes.

7) Decent tires. Nobody will sell you 'great' tires for a compact, but on mine, got Bridgestone RE92's that roll well (ie. decentely quiet), handle decently (no significant wandering problems; no skinny tire feel), and overall, do the job well for what comes with a car. Regular drivers won't have to worry much about going out and swapping out tires right away (those that drive fast, well, maybe work on turbo'ing the baby first -- it sure as heck won't go anywhere near =fast= stock).
Sadly, for me, they're only T rated, so nowhere near the Z rated I had on my totaled Sentra (now that was FUN! nothing like zipping through a fast & tight left turn w/o worry! Poor baby - totaled in a poor accident =( Then again, nothing like 10,000 mile tread lifes!)

8) Silly rear side seatbelt holder clips when folding the rear seats down. Toyota recommends you latch the belts to these clips to keep them out of the way when folding the seats, but really! Couldn't those designers have come up with a way to get around this?!?

9) Only one rear cup holder!?! Okay, understand the Japanese almost never drink & drive, but in the land of the Big Gulp, two, please? Also, while the front and back cup holders are all positioned so tall bottles and cups won't bonk into anything, they're only standard cup sized (not Big Gulps =( ). Then again, I've only seen Big Gulp sized holders in a few of the very largest US SUVs, so oh well.....

10) No underseat storage trays ala Japanese model. They took that out.
No HID. They took that out.
No auto climate control. They took that out.
A few nice touches got taken out when they designed the xA for the USA market, so it stinks they still send us 'stripped' cars instead of the nice Japanese models that have all of the goodies.

At least the space under the seats w/o the pull out trays = room for amps.

11) Silly middle rear seat headrest & seatbelt. I'd just toss out the baby entirely and just make it a 4 person car, IMO. Awkward design having two belt latches, and why they even bothered....?
Anyways, so-so rear headrests. They do block quite a bit of the rear view, so think 1/2 the width of the rear view mirror is what you'll really get for backing up. They should have gone with donut-hole headrests, foldable headrests, or just rethought the whole thing because backing up, you'll only see two headrests blocking your corners looking back.
best bet here? Raise them up all the way so your passengers get full protection, and you can just barely peek under them to see what you've just ran over =O <grin>
(here, too bad we don't get the LCD rear view & front side monitor cameras ala Honda Legend in Japan! Then again, we don't get the heads-up infrared nightvision of the Legend anyways, so.....)

12) Silly map pockets on the door - way too slim to fit a hand in to reach anything that has dropped to the bottom, and you may just get stuck. They should have made them fatter and easier to get stuff in and out of them. Cubby area under the glove compartment isn't all that useful either, so you can only put a few small things there - lipstick? Compartments are limited center, mostly taken up by a useless ashtray (who smokes in California? <grin>) so putting a bunch of stuff in the car is limited vs. other cars. You basically get one middle slot, the cupholders, and maybe the glove compartment if you empty that. No place for coins on the dash, glasses above, etc. -- they should have thought about adding a roof sunglass holder bringing the ist to USA.

(No, nobody but nobody wears sunglasses in public in Tokyo! Just got back and they just don't. Must think those that do still are gangsters very strongly!)

Mostly, the lack of space is due to them not leaving in the underseat storage trays from the Japanese model.

13) Easy to fold down seats - not complex like a RAV4 where you have to yank out the rear seats to get flat storage space back there. But, not totally flat and too short for most of us to sleep back there w/o some extra blankets to cushion the back against the plastic bag hooks, and to bridge the gap between the flat deck and the front seats (which don't fold down 100% flat to make it truely useful as a camper). curl up and cuddle is the best you'll get. Still, not bad for a car that is shorter than the Tercel (the 1996 era).

14) Nice storage area cover. It retracts easily, can be taken out completely to fit in a big item w/o tools, and does the job well. so even if you dont' have the space anymore to put in several big luggage bags w/o folding down the rear seats, at least you can take a few small bags in the rear. (from the land of the super-small fridges, Japan, where everyone tends to buy fresh food on a daily basis -- instead of weekly ala USA)

15) WoWa! This baby rides high! I'm almost eye level with other SUV and truck drivers, and it's really odd for a compact car. Still, stability isn't a big issue being up so high, so no bouncing around ala some squishy light duty truck. The view is reassuring, so at least that's a plus. Easy entry w/o sitting way down ala sports cars is nice, but the high front dash = you'd better be at least 5'4"+ to get a comfy view out front -- otherwise, it'll be like sitting in a tub low (else bring cushions to boost you up a bit)., and you'll have a fun time trying to see what's close in front of the hood when parking.

16) Crisp controls all around. Generally good feel for all of the controls, so no problems here. Audio volume on the default deck should have been a dial, but otherwise, the mute button & MP3 makes up for that loss. Standard Toyota layout, so you'll get used to them fast and they'll generally last years before problems occur.

17) AC/interior Air filter?!? Really! Reading the manual, says it has two of them behind the glove compartment (darn it! that's a tough one to unlatch out). Have to work on getting the glove box out tommorrow, but that's a nice touch - reduces the pollen and dust getting into the car, and that's nice! (most new compacts like the Civic and Corolla now have them, but some cars still don't - think Aveo & Mazda 3 perhaps; most older gen compacts didn't have them except the luxury models ala BMW 3)
Too bad no carbon/gases filter ala BMW/Mercedes to get rid of the exhaust fumes we breath in LA....

18) Single direction air vents. You can only move them up and down, can't rotate them (else I'm not trying hard enough), so that's it. One of those styling things to look cool (ala RAV 4 vents), but otherwise, they could have just dropped in something more flexible in terms of air venting. (eg you can't make one vent vent just a little bit of air and face it upwards while having the other vents vent a lot of air ala traditional designed air vents with seperate direction and airflow controls)

19) Interior dome lighting - nice, bright enough to see everything clearly, two - one front, one back. You can read maps and books easily with them, and they work well. 5-second delayed shutoff timer upon entry/exit is a nice plus, too.

20) Jacking. Okay, few will every need to bother, but hand jacking this baby is limited in terms of the points on the car you can use. Read the manual carefully else you'l break something. (not like those old K-type's where you can pretty much just find any ol' solid spot and up you go; then again, those were the days of solid metal bumpers)

21) Wacky (sometimes) engine compartment tubing, wiring, routing. I've never seen a tube go 360 degrees just to connect to the something in the engine bay, but in the xA, there it is right up top and center (towards the back). Haven't had time to figure out what it is, but the rubber tube comes right out of the firewall, does a 360, then goes into the engine. A few wires aren't as well protected as they ought to be IMO (eg. a few wires are just that - thin bunch of wires going into whatever w/o exterior boot, tape, or protection). Definitely need to work on that for wetter/colder/messier climates. That said, don't think that bouncing through water puddles the size of pools won't hurt this car - something's bound to splash right up there and maybe short the wires on the way down. This bay just isn't laid out as nice and straight as I'd want, but guess that had a reason for all that -- crash safety? space? cheap?

22) No interior rear hatch release. Hope you don't get locked in there on the way into the ocean/ditch/river. They usually have some sort of trunk release on most cars nowadays, and while the rear hatch isn't really a trunk, not having one means going camper in the xA at night = having to go out the side doors and opening the rear. Not fun if it's wet/cold/drowning/whatever, but then again, it's a car on a budget.

23) Rooftop antenna. I've got issues with these. They do look cool on some cars, but I'd much rather have a built-in window antenna so I don't go bumping the antenna into just about every low building/tree/bridge/parking lot/whatever. It's so pointless, too given how well window antennas work nowadays!

24) Foldable outside mirrors. Nice touch on a econobox, but where am I going to find a parking space that small in L.A.?!? The xA is already so small, it makes parking spaces look like open fields. (yet another leftover from Japan - super tiny side roads and parking spaces)

25) Decent paint. Unless you get a hand wet sanded Honda Legend (the latest just out in Japan) or whatever exotic, forget about having pefectly smooth, flat paint with no bumps at all. The xA has the usual decent compact car paint, which means decently smooth from normal viewing angles, the usual visible bumps and undulations from side angles up close, but otherwise, nothing out of the ordinary. Pretty good overall.

26) Paint that side-sill! Wish they'd paint it ala the latest Japanese model so we dont't have to worry about that long strip of plastic looking ugly in a few years. Just hate it when they try to save money by not painting stuff that should. Rather have everything painted white to match the car.

27) Nice seats! Good back support. Nice, firm (Civic like) cushions. Can probably do 2 hour commutes easily in this baby (haven't tried) just guessing by the feel alone. Nothing yucky ala Corollas, and they feel good from day one. Easy to adjust and nice one-piece continous bar up front to adjust it front and back (those who wonder, the 93 Sentra had a lever on one side in the front of the seat, and that always got caught up in something on the way out -- pants, straps, etc.! so annoying!)

28) Annoying spare tire cover lock knobs. One turns clockwise, the other counterclockwise to unlock!?! Oh, please!!!! Standardize and have them both turn the same way!!!!! (and while they're at it, make sure the USA model unlocks counterclockwise like bottles in the USA instead of clockwise like bottles in Japan)

The knobs are pointless, and they might as well have none of them like most cars so you can get to the spare w/o having to lock/unlock the cover -- just lifting it open would be the best design.

29) Only having the rear hatch pull down on the right side for shorter people. Hey, some people carry kids in their right arms, so how about having that on both sides? Oh, well, cheap car = one side is what you get. Works well however as it is.

30) Rear hatch doesn't pop open with the unlocking of the hatch ala a trunk. Wish they would change that so you don't have to do a two-step to open the hatch. No point really!

31) Cheap looking ignition key switch. Of all of the parts in this car that looks dirt-cheap, this is it (if not the side-sills). Should have spiffied it up with a lighted one and used metal that isn't so cheap looking ala a Civic, IMO. The metal alone is some mottled looking thing, so not very nice looking vs. the rest of the car.

32) Short visors. Expect lots of sun in your eyes commuting. Wish they extended the SUV/Hatch thinking on this design a bit further and put in extending visors ala real SUVs. Just too short to block sun from the sides when it gets down low.

33) Interesting rear wheel well tubing/cabling/wiring. Haven't ever seen a rear wheel well like this one with so many tubes exposed, but we'll see if accidentally going over tree branches/etc. causes problems. I can just see something getting wrapped around the rear tires just ripping one of those tubes and there goes the trip.....
Limited space means they've got no choice to help protect all of that, but still.....

34) White - nice color. Have seen the red, silver, dark gray, dark blues zipping around So.Cal, but I still like the white xAs the most. At least they have a color I like (hard to say about some other cars) for the design & body styling. Silvers look old and dated too easily the moment they're barely dirty; red - good color if you like the $18k premium to buy the RS; dark gray and blue - too blah for me and I'd want someone to spot me before they run into such a small car.

35) Gas. 12 gal. tank is good on the MPG, but nice to have are the low-tank warning lights. Some compacts don't have it, and the warning's nice to have in an econobox.

36) Battery. Nice standard size (unlike the small 95 Civic's), with the visual indicator for charge level. (Yeah, not entirely accurate, but a decent guage I like on my batteries.) Most Toyota's come with these indicator batteries, so that's a nice touch.

37) Plastic oil dipstick?!? Oh, please get real! Metal one, please! I'm just waiting to see when this baby breaks/melts/etc. Funny, esp. when the transmisison is metal - why do they even bother?

38) Center dials. Still annoying. Not bothersome, but wish it were in front of me like other cars. Maybe a design thing to keep the wiring cheap and simple, but annoying because I have to look away from the traffic in front of me to check the gas/speed/etc., and while the 'talked about' reduced time you need for eyeballs to adjust to the distance may be good scientifically, it's worrisome when you're commuting L.A. rush hour hell. You're always looking at them towards the lane two to the right from you, instead of dead ahead, and that = crashing in suddent stops if you're not careful.

(Like gee, talking on the cell phone, adjusting the sound, kneeing the wheel, and looking sideways is already enough on top of watching out for the sudden stops! Please, back to front of the driver! That way, we can at least keep our eyes looking forward where we need to! while eating/cell phoning/etc. at the same time! <grin> <yes, multitasking happens> <yes, you know you can drive LA freeways when you can do all the above and knee drive at the same time> <yes, those girls driving shift & pulling on panty hose with one leg on the dash with both hands on the hose do take my breath away! scarry & awesome at the same time - I couldn't pull that off w/o crashing!>)

At least they could have done the backlighting & design better. The not-white when it should be pure white guage is annoying. Like they went cheap and didn't bother to find some real white lights or something. At least make them cool if ya can't put them in front of the driver where they belong!!!! (Figher pilots have everything dead in front of them for a very good reason!)

39) Way bigger inside than it should be!

Simple said, it feels way bigger inside than it should feel. Very nice design whatever Toyota did, and it feels like a bigger miniSUV than a compact. Reassuring even next to SUVs & trucks on the freeway, and that' s a good sign.

(looks tiny from the rear seeing other xAs on the freeway however, so it's still a tiny tot among monsters on LA freeways - bet if they designed it in the USA, it would have been 25% bigger)

40) Still dreamy to own. Okay, only have it one day, but it's still a car I want to take out for a spin past midnight. Not many cars get me to explore the world in that way, and that's a nice sign. It's like a good dog that's waiting for you to go out and bark down something together, and not like other cars where you just go oh,whatever, I'll just stay at home. (Corolla would be my pick here - way too mushy for the seats and suspension!)

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Well, off to think about car alarms and which security systems allow for keyless entries and aren't so easily disabled.....

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. As you do upgrades such as keyless entry (maybe get a popper for that rear hatch), please keep us informed. Thanks again.

Very nice and detailed review of the xA :D You spotted most of the standards rants and raves about the xA which is pretty impressive itself.

Then again, I also own a polar white xA and love it to bits 8D

Spent the morning Sunday thinking about whether I'd want to drive around being a big advertisment for Power car dealers or not, and figured Not since they seem a bit "corporate" to me. (Odd, but it's true. They've gotten perhaps a bit too big in So. Cal. for my tastes, esp. in a car that's supposed to be 'unique'.)

Anyways, at least the Power dealers have a nice logo designer - white letters on black with a can't miss yellow logo. It can be spotted miles away, esp. on a white xA, so me being me, off they came - front & back.

Now what to do?...... two frames with their logo (gotta go for sure), two plastic ad sheets.

At least the backs of the two sheets are pure white plastic, so an idea came about -- black permenant marker neatly hides any show through from the back side of both sheets, then a little super glue to stick them face to face to give them a bit more thickness and strength (w/o those license frames), and back to the computer to download some of the "ist" logos from Toyota Japan.

Print the "ist" logo nice and big on a plain piece of paper, then a nice sharp Leatherman quickly cuts out the paper from the letters. Some tape to hold the stencil in place on the 'new' blank white plastic sheets glued together earlier, another black permenant marker to paint the "ist" in, then another pass with strong, clear 3M packing tape over the lettering with the paper stencil in place to provide winter/wet weather protection (you never know how permenant those markers are in a rainstorm - figure the last thing I need is a black, streaked bumper this upcoming wet & rainy week).

Finally, another pass with the Leatherman to knife out the letters one-by-one that have been taped over, remove the paper stencil carefully, and voila! Very nice handmade "ist" license plate.

Way nicer looking that the Power logo, and very clean on a white xA rear!

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Baby is still feeling very nice after a few days. Thinking it over, this really is a 100% Made In Japan toy and the build is really good vs. the other compacts not made in Japan, and it just feels solid & tight. Can't believe they're still selling these so cheap! (esp. when the 1.5l models are going for a bit more in Japan... then again, we don't get their 1.3L HID model either....) Guess Toyota is testing the market and seeing just what little monsters sell over here (looking at one of the latest "Driver" Japanese car magazine issues for all year models made in Japan, there's quite a lot of these mini's! Must be well over 50 such models from all brands and they come in all super-small sizes and shapes.)

The latest from Suzuki with built-in external temp monitor, auto temp control and so forth is making me drool a bit, but hopefully, Toyota will smarten up and fully load the next gen of babies to hit the market after the xA-Tc lineup. (I just hate stripped Japanese model cars when they land in the USA. -- eg. even the Honda Legend (the Acura RL in the USA) is missing the infrared nightvision headsup display, the front sides and rear cameras, and a whole lot more.) Heck, even the missing under-seat slide-out storage trays on the xA ticks me a bit - like they don't have to go THAT cheap on pricing of the xA in the USA!

Still, biggest drool goes to the TRD turbo package -- sigh..... we =need= a stock 200+hp xA <grin> =) on these LA freeways!

(well, actually, never during the rush hours daytime; mostly for those 2am sprints down the 405 at 120+. ahm, km that is, right? <grin> wonder what those caltrans drones watching the freeway cameras are thinking at night?>

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Anyways, off to find some seat covers and plastic sheeting. Definitely will need some sheeting to fend off the water inside when the rains come this week, and definitely don't want the water to soak through the rear seatbacks if/when they're folded down for use.

=)

Anyways, off to find some seat covers and plastic sheeting. Definitely will need some sheeting to fend off the water inside when the rains come this week, and definitely don't want the water to soak through the rear seatbacks if/when they're folded down for use.
=)
I dont get what the plastic Sheeting is for. :)

pictures must have pictures

The plastic sheeting (cheap, buy it at any Home Depot for <$4 for 9'x12' roll) goes on top of the trunk + rear seat back (when folded down) to protect the carpet from water/dirt/grime/etc. when you're loading in stuff into the xA.

Stuff like Bikes, anything from the Beach, new 30" LCD display boxes, etc. all have some sort of dirt/grime/water/etc. on them, and the last thing most people want is to have the whole rear area grimy after lots of use.

The smart thing to do is to unroll plastic sheeting on top of that (esp. on rainy days), then put your items on top. You can also buy absorbent painters clothes (plastic film + absorbent cotten/towel layer) for a little more (~$9 at Home depot) that will also absorb excess water/snow/etc. instead of allowing that to roll off the edge when you're removing the sheeting later on. (good for areas with lots of rain/water/etc. and/or dogs/cats that might just take a leak on the ride over somewhere).

Anyways, the 9'x12' roll is about the size of a small compact umbrella and fits right around the spare tire area to keep it out of your way.

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Was transporting a 30" Powerspec LCD from Microcenter today (nice $999 after rebate until end of month; too bad it wasn't mine =( ) and the box fits with about 2" of clearance vertically. You could fit two panels side by side into the rear easily, and it's nice to know what's the largest LCD HDTV I can carry home someday. Happily, even 30" LCD monitors weigh less than 40lbs, so it was easy to squeeze the entire panel in. The xA's roof is nicely designed to you don't have anything lower than the rear opening.

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Wondering what's up with the speakers? Found the Power Irvine guys didn't set the correct car setting in the audio deck, but even then, it's hard to get a nice sound from this deck. Maybe time to break in the speakers for awhile and see what happens then....

Just a bit too tinsy sounding -- weird and maybe the SSP/equalization settings on this deck is just trying too hard for its own good?

Anyways, we'll see....

The deck either pops/crackles/skips a lot over scratched discs, or it doesn't like as many MP3 encodings as my Philips portable MP3 player. Quite a few discs play fine in the portable, but just pop and crackle in the stock xA deck. Then again, the Philips portable is one of the better portable MP3 CD players in that it really takes a lot to make it not read a scratched track.

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Very interesting ride setup. Having driven the last gen. of Tercel's Toyota released for the USA, it's interesting to see what happens to a mono-beam rear when there really isn't any rear to support -- basically, the front end is stable, the rear is the one that seems to bump about over bumps in the road.

Too bad they didn't have space for the double-wishbone setup of the 95' gen Civics - the xA is feeling a bit 'loose' now that I've driven it more. Normal striaght line is decent, but any bumps do get to you now and then for no reason at all -- here, the Civic was more of a dream - mostly solid as a rocket on rails, and whatever bumps got through felt like nothing to worry about at all. Here, xA seems to dither between telling your butt "Hey, this is an important bump" vs. "Hey, just bad suspension".

Suspension is interesting. A normal turn, and the xA just winds into the turn like any regular car. A quick turn and the opposite side just squats down all of a sudden like they decided to give a few more inches because they're being pushed a bit to fast. Not at all like the Civic, which rides very flat all around with curves being lots of fun to dive into. Guess the combo of suspension and height in the xA is just doing squishy things.

Anyways, maybe a few inches lower and new springs would help? Have to save up a few months for that, and the rear wheelwell is definitely looking exposed with all of that height.

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Arghh! Just had to read tirerack.com's Bridgestone RE92 customer reviews on the stock tires! Oh, terrible ratings and people really, really beg you to avoid these babies or have fun skidding! Hasn't rained yet, but we'll see how they perform on the stock xA. May just have to drop in some Kumho ECSTA's or something (the 712's were lots of fun on my totalled Sentra! =)

RE92 - A Sad tire - only dry traction got a 6.9 and every other score below 6.4 (out of 10).

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Potenza+RE92

anyways, having driven some more, a good slice of road noise is definitely coming from the rolling noise on these tires (6.3 noise rating), so just about anything else would probably make it a lot quieter.

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White just gets dirty =fast= in So.Cal. Barely had it out a few hours and already there's a layer of black smog dust on the baby. =( Looks like weekly car washes....

Black interior also gets dirty fast, and non-black debris is already showing up all over up front. Lots of vaccuming as well it seems... (Still, it's a nice black, so can't beat the look of black & white on the xA, IMO.)

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Good thing I had a plastic storage bin in back (Target, Walmart - any $5 cheapie with lid). Burger King odor just goes right through their bags, and w/o the bin, the whole car would have smelled yucky like a burger in minutes coming back from lunch. Bin was good enough to seal all that in, but looks like another thing to wash out every week. (or less burgers - healthier....) Lack of a trunk can be annoying at times - smells from food-to-go goes through the entire car w/o a bin, and well, there really isn't a trunk! (a few bags of groceries fill the back up completely)

A few inches more back there would have been nice.

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Rear vision for backing up is still like being in a minivan/SUV - poor for the size. Should be as clear and easy as the latest gen. of Honda Civics, but instead, you've got massive pillars and headrests all around. You really do have to look all around backing up, esp. with a 30" LCD panel behind you, due to the many blind spots.

Interesting - front pillar is really wide for the small car. Don't know what Toyota's structural design idea is behind that, but it's more SUV/Minivan wide rather than compact. Haven't had a problem with the placement thus far, so at least that's a good sign.

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Needs some metal around those keyholes. You really have to target the key spot on or you'll scratch the paint around it, and no metal around the keyhole means you can't miss.

Rear trunk lock is typical made-in-Japan backwards - turn counter-clockwise to open instead of clockwise here. A bit annoying having to remember the door locks turn the opposite way of the rear lock.

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Air filter does a decent job at filtering at dust so far; forget about smog however, it just goes right through.

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Brakes are nice. Not so hard like a current gen Civic (way too hard to press!); not too soft. Just enough to go from light tap = light braking to moderate tap = braking quickly.

Steering is a bit on the lighter side, but okay for commuting (where lighter is nicer). Not so light you feel like it'll wander all over, but could use a touch more feedback.

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xA does have decent pickup up to about 50 mph in motion. Gets up to speed pretty quick (for a compact) and feels perfectly fine in city driving. No Geo Metro slug-slow here. One of the few automatics where I've seen that goes to 6000 rpm+ when pressed moderately hard, and I wonder how much higher it'll go flat down? (Haven't tried yet, still in the breaking-in period.)

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Hee, hee! Parked next to a BMW Z3 today, and the xA looks a touch bigger (not really, but height helps - actually, xA is still a few inches shorter 154 vs 158). Nice to know it's not the smallest car around (by appearances).

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Wierd. Did everyone in my neighboorhood just pickup a Scion? Seem to be spotting two or three everyday now, and none a few months before. Spotted two white xAs already, and single tC & xB in two days. Maybe they're just cloning at night like in the commercials....?!

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Oh, dear! They didn't light up all of the interior dash controls at night! Nothing for the guage brightness or mirrors; nothing for most of the door window/lock controls. You'd think they'd put in a few extra $1 lights on a $13k car just so we'd be happier, but then again.... (heck, even my <$12k 93 Sentra had everything lit up)

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Have learned to ignore the center spedo. Totally useless except when trying to stay under speed passing through those evil photo cam intersections (nice then, fine dial lets you eyeball the speed down to 1-2 mph easily), and it's better just to keep pedal to metal the rest of the time and go by feel for current speed. Still don't know what they're trying to hype here -- better to have the spedo front and center.

Both dials would have been better if white/red on black ala the tach, but only if they made the needles more visible. Just too thin and small to see what they're doing with a quick side glance. (2005 Honda Civic EX's have got it just bout right)

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Air vents are another note today. Turned up the heater and noticed they're not the same distance - sides vs. centers. Sadly, this means one right hand warms up faster than the left hand on cold days with the vents aimed at them, so another looks-interesting-but-fails-in-real-life design element of the xA. They probably had to push the outer vents back to serve double-duty as window defrosters since they didn't drop in two vents on both sides (winodw + regular) to try and save on costs.

Guess you never notice these things until you get into a 'stylish-looking' car like the Scions -- all of the other 'regular ol' cars all have smartly designed air vents the same distance from you. (can't think of any other car I've tested where they're not either right now...)

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Regular/Medium sized drink fits into the cupholders up front, but just a little more wider and they won't. Don't know if a Large/Super from McDonald's will fit yet, but that's one easy part Toyota could have easily swapped in for USA xA's. Taller sides, too! Haven't had a cup tip and spill, but it's not so tall as to be 100% reassuring it won't ever happen in a powerslide.

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Wow! The xA's either sell quick, or they make just enough to keep up with all of the demand here in the States. Noticed my xA was made 11/04 and bought it just a month later, 12/04. Good sign - not a baby that's been sitting in the lot and test driven dozens of times over several months, but fresh off the lot as can be. Just about right -- just enough weeks to sea ship, clear the docks and be delivered to the dealership.

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Still, despite the nit-picks (which I'm good at), car is still decent for the price, and the styling (main reason instead of buying a Civic for most looking at cars I'd say). Hatch is already useful, and I'm already looking forward to the summery days to return to hit the beach!

=)

In the '05 models, Scion has changed the rear seat headrests. They are now about 1/2 the height of those in the '04s.

Thank goodness they changed the rear seat headrest height in the '05s because it's still tought to back up while checking the blind spots. It's really odd -- a car smaller than a Tercel, but harder to backup (almost like you're in a SUV or big truck). But getting used to having to crank that head all around to make sure nothing's being run over -- sure wish it had a backup camera & LCD display....

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Audio system is still being broken in, but still get some CDs that play fine; others that sound like there's nothing you can adjust to make it sound sweet. Maybe that SSP is just trying too hard? At least Jessica Simpson's Xmas CD plays decent as does the soundtrack to the movie "2046". System seems to like classical/band music more, so maybe that's just a reflection of the listeners in Japan who are the target market for the ist? (Mom's; city commuters; guys who act just like the dummies in the ist commercials)

Gwen's latest, Love Music Angel Baby, also rocks pretty nicely for whatever reason -- you can literally hear all of the background vocals and effects clearly (same with the 2046 soundtrack), so at least I know something in this setup can spew it all out without muddling the finer aspects of the songs too much.

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Office Depot bag continues to do good duty in keeping the gunk from the rains out of the car on the front floormat. Easy to pickup the four corners after a rainy day out to take it inside the house for a quick rinse off, then hang dry for use the next day. Really, really been rainy here in L.A., so lots of gunk washes away that would have otherwise gotten in my new car =)

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Yep, no trunk space. Went grocery shopping and a small load (didn't even fully fill a shopping cart!) doesn't even fit in the back w/o the rear seats down. Definitely not the car for a big family or mouths to feed -- just not enough space to really load this baby down with lots of groceries, nick-naks, shopping and hauling for a family, etc. -- unless you think ahead and plan your storage space well.

At least the rear seat folds down easily from the back. No auto retract for the headrests however, so you got to make sure the front passenger seat is set foward enough that the rear headrests don't catch on the back of the front seat and prevent it from folding all the way down/up to do this. You still get decent legroom up front if you've set the front seat right, so it's not annoying.

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Baby xA needs more compliant suspension - the littlest jiggles and ruts in the roads and freeways make the entire car bump hard (gets a bit annoying after awhile sometimes in rutty areas -- you feel like you're getting knocked about). Still putting in the miles to see if/when it'll soften up a bit more. (And we're talking about pretty minor road irregularities - the stuff that any 95' gen civic or latest gen Camry would soak up w/o anything disturbing the passengers at all.)

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Braking and pedal feel remains very good. Brakes require very little travel to come to a regular stop, and a very easily modulated. Very easy driving for the city and stop & go traffic, and just right. A bit more and the braking kicks in a bit more progressively, and lets you confidently stop in moderately faster braking (like when traffic decides to rush hour stop for no reason.) Still feels secure and you still feel like you've got ample braking power to go.

Accelerator is about the same, but requires a bit more travel -- still very good feel and you can easily adjust the speed gently. The car is setup to Go in city speeds with a moderate touch, so never any problems keeping up with traffic or merging in daily driving. At least they put in an auto that knows what's important for city driving.
Still, we're not talking Mustang here, so don't expect the 20-50mph to pass all 'that' quickly in comparison -- it's compact car fast, not street racer fast.

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xA does get eyeballs - got a modified blue Integra pacing the baby out by Irvine heading out to dinner -- too bad my xA isn't one of those funny car setups (push a button, flame flies out the rear, pops a wheelie, and I hit 60 in less than 3, so my xA says) - that would have been fun to do!....

"Hey, since when does the xA go off dreaming big thoughts on it's own?!?"

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Bigger than a MINI! =)

Thank goodness I'm not in one of those! Headroom kills, and it's just way too small next to the 'huge' xA on my way past one. xA wins here for sure! Still, where's the movie credits ala "The Italian Job"...?

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About 140 miles for the first 5 gallons of gas. Sometimes running it with the AC on, sometimes just zipping it through the lanes fast. A lot of city driving and short trips. Wonder what the car's real Cd value really is?

Still, it's not bad, and the wind noise rarely intrudes below 60mph. Mirror noise starts to enter past that as does over all noise, but remains nice up to the 80-85mph range (you can still talk w/o raising your voice too much at that speed). Overall, a nice city street cruiser - quiet at the usual 20-50mph range, and nicely insulated from noise for the short trips out.

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Spedo reads about 3500 rpm on auto at 80 mph. A bit high, so you'll hear the engine work. Does about 2100 at 50ish, so definitely geared to be a city cruiser, not a super-fast freeway speeder. But the engine still has enough pull to get you across lanes and past traffic up to that speed, so the auto tranny & engine are nicely mated.

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Windshield wipers on both ends work fine and quietly for stock wipers. No bad rubbing, scraping, or other wiper noises on glass, even on the highest speeds. The front wipers clear off a good, wide path so you retain most of your front view just fine; the rear smartly gives you a decent opening angled towards the rear passenger side to let you see what's behind you.

Wowa!

Three front spray nozzles for each of the two sprayers up front! It's like gee! Three?!? Let me try that again! At least they cover the front area just perfectly, so you don't get any dry spots or over coverage. The rear is somewhat so-so, just a stream out back, nothing fancy.

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Seats are decent, but a touch less supportive and easy to adjust to as the ones in a 95' Civic IMO. The latter has better lumbar support, firmer cushions, and just instantly feels better forming than the xAs, which require some adjustment after a few dozen minutes of driving. It's either a touch too soft, or a touch too close/far from the steering wheel, or the seat back is a touch too straight/laid back, etc. Pretty good overall, and I'm still adjusting, but it seems like the notches they have in the xA seats are a bit widely spaced (ie. doesn't allow for as fine adjustments as I'd want) and/or notched just in between where I'd like them.

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Whew! You'll never lose the xA in a parking lot outside of a Scion meet! Easiest thing to find it coming out of a store - good thing I didn't buy a Civic/Corolla!

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Headlights are very nice - very even, wide coverage up front with no real hot spots of note, and high beams are just brighter and better at night on side streets. Those big reflectors up front do a great job.

Whew! You'll never lose the xA in a parking lot outside of a Scion meet! Easiest thing to find it coming out of a store - good thing I didn't buy a Civic/Corolla!

Of course, when I park my little baby in the Target parking lot, a couple of Monster SUVs inevitably end up on either side and I end up wandering around looking for my ride for awhile. We need our own area in the lot for "reasonably-sized" vehicles. :wink:

I parked my xA in the lot of the local Dollar store recently. There were four or five sedans in the same row and the xA was taller than all of them. I need to put a small banner on the top of the radio antenna for ID when around taller vehicles.

http://www.silverace.com/ist/xA-HB.jpg

Pic of my xA sunning out this weekend on the beach.
(Hey, I only take 1/2 a parking space! Do I get 1/2 off to park?)

Two more at:
http://www.silverace.com/ist/

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Black interior is nice, but gets dusty eventually. Also, seems like touching anything and rubbing with the hands to get the dust off only results in white smears across the plastic dash and other surfaces.

Solution?

Grab-It static cleaning dry wipes! Baby sucks up dust like a dust magnet and leaves the car clean and factory fresh in seconds. Recommended!

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Hmmm, just noticed the side sills already have black plastic ones there - did I remember them from before?

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White picks up dirt fast - one week out and it's already needing a full wash, but with more rain coming up, oh, well, might as well wait.

(Or go over to that car wash on Magnolia & Warner next to Starbucks and Sportmart in Westminster, CA and have them wash it the day before it rains - they'll rewash the next day free.)

=)

Nice pic of the xA. I wanna visit Cali. :P

Lots of great information. I never would have thought of most of those things, but understand the points you make clearly.

Holy Cow!!!!

Here I was thinking about how to pull the rear view mirror off the windshield and remount it, and then I look up at it again on my way to the dry cleaners and guess what?!?

The rear view mirror is mounted on a fully articulating, height-adjustable arm!?!

Holy Cow!!!

This is very rare on modern cars - most can't be adjusted height-wise at all - and suprised me with open eyes! Goodness, this really is a "Made in Japan / ie. overdesigned/thought-out" car!

That said, I retract my earlier note on how the rear view mirror always gets in the way of one's eyes looking towards the right out the front windshield. On the xA, if you're short or tall, you can move the entire rear view mirror up or down to your eye level.

Gee, this car is really nice.........

Two ticks on the gas guage = 70 miles driven after my first fillup. Don't know exactly how many mpg that equals, but that's going to be about 350 miles from F to E if mileage keeps up.

--

Vents are can be aimed any which way - up/down & sideways, but like noted before, no way to cut the amount of air coming out of them individually while directing them somewhere (only the main air vent speed dial). As a result, cold days = warm right hand (closer to that side's vent), and cold left hand (farther away). Sigh.....

The amount of pressure required to tilt the vents up/down is a lot higher than to swivel them around to point somewhere sideways or at an angle, and I wish they required a lower pressure to do this -- almost a fingertip touch should be enough. They're not the easiest things to grip well and position accurately with thick gloves on, and without, still hard to nudge them around w/o making big changes while driving.

the extreme aircon vents can be closed fully right??

it takes awhile to get them moving left right up down smoothly bro... after a few adjustments... it will be easy to rotate 'em... just stick a finger in the vents and move them around....

The air vents can be closed by rotating them all the way to their sides. But, they can't be modulated when open -- ie. you can't adjust the amount of air coming out of each one independently of the others ala most other cars with dual direction + flow controls.

This is a BIG drawback for me -- I'm always having my right hand too hot; my left hand too cold in the mornings with the heater on and the air on my hands from both nearby vents. It would have been best to have dual direction + flow adjustments on the vents - that way, I could compensate for the different distance they are from me.

Anyways, sad but true - look like that's been totally fixed in the new Vitz model Toyota is releasing in Japan in Feb 2005 -- vents with flow controls.

I just bought a Japanese car magazine that goes over all of the details of the new Vitz in and out, and this is a straight-on replacement for the Ist as far as I can tell by specs and all -- it's practically identical outside in width/height/length/weight, and they really did make quite a few improvements I'd love to have had in my Ist -- remote wireless walk-up to unlock the car control, push-button F1-like starter, Sharp IonCluster air cleaner, automatic climate control system, steering wheel mounted controls, more useful cubby holes (eg. door cup holders, cell phone holder, etc.)

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Finally figured out what that almost useless slot under the glove compartment is really for in the xA! -- the picture of the Vitz has the same -- it's for the umbrella everyone has in rainy Japan. Duh! I was wondering just what could Toyota possibly have thought would fit such an awkward, slim slot.....not a map, not a CD, not coins w/o sliding all over, not pens (too dangerous in an accident), etc.

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Windows -- found out in this rainy season that for whatever reason, the outside airflow past the side windows really don't clear them of rain at all unlike other cars. The drops just sit there w/o moving, and even rolling down the windows don't help much -- for whatever reason again, they used some felt lined window seal that doesn't clear the windows of rain either. Anyways, that's very annoying vs. my old Sentra, and makes it a pain to see right on very rainy days.

Rear window clears off quick with the wiper, but looks like all of the water spray kicked off by the rear tires and whatever goes over the top flies right onto the rear window pretty quick. The usual problem of vortex being built up behind a hatchback.

Anyways, whenever I get a dry day, looks like every window will get a new coating of Rain-X ASAP!! (The stuff really does work -- water just rolls right off.) Here, the outer mirrors need them as well -- again, rain just doesn't roll off them as well as on my old Sentra, and forget rear view vision out the sides on rainy days -- this car needs more wiping off than I'd expect for something straight out of rainy Japan.

Well, it's either that or the windows off the Lexus LS430 -- they've got special silica (as I recall) coatings that repel water just like Rain-X, but w/o the hassle of application.

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So far, the car has stayed pretty solid so far in the rain -- no scary wipeouts yet, so at least the stock (previously noted on Tirerack.com as being a 'AVOID' model) Bridgestone RE92's work decently in day-to-day driving on this car. They certain don't push water out like better tires, but as long as you slow down, you'll be fine. The feedback from the steering wheel on hydroplaning is decent -- you get a feel as it starts to go so you'll know to slow down a bit.

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Why they designed it with a SUV-look (ala interview with the Ist designer on Toyota Japan's website), but didn't give it any more ground clearance is beyond me -- esp. for SUV-ville Los Angeles. The ~5" of clearance they've got on the xA just isn't enough to clear some of the flooded streets here, and that recent video of a Jeep going straight through a flooded street to pickup his girlfriend and return on the news just made be wish I had a Hummer. (Ahhhhh, 16" of ground clearance and 30" of water depth clearance!)

Oh, well --- crazy Japanese -- they make the outsides look like something, but often fake the insides for practicality (like who's ever going to need 16" of ground clearance the designers ask themselves....).

Then again, what's the point w/o a V6 or a 200+HP/200+ftlbs engine? It'll never be the SUV on ground clearance alone.... (they've got the 4wd tranny in Japan already)

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Here, at least it's designed about the right height to slide you're butt into the seat w/o having to squat down much at all -- this is a nice change from my low Sentra or even lower Civic. Don't have to worry about bumping my head on the sill so much =)

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Argh! Another problem with the almost vertical side glass/doors -- open them and the entire inside gets wet in seconds from the falling rain. They should have made it more curved on top ala my old Sentra (where the doors went up to where the rubber seal is on the roof of most cars on both sides; actually most sedans have this design -- look at them and they're sort of a ( or ) shape.). This keeps out the rain when you've got the doors open, and is totally workable.

At least the rear stays perfectly dry -- the big hatch opens up like an awing and keeps the entire rear spot free on a rainy day.

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Hmmm, wonder what's the click? Start the car, start driving, and usually as it speeds up past 5-10 mph, there's something that seems to click in the front. Never repeats itself after it's done, but maybe that's just a rock in the tire? Seems like something's activating.....

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Guess they didn't apply the 'all controls will have even lighting brightness' Toyota applied to their top of the line LS430 to the Ist -- some controls are a little darker (AUTO window down) vs. the others at night.

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Gas cap and door design is interesting. On my ol' Sentra, it had a gas cap holder in the door so you didn't have to worry about it falling, swinging or bumping into you during fillups. Here, Toyota designed the Ist with a plastic band that prevents the cap from falling to the ground (which will eventually break or scratch the paint), but no cap holder in the door itself.

sigh.... you'd think they'd spend a few more dollars so it would be as nice as a ~Sentra?!?~ of generations old (93' model), but guess not. Personally would have prefered that vs. the plastic band, but suppose it costs more to make a metal holder attached to the gas door.

At least fill up is easy -- spout goes right in, docks easily, and lets you do the auto-fillup/popup thing w/o having to hold the nozzle in place (unlike some cars that are just fussy).

Not a lot of gas goes in - about 8 1/2 gallons with about 1-2 ticks to go, so just like my old Sentra - tiny tank.

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Gas milage continues to be so-so -- looking at about 150 miles at the 1/2 mark, so that's less than 30mpg given the almost 12 gal. total tank size (probably marked so you've got 10-11 gal. F to E, with a gallon or two spare).

How they got 31/38 is beyond me..... (and I'm not even racing the car -- just easy day-to-day driving).

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Door handles are nice - big, smooth, enough room to fit with gloves one, and just about the right height. Nice touch on a small car. (Hate the boring ones where you have to roll your fingers under the flap to pull and open -- these pull-to-open bar handles are much nicer. A plus is emergency crew will have something to pull on in an accident.) Maybe next gen. we'll see the Vitz's auto-unlock when approached car security system?

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Car's got a decent amount of insulation -- even on cold days, it's not that cold once in the car (my Sentra was freezing). And it heats up decently fast as well, so heated seats and steering wheel isn't needed in moderate climates like LA (hah, hah). A block of driving and it's usually getting too hot with the dial on RED hot and the vent on the 1st or 2nd speed (nowhere near the fastest).

Vent fan is only noisy in the 3rd and 4th fastest positions -- when will these car designers ever design a fan and vent system that is QUIET at max?!?

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The COLD engine light (Blue) always comes on in the mornings, and it's the oddest thing to see in a car. Like so-what? The manuals mentions it, but says nothing about what to do when the light is on.

Certainly wish they'd explain what, if anything, it's really for (besides telling you the engine is cold; and yes, I already know, maybe the oil needs time to warm up and circulate).

I can understand when they've got a cold engine warning on a BMW M3 or something exotic, but a ~100 HP engine?

Let me tell you, my Sentra's engine ran fine for 150,000+ miles over 11 years w/o worrying about a cold engine at all. So unless they dropped in the most fragile engine on the planet into the Ist, Toyota, please, get rid of the silly thing (or let us know what we =should= do when it's on every morning).

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still wish the dials were right in front of me instead of in the center of the dash. still wish both were white/red on black instead of the gray on white + red on black the dials are now (at least they partially fixed this on the Vitz - going back to white on black).

Never understood why they'd think having such a bright light right in your side vision at night (unless you turn down the console brightness) is such a good thing?

Car makers should be banned from making 'costmetic' silliness after they've found the optimal -- here, plain red or white on black is the best. And keep it simple ala my Sentra's dials. A quick glance at those at any speed or time was instantly readable -- unlike those on my xA. Sigh..... (and no super fine divisions either -- like anyone cares in L.A. if they're going 66 or 67 mph! Hello? Try 80 or 100mph <grin> And even then, the cops don't care until you're well over 80mph around here.... everyone's already blasting past on the 405 daily at 75-80mph to being with).

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Door handle finger slot on the inside is just big enough to drop a credit card parking pass into for storage. Keeps it handy, doesn't have any chance of dropping out, and works. Better than flipping that center console up and down all day, or using up that awkward lower open slot. (What we need here is the flip out box console they've got as an accessory for the Japanese market Ist to replace everything from the ash tray down in the center console; or just a nice open, rectangular DIN slot).

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Rear wiper doesn't have intermittent mode, nor tied into the front wipers. Sigh.... sometimes, the rain just doesn't fall fast here, and it can squeek on the only setting it has with an almost dry rear window on a light drizzle.

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Ride is not affected much by carrying two other people. It pretty much drives and rides the same to me, so that's a good sign the engine isn't too underpowered for the chassis or that the supension is too soft.

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Strange -wide as this year's Civic, but it's harder to reach back there to the rear seats to grab stuff than I remember in my old Sentra (93). Seats are really close and the space in between really doesn't let you reach much back there from the front. Wonder where all that width went?

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Rear armrests. Still wondering about these as well -- why they made them so much smaller than the front ones?!? Like who's got arms that thin? (yeah, the Japanese, but who else?) Maybe they figure only kids would be back there? Still, wondering why they did that since you really can't rest an arm on them -- they just roll right off these slender rests.

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still tough to back up due to the headrests, big rear pillars, etc. Here, the new Vitz will have fixed a bunch -- they made the rear door dividing pillar much smaller than on the Ist, and restyled everything back from there to 'hopefully' allow better rear vision.

At least it doesn't have a high trunk lid ala most compacts nowadays -- that's just bad -- the slim rear view back on most compacts is just crazy vs. the nice and clear view back I had in my Sentra. Oh, well - guess none of the car designers cares about running into a short kid or whatever's back there....just having bigger trunk space to report to the specs. dept. so they can say in their advertising they've got more trunk space than the competitors. (Even though the latest short lid, tall trunk opening compact cars are less useful than the older cars with long lids and shorter heights -- here, you can't fit many items through the tiny 'slot' they've got now as trunk openings.)

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Plastic side sills -- argh!!! Spot like crazy after rainy days, and why they didn't spend the paint and money to paint them is beyond me.

Things like this make me wonder who's in charge of design. Like on the Sentra I had, the water channels on the roof were completely shielded from the sun by the upper part of the doors that wrapped right up and over them. On most other compacts (eg. ist, Civic, etc.), they're just two rubber strips that run front-to-back on the roof, and like anyone who's had them knows, they're among the first pieces to deteriorate and fall apart in the sun (ie. looking quite ugly as well).

One less thing to worry about is a better design. Would have loved to see them redesign it ala the Sentra's covered water channels.

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Plus - the door window motors are smart. Once all the way up or down, they don't continue to operate ala older cars like my Civic. Smart!

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Wipers are nice up front. They pretty much clear everything off the windshield except a patch in the upper right looking out. That's decent coverage and they leave a big area dry, leaving you with a nice view out front.

Strange but true -- the wipers are the noisiest thing on the car up to about 60mph -- past that, wind/tire noise matches. Car must be pretty slick -- maybe it's in the same range as the 0.30 Cd they reported for the new Vitz? At least you know it's not a NOISY car ala older generation compacts.

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70mph is about 3000rpm for this car.

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No lock on the glove compartment =( No interior light in it either =(

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Raining cats, dogs, and sheep today, and the streets are often flooded here.

Took the xA out for a pizza run -- basically, forget anything faster than 40mph with the rains pouring as heavy as they are today -- the tires just don't have any more grip -- good time to think about Aquatread replacements if you're driving in rainy states -- and you'll definitely lose grip if you try to go any faster through the flooded right lanes.

The side windows are even worse today w/o any Rain-X on them, and it can turn nearly impossible to see anything not lighted out the side windows when the rain's coming down so hard the wipers in front can't even clear it fast enough on the fastest speed. That said, the rear wiper is now a touch too slow with rains this heavy -- another reason Toyota should have tied it into the front wiper speeds.

Anyways, rear stays suprisingly dry with the hatch open, so it's really, really good coverage as long as the rain doesn't start blowing sideways.

Too bad Rain-X needs a dry windshield to be applied - haven't had a dry day in days here...

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Tip for good pizza - Gina'a Pizza. They've got a few spots open in Orange County, and the House Special Pizza with House Salad is always a great combo. Keep you warm on a cold day.

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Tip 2: If you don't want the xA to smell like Pizza, grab a medium (10 gal) or regular (13 gal) white trash can bag before you go out, wrap the pizza box in it before sticking it in your car, and roll the top over a few times to keep the steam inside. You'll arrive home w/o having the entire car smell like a Pizza shop the next day. Good for rainy days, too - otherwise, that pizza box will become drenched, and so goes the pizza. (It's really wet today!)

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Brakes remain super-easy to modulate even in these conditions, and you know just how much grip is left in those tires as the braking distance gets longer under the same pressure you'd normally apply. Good feedback, works well.

Parking brake holds well to a light accelerator push - the rear of the car bounces a small bit in complaint while holding still, and you get it right away - to release the parking brake.

Have you ever been diagnosed as having obsessive compulsive disorder?

Make your car smell good... Put your cologne in the glove box and leave it there. When you get in the car to go to work, give yourself a squirt and one for the back seat.

My wife loves the smell of my car.

Too bad Rain-X needs a dry windshield to be applied - haven't had a dry day in days here...

Where did you get that piece of info? I just re-applied Rain-X to my cars, 2 in the garage, 3 in the rain, all with similar (excellent) results. Try it!

Parking brake holds well to a light accelerator push - the rear of the car bounces a small bit in complaint while holding still, and you get it right away - to release the parking brake.

What is the point of this exercise?

>obsessive compulsive...

That was when I was in high school and didn't let any of my friends bend the spine of my paperback books I loaned them so they'd be just like New! *O* Much better nowadays =P

But it's still a good thing regardless -- all of the rainy days picked up so much stuff on my shoes, you can just see the gunk on the plastic bag I used. Definitely wouldn't want all of that in my car in just one week (or smelling like that) -- so notes for those out there that keep clean cars.

(Or maybe it's that Irvine thing starting to rub off farther north? Start living around there too long and everything starts to get 'standardized-sanitized' to the point where you can't even paint your house the 'wrong' colors.)

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> Rain-X in the rain?

The bottle label said clean windshield, so figure it wanted a dry one since it's a liquid and how would it stick if it's being washed away at the same time?

Anyways, no chance of trying that tommorrow given that it's going to be sunny again, but whatever -- one application can go a few weeks easily, so might as well get it on while the sun's out.

(and have to try out that AutoWash kit, too to see if it really doesn't leave any water spots on the car --- our water normally does)

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>parking brake hop

Just posting whatever I notice. Everyone drives the xA, lots of people want to know more about it before they buy (even I wanted to know), but few post their comments on everything but the most obvious (we all know the xA ride can be bumpy - what else?).

Anyways, on some cars, you just tap the accell. pedal and the car goes w/o a hop or skip. This one does, so it's an extra reminder to release the often forgotten parking brake -- for those that are considering the xA and want to know. Most won't care, but some will (having driven miles w/o noticing perhaps).

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Today, new arrrgh! That darn glove box is tough to get out to get to the air filter behind it -- I just had to look because it was in the manual. Definitely one part that won't accidentally come falling out w/o working it (or maybe it's just my box?) because the two side tabs holding it in are just $#&!#@ to push inwards to unlatch the box. Very sturdy, so a good sign they haven't gone too cheap inside.

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Is it just me or do the front seat belts (esp. the metal part) always bump and scrape the side pillars, and tough to get to sometimes?!? Theres less gap here than on some cars, so they can take fingering about to grab hold of. Almost like they want you to lead them all the way back to their resting positions getting out so they won't be wrapped around and a hassle to get to on the way back in.

still, not as bad as the Civic Coupe 95 I have. that's a real REACH way back there to grab the darn seatbelt! (wish they had a clip to hold it closer forward) still, odd but true - still like the auto seatbelt on the Sentra 93 I had -- just hop it, close the door, and way you go!

But the seats are settling in nicely as well. Feeling more comfy after a few hundred miles, and I can imaging going hours in them w/o any problems. (no where to go recently - mountain roads snow/flooded closed)

They do take quite a bit of force to unlatch so you can move the forward/backwards, and unusually high vs. the other cars I've had. Here, you typically have to use one hand to pull the front latch, then another to muscle the seat back and forth (when you're not sitting in the seat as I might add to note). Other car seats usually can be moved with just one hand on the latch, and that's it. Definitely gets in the way when vacumming.

When you're in the seat, they also require a greater force to move them back and forth vs. other cars (at least the ones I've been in). And it's harder to move them up or back just one notch w/o having to concentrate, esp. so when you're moving the seats when you're not in them. Maybe they're trying to do that SUV design concept thing a tad too much?

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Wonder if I noted it earlier?

Those grab handles feel cheap! On the outside, they look normal, but grab hold of the ones up front, and you get the empty space of a plastic ribbing with lots of empty space between them on the back side. Sort of takes the 'oooh, nice' feel out of everything suddenly and it's a bit out-of-character given how nicely the other dials and controls are made. They do flex a bit, so pulling on them hard.. who knows? maybe they'll just pop out? Probably won't happen, but they flex like they will. Maybe someone heavier will find out when they use it to pull themselves up?

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New hubcaps for '05 models?

Catalog only shows the 5 spoke (square edges), 6 spoke (square edged), and 3/6 spoke (angled) hubcaps as options.

(Speaking of which Power Toyota Irvine, never did ask me if I wanted these or one of the free others I should have been able to pick from. They should have offered ala catalog statement.)

New six spoked thing with circular openings (see my pics), so wonder if that's a recent change for this year or something old and recycled?

don't even see it on the scion website on during a customize-your-xA build.....

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Rear hatch area of the car has got to be the easist to catch dust. It's just filthy today, so figure may have to be cleaning this area more often than the rest of the car. The straight-down shape of hatch's means the airflow drops right off the top in the rear, turning into a vortex that just spins and lands dust all over the bumper, rear and more. On rainy days, that vortex just sucks up the spray from the rear tires and lands it right back on the rear window as well.

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Noticed this car doesn't really have a proper trash tray, but at least one of the cupholder spaces acts nicely as one in a pinch.

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Speakers are still settling in, and it's still kinda of off and on at times. Sometimes, the same setting seems Loud, other times, not as Loud. And placement of the vocals go from behind you to in front, so it's kind of touch and go what the custom Pioneer sound processor is doing when set with the xA preset.

At least Gwen still rocks on her new LAMB album. "Crash" seems oddly appropriate in the mornings waking up on the way to work.

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blasted right past a gray xA on the way to work today, and almost missed it! the gray really makes the xA not stand out much at all, and it looked like any other ol' hatch. Good color for those that don't want anything that stands-out. Color also doesn't make the car look like it's too tall (sometimes the white xA I have does), or too small. Not my first or last pick for a xA color tho....the xA should grab eyeballs!

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Hm, chrome tailpipe finish! Nice touch! Don't see it often on a $13k econobox, so it's a nice upgrade that helps the xA look better for free.

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Defroster works well. Takes only a few seconds on the proper settings and the front windshield is clear as can be. Working a lot quicker than my ol' Sentra.

Here, comparing the 93 Sentra to the 05 xA shows the difference years of design development can add to a car. Although both are nice cars - Sentra is the go-kart that brings smiles, xA is the city commuter that's smooth - the added everything on the xA just makes it so much better -- nicer seats, smoother controls, more sensible this and that, and all for the same $13k list price they both sold for. (It's almost like inflation never existed!) Little differences on both - like lock on the glove box on the Sentra, none of the xA. But much rather take the air filter on the xA instead for that (helps a lot in smoggy Calif.)

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Good use for the ash tray -- small LED light and retractable box opener blade knife. Never know if the xA might just flip with all these floods just like the other cars on the news and you'll need to cut the seatbelts to get free. (Of course, the third thing I'll need is something to break the glass underwater...) Here, the disposable ones that have a plastic body, a push to extend blade button on the side, a spring that auto-retracts the blade, and a razor-blade cheap looking blade are the best -- cheap, so you don't worry about losing them, auto-retracts so you don't have to worry about retracting them, and deadly sharp -- they'll cut right through any fabric just like that.
Best when you get them free at various conventions as give-aways.

(same goes for a nice pen to go in the glove compartment - give-aways are the best - just got a nice cheery orange one from the huge product manufacturing convention at the Anaheim Convention Center yesterday along with free envelope openers and the usual lot of freebies)

Of course, why they shipped a car with a standard ash tray and cig lighter in 'ohh-meeee-gosh-nooooo' trying-hard-to-be-100%-smoke-free California is beyond me... I'd much rather have them put in one of the optional storage boxes they've listed on the Japanese site than something many people won't use over here. (smoking rate is much lower in the USA of males vs. Japan - and let me tell you, they puff like mad over there!)

Or a 120V AC plug would have been way cooler to have in the xA than the above -- way future for a futurisic xA, and great for the cell phones/laptops/etc.

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Japanese page shows how the rear floor on the Ist is different than the USA model with a 1/2 fold where you can put items in the area where our spare is, while keeping the two areas seperated. Neat for the groceries, but wonder how to get that configuation on my xA - new floor? toss the spare? Hmmmmm, have to think about this one....maybe more room than I thought back there if I redid things...

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Bought 24th Dec, all of the papers (monthly payment, extra warranty) from Toyota came yesterday. Not bad - about 2 1/2 weeks with breaks for Xmas and New Year's - so expect quick processing of the loan docs and stuff if you go with Toyota Finance.

For those that want to know, you've got 17 days or so every month from when they expect the bill to arrive until your monthly due date to pay. Should be more than enough time in case mail just gets clogged up where you are. Electronic payment is offered as well as autopay, so these options can help you out as needed.

still waiting for DMV to send the plates, so we'll see how long that takes.....

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In case your insurance asks, the address of Toyota loan isn't the same as the Toyota Payment location, nor the location where the Toyota lienholder is located (and that important last bit isn't printed anywhere in the papers you get).

Make sure they call up the customer service number on your bill to verify the current Lienholder address to process the insurance papers properly.

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I just wanted to thank you for the info on the rear view mirror. I'm 6'3''. It really helped my view to the passenger side of the car by raising the mirror up. I've never seen a rear view mirror that could be adjusted up and down.

I think I've noticed height adjustable rearview mirrors in mid 20th century American cars, but don't remember which ones.

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Updated my picture gallery with three new photos - xA vs. the Nissan Murano!

You can see that the xA is almost the same size as the Murano from the side view and it doesn't look that small from this angle. But from the front or rear.... well, it still is a compact car, and looks like it.

The hight of the xA is really noticable, and you can see why I say it's like driving a small truck sometimes -- you're almost at the same eye level with other trucks and SUVs vs. sitting low in other compact cars.

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He means the double-jointed adjustment of scion's mirror system... But good, snappy reply!

just saw a black xA on the way into to work - nice color! and definitely a good pick vs. the 'uglier' (IMO) gray. Polish it up and it'll look nice in black! Doesn't look that small in traffic vs. the white xA, and can slip in and out of traffic w/o too much notice.

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Hey!?!

Since when do car headlights blink in response to the door window motors?!?

On my xA, everytime I flick the door window control to lower or raise them, the headlights go dim just a little bit (hardly noticable).

Maybe a secret way for xA owners to wink, wink at each other?

(just pull up on the controls to raise the already raised windows and you can wink & keep the windows closed at the same time while blinking the headlights)

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http://conics.net/shop/frames/notebooks/sony-vgn-u50/middle-sony-u50-70-spec.htm

Hmm, tiny 1lbs touchscreen laptop... Wonder if it'll fit a double-DIN slot and how it'll look under broad daylight in the xA?

Might be something to consider as an alternative to the usual stereo systems made for cars -- here, you can load up the HD with thousands of MP3, movies, and more!

And if some wireless internet card is hooked up, live internet feed in the xA?

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Definitely NOT getting 31-38MPG as the sticker said. Going to run it down to empty, refill, and try again, but it's getting 25-28mpg here right now assuming each marker on the dial is about 1gal (with ~2 in reserve given the almost 12gal tank).

What is the exact marker to gal. value?

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Hm, just noticed the dash near the knee is not parallel to you. The side closer to each door is farther away from that knee. Maybe that's why the xA's crash test

http://safercar.gov/NCAP/Cars/3177.html

has an asymetrical femur load?

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Seeing more Scions zip right past everyday now -- today, it was a gorgeous 'orange'ish bb (xB) and a silver tC on the 405. bb was yummy and stood out right away! tC still has the gorgeous coupe styling I like -- a 95' era Civic updated in my eyes.

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anyways, dropped 50+ miles on freeway driving today, and the xA is as jumpy as ever. You don't notice it that much on smooth streets, but on the often bumpy 405, the xA can get jittery as a jumping jack, and the tummy feels the kicks of the suspension quite a bit.

Definitely avoid buying the xA if you had Camry smooth ride in mind!!!!!!!!

Still don't know if I need to put more miles in to wear it in, but the xA might just need a suspension upgrade soon at this rate if I do more freeway miles (luckily, not - work is close by).

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I was looking through the glass today to clean it and wondering why the interior wasn't that hot despite the summer-like day today. Green-ish glass? Looking at my other cars, the glass looks greener than the others, so I'm suspecting that even though it doesn't say on the sticker, the xA has some sort of heat-blocking glass similar to the Camry's? Or maybe just thicker glass? They might not be as effective as what's on Toyota's higher-end cars, but it does work well enough to keep it a touch cooler out in the sun. I wonder....

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4 weeks out in the open and the xA is definitely looking for a bath & wash! White picks up a lot of dust and dirt fast, and hopefully tomorrow will be a good time to test the mr. Clean AutoDry car wash kit.

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The gas low indicator is next to the odometer reading, and it's not that noticable since it's only a black on gray LCD icon flashing away (unlike a real LED light blinking away, which I'd prefer).

Goes off about a needle width from Empty, and fill up from there is about 9.5 gallons. Didn't mark the exact start of the last fill up, which got me about 260 miles, so we're still doing under 31mpg (city rating of the xA).

We'll see what's the mpg the next fillup, but I have a feeling the xA is nowhere as gas efficient as the sticker says. =(

(class action ala that other car which reported high, but got low mpg....?)

This time, the pump didn't auto shutoff, but rather just click-click-click...'d on, so apparently, the xA gas interface may not be as amiable to auto-shutoff gas fillups....or maybe it was just a broken pump nozzle? Will have to see how that goes in the future as well (will the xA go up in flames one day...?).


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Odometer has two trip meters which is nice, but no way to pause either one of them =( I would have prefered that to keep track of the distance to one place while tracking the current distance to another. And resetting them is definitely a bend-over-the-dash reach (vs. my other compacts), so putting everything in that center console has it's drawbacks.

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Visor is high enough that you can clip a speakerphone cell phone to it and make calls ala a built-in hands-free system. It's nice that the xA doesn't get very loud in city driving, so you can easily hear the other party.

Thing with the visor still is that it takes a lot higher amount of force to pop it out of the latched position to swing it around than other cars I've had, so it's definitely a 'low-price-car' feel thing. Wonder if they changed visors from the Japan to USA model...?

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Fatwallet.com/forums/ -> free stuff has been nice recently. Just jumped in on one of the free CD case offers usually posted there, and got it yesterday. Very handy for keeping the CDs in the flip open in the center console, and lets me keep more CDs in there (vs. Jewel cases). The soft neoprene (on my freebie) is nice - doesn't scratch the flip open cover when it bumps against it during driving.

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The Mr.Clean AutoDry car wash kit got its workout yesterday. It's actually got four steps - rinse, suds, rinse, final rinse - so you're gonna be out there spraying a bit. The wash part was the most fun - the suds smell good, like some Japanese-made soap, and with the mitt (optional), it sure got all of the dirt off the xA in no time flat. It was nice because you simply squirted more suds on with one hand, mitt'd with the other -- no more bucket duty! But, you do take longer because you have to go through 4 cycles of putting water/suds on the car in all. The final step, well anyone would be skeptical, but it did do the job of having the water dry w/o spotting on most of the car. The few areas? My fault for doing it in bright So. Cal sunshine despite the rules against that on the box - but the usual - windows, and toosh - the water just seemed to streak a bit down it's butt. But otherwise, the rest of the car dried w/o having to touch it with a cloth, and that made me happy! No more ugly swirl marks; no more arm work to get the car dry before the water spotted all over.

So, I figure it's a 90% there kit, and worth it in my book. I'd do the widows seperately anyways - Rain-X treatment after using Stoner's Glass Cleaner - so no problems if the widows get a bit spotted anyways. (not only that, I've found that smog residue just simply doesn't come off even with a suds and wash - you really do have to use something like Stoner's or Windex)

Fun was the plus, so I zipped right out and bought more soap and filter for the next year.

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Maybe a Scion car wash meet ?

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Stoner's Glass Cleaner is one product I'd recommend over Windex. Whatever they did - it sure cleans glass a whole lot easier w/o dripping or running vs. windex, and it always gets my glass crystal clear. Good product in a spray can - find it at auto stores.

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Rain-X. Definitely works on glass, and you can even drive on rainy days w/o the wipers (depends on rain & car). The xA has windows that just don't want to clear themselves of rain drops easily, and those drops just sit there - on the mirrors, the side windows, the front and back windows no matter how fast you seem to drive. Well, RainX these and rain drops just slide right off them like butter.

Definitely recommended given how bad the side windows clear -- ie. they don't - and it's really hard to see out the side (don't forget to do the mirrors, too!) on rainy days.

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My friend, who owns a BMW 5 series, just sat in the xA today and loved it. strange, but true. The xA definitely feels higher-class to some people than the $13k price would suggest. The dash texture was one point that stood out from the usual econobox; same with the cushy seats.

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Very odd -- I'm finding lots of places in the xA where they're using foam?!? as spacers/gap fillers/etc. I'll post pictures later, but one example is in the engine compartment right where the hood hinges on both sides -- they've got black foam there for whatever reason, and I'm already pulling my hair knowing that'll be the first things to go in this car.

What is Toyota thinking?!? Foam like that just doesn't stand up to weathering or sun, and maybe all of us xA owners will have pieces of ugly foam bits flaking off in a few years.

One place where they use the foam is between the front glass and the dash. Right there at the lower edge, you can see the foam. On my xA, it's not even, with some parts sticking out more than other parts along that edge -- very un-Toyota like and it almost seems like something a Hyundai would do - fast, cheap, and imprecise.

Makes me wonder.... maybe it is true what they say about the recent trend of younger Japanese getting lazier... (unless it's the robots if they've got these car windshields autoassembled...., but when do robots get lazy like this? and where's quality control after it's assembled to double-check?)

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Dash and side door material is that crazy material that picks up white-ish marks whenever a person rubs them wrong. For whatever reason, it just is. The only thing I've found that takes them away easily? Grab-it static cling dry wipes. Brings the interior back to brand new just like that.

Thinking about it -- I don't recall another black interior car that picks up marks so easily. maybe it's whatever 'new' material Toyota put into the xA?

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The glass is definitely heat blocking to some degree - in today's 80 degree+ weather, it was not very hot at all getting into the xA parked outdoors, and the glass is definitely darker green than regular auto-glass.

anyways, it doesn't mean the car won't get hot! -- days like this still demand the AC to be on, but the combo of four windows rolled down for a few seconds + the fast acting AC means you won't be sweating long. Nice thing is that the windows do open all the way down, so you get a nice cross breeze that literally swaps the old interior air out for new in seconds flat on the road.

The fabric seats are nice, too! It may get hot outside, but they're never too hot to sit on on a hot day.

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Rear wiper doesn't flip and stay out, so you'll have to hold it with one hand when applying RainX, or cleaning the rear window.

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Three notches down, about three gallons since the last fillup, and still about 30mpg. Sigh... guess it'll never hit 38mpg....

Rain-X does its usual wonders - water just rolls right off the front and side windows just like that, and helps with the usual condensation that collects on the car due to the early morning mist/fog/moisture.

Happy I got it on -- here, used the Rain-X wipes rather than the bottle and found that you really go through about 5-6 wipes for all of the glass on the xA instead of just one. Here, RainX is lightly saturated on the wipes, and so the sheet will evaporate quickly, well before you've had a chance to do more than a front window, or two sides.

Still getting <30mpg on the ~9.5 gal fillup (down to two notches before empty), so we'll see if this baby will ever do better!

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Looked under the front seat for some lost quarters, and found an under seat vent?!?
Hmmm, looks like the rear passengers get some vents (although hidden), too, so that's a nice touch for a $13k car!

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Hmmm, was the flip-up center console compartment ever lit during the night in normal driving? I thought it was, but it only lights up when I open the door.

Anyone check their xA? Headlights on, at night driving, center console lit or not lit on the stock xA?

Hate to have a broken something on a new xA, but it seems odd -- shouldn't it be lit so I can find my CDs at night?

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Tires and xA are settling in nice -- it's not a race car setup, but for a town car, it's nice on dry days -- enough grip for most regular stuff, decently quiet, handles well, and no real problems here.

So even though the people at tirerack.com say it's terrible, it's really okay for most regular town driving on the xA.

Just don't go zipping around corners too fast -- the xA was tested to have 0.74g in that one car magazine review (2004 model).

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The setup is interesting -- when I'm driving city, the xA sounds like some fancy metro or electric rail car. The light whirl of the engine and tires as it speeds up, the same as it comes to a soft stop in light driving. Soothing in fact....

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The front seats - still can't adjust them to be totally comfy ala my 95 Civic coupe seats. The latter fits me just perfect, and I don't squirm or move about like the xA after long drives. The xA seats here don't have enough lumbar support, so you can hunch a bit if sitting straight. Lean back more and the seats just don't cradle every part of the back as well as the Civic seats, so something's always feeling a touch left out.

Nothing too distracting, but I do notice on longer drives.

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Forget the little Sony U50 for a dash computer! One look at the super-tiny fonts on the super-tiny screen and you know those Japanese designers went nuts -- you have to hold it up to your face just to make out fonts that look still too small.

What were they thinking?!?

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Otherwise, nice car and still crusing along in the first month of ownership...

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Saw another gray-ish xA today - definitely not my color! Looks dirty and way too small! Back to white and red for me!

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The center `oven` in the console lights up only when the doors are open in a stock xA. I wish it were otherwise. It would be nice to have the ability to turn it on without having to rewire.

Driving the ups & downs in Laguna Beach streets and finding the automatic transmission to be as smart as Toyota says on their Japanese website.

They say they've put in an intelligent hill climb/descent transmission that keeps the car in gear and at set speed when going up/down hills, and that it doesn't shift continuously through gears on hills due to small changes in speed.

Well - it works!

I'm suprised in a car this cheap! But pretty much hit a hill at whatever mph, and you don't have to push the pedal down any more to get it to stick at that speed all the way up.

Then, on the way down, simply pick whatever speed you like (use brakes and accel.), then simply let off the accel. pedal and the car will stick to that speed all the way down. The baby simply doesn't need any traditional downshifting/brake tapping on the way down, and it's pretty dead on -- never changes more than 2-3 mph max from what it's locked onto.

Very nice - like those hill ascent/descent systems in more expensive SUVs - and it takes a lot of worry out of hills. (and a big difference for me coming from older cars w/auto that don't have this feature)


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Of course, on peek under the rear of the xA on a sunny day reveals a box stuck to the underside, lots of exposed piping, and so forth -- don't go thinking this baby will do hills and rocky terrain w/o breaking something! There's quite a lot of exposed parts that'll fall off it they get hit on the underside (wish they'd done something to make the xA more like a true SUV).

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1 week - that's how long a xA sitting outdoors in sunny weather will last before the rear gets grimy from the kickback and the usual dust in the sky. Rest of the car doesn't need a wash, but the rear looks bad. Unlike normal cars, this baby's gonna need some parts cleaned far more frequently.

Latest gas refuel:

269 miles, 9.2224 gallons = 29.168mpg =(

and it wasn't even with hard driving at all, just mixed city and freeway commutes.
Maybe they stuck the mpk sticker on and forgot to take it off for the USA model? ;P

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Okay, tires are definitely scary. Moderate (70%) braking stop today and the tires were already chirping/skidding a touch (just at the borderline, ABS didn't kick in yet) - and this was for a typical stop you'd encounter days in city driving.

They remind me of the skinny stock tires on many compact sedans - the ones where you brake to stop, but only skid and crash.

Tire change is a =must= for any parents and anyone wanting to stop in time in a quick stop. Figure at 70% braking the tires were already chirping, 100%, you'd slide right into another car and crash hard.

sigh... makes me wish for my Kumho/Bridgestone's on the Sentra... Figure if you buy a xA, get the upgraded tire package or drop in $1k to the bottom line for a new set of =safe= tires.

those tirerack.com reports were right about the scary part on this tire (bridgestone re92)...

2005 xA. Mostly rural highway. Rural towns. Some rural roads and a little interstate. Total 1373 miles. 39.002 gallon total fuel pumped. Lowest grade unleaded (no alcohol). Average overall 35.20 MPG. Highest per fill was 37.3 MPG. However the problem with filling the tank of this car makes determination of tank to tank average suspect. Only longer mileage computations have validity.

people should be damn pleased with anything over 25mpg. end of story lol. if u want a gas sipper try on an old aircooled bug , you race it hard and still get 30mpg. cheaper insurance and purchase price too.

On track once again to go below 30mpg on this fill up. Not gunning the baby or anything, just regular LA traffic driving, and the xA just doesn't like life in the high MPG crowd. Oh, well, at least 29mpg or so is better than my old Sentra (at 25mpg or so).

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This neighboorhood is quickly become Scion-city - a new dark blue xA popped up down one side street, a xB on another, and I'm wondering where they keep coming from? =P It's like you buy the first unique looking car on the block, then everyone else has to buy one <grin>.

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My white xA looks nice now that it has new, red Moshi Maro seat covers (will take pics tommorrow when it's sunny and post). The usual crazy-Asian-anime expensive at $70 from one of those Irvine, CA shops, but whatever! gotta love the stand-out red! Of course, anyone with some time could always sew a few pieces together themselves, or get a local shop to sew them to spec.

Maybe what we need are xA-logo seat covers?

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Just realized not only are the front vents different distances from your hands (thus one is always hotter/colder than the other), they're also spaced differently horizontally.

This is yet another vent-design-flaw because I realized that you can never really get the air coming out of the center vents off your face entirely while pointed in generally your direction to heat/cool you. (The other vents nar the windows are just fine.)

Best I've gotten is to have the closest center vent pointed slightly down and towards the middle to get it off my face, but then there's less cooling/heating than I'd prefer.

Wish Toyota really thought the design a bit better -- they could have easily taken care of this problem in R&D.

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Cheap & quick interior map lighting - bookstore, get a small LED book light, clip to one of the vents, and off you go. Was at Waldenbooks and they had a bunch for $10 for a tiny little thing that's just a clip and the light on a gooseneck that can fit into the palm of your hand.

Still have to figure if I want to spend all of the trouble to rewire and put in some BMW ceiling mounted soft-accent LED lighting to shine down on the front area....

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Okay, it's not quiet. Friend's Lexus ES330 is far quieter at speed and the suspension is way better at soaking up ruts, but the xA still isn't 'bad' like older generation compacts. Definitely not as good as even the latest Mazda3 hatch my other friend has for ride, but oh, well. Can't beg for the world in a $13k runabout.

Honestly, the Mazda3 is a great hatch to compare and buy for about the same price if you're looking at a xA - same thing, bigger, smoother ride (and if you've got $, more features to thrown into it). But at the same price range, the Mazda3 can be a better commuter if you hate bumpy rides ala xA. The rear area of the Mazda3 also has a more useful space as well vs. the xA, which really doesn't hold much at all.

(eg. you can toss a big dog into the back of the Mazda3 easy; forget anything but Paris's toy dog for the xA with the rear seats up)

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Rear seat fold down is fine - but you have to make sure the front seats are forward enough to let the rear headrests clear the back of the seats -- otherwise, they'll get caught on the way down.

That said, you can adjust the seats so their comfy for most drivers w/o having to re-adjust for the fold down - here, 5'8" and no problems with front leg room and enough clearance in back for the fold down.

as an example of how the xA fares insurance-wise, state farm quoted me:

multi-car discount, $500 deduct, comp, colli, etc. - above avg. $ for everything (forget, not the standard minimum)

sentra 93 - 322 (paid off, but totalled in an accident - my xA replaces this

scion xa - 400.25
civic - 445.10
corrola - 445.10
mazda 3 - 422.08
camry - 433.56
prius - 471.92
G35 - 492.96
C320 - 516.34

Er, for how many months at that price? Is that quarterly?

I live in Houston, Texas (which is in Harris county) which "boasts" the highest insurance rates in the nation. I haven't gotten a quote for my xA yet.

My Camry is about $127 a month and my record is absolutely spotless (and I'm a 32 year old male).

Oh, that's for 6 months (1/2 year) quotes.

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Anyways, out with the flu, so no picture updates today.

Did have my worst nightmare a few days ago - saw 5 xBs and 1 xA in the course of a few hours driving here in Los Angeles. Scions are definitely not unique here anymore, and they're popping up like Civics. <grin>

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At least I had time to scan all of my new Japanese Ist brochure & magazine articles into my computer today -- the full Japanese catalog is sweet! and it confirms that they've put in standard UV blocking glass (extra green looking) into the xAs. That's a nice touch on a $13k car, so less sunspots for us all!

Naturally, they had to taunt us with pictures of their DVD navi system, automatic climate control system, and rear view backup camera monitor - all the usual goodies they love to strip out of cars coming to the USA. Sigh.....

Also gone, the adjustable seat height, the HID system, 4WD, etc.

Suprisingly, for a multi-year old design, the Ist still ranks in the top 12 of best selling cars in multiple car sales rankings in Japan.

Anyways, now that I've got over a 700MB of scans done, time to burn them to disc!
You can definitely get a lot more information on the Ist/xA from these Japanese magainzes and sources -- they've even got the usual comparative reviews of xA vs. other cars in quite some detail. Whew! At least the flu has its benefits - I got a lot of scanning-Ist-work done today!

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One suprise was the sneak preview in the Jan issue of one of my Japanese car magazines -- had Toyota's latest Vitz model completely detailed and explained.

WoWa!!!!

I'd vote this baby for the next xA replacement right away! It's got a ton of improvements over the xA, and nice features like the Sharp Plasmacluster Ion generating air-cleaning air vents! (kills bacteria and removes odors)

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Yeah, wish the USA didn't go cheap on brochures -- we really haven't got a nice xA brochure that really explains everything it has. (Like the Hill Ascent/Descent smart auto tranny.) At least the 34 page Japanese brochure has whetted my appetite quite nicely!

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Any chance you can post up some of those scans for us to gawk at? :D

I could, but only a few pages at a time -- I don't have the bandwidth to host 1+GB worth of BMP scans. I could try and convert to JPEG, but the quality suffers noticably even with low compression settings (the complex Japanese text just goes blocky on the edges).... That would maybe cut it down to about ~100 MB? Anyone have that much bandwidth?

Either that or I could burn and mail CDs/DVDs of all of the scans to anyone interested for a few dollars to pay for the effort, materials and postage.

What do you guys think? $10 for a DVD full of iSt scans?

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Yea!!!!
Buying a xA rocks!

For whatever reason, 1 month after I bought my xA, Toyota Financial decides to mail me a $50 gift card good for any accessories purchase. I've read that one of the Scion reps. said in a report that Toyota doesn't make a lot of money on the base sell, but rather on the accessories instead. Whatever, it's a good plus! Now I gotta go figure out what to buy!

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Yawn! And one month after the purchase, DMV finally sends me my plates. You'd think they could mail these babies out faster than that with so many in stock.... Go figure - only the gov. could make things so slow as the DMV (don't even want to get in their lines! no way!).

I wonder if there's any iSt license plate frames in Japan to buy....?

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Wish the MUTE button on the radio also PAUSED the CD. It's a pain having to rewind a few tracks after a cell call, and it's a longer wait to POWER the unit off and on again. Esp. so with audiobooks.

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http://www.scionlife.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4088&sort=4&cat=500&page=1

Today's cheap mod - PSP for movies & music instead of a standard head unit.

Just got my new PSP (Playstation Portable) from Japan, and I was wondering just where I'd put it. Happily, it looks like once I get the mounting hardware done, it'll fit just perfect right up front where the stereo is. You do have to buy a big Memory Stick Duo to fit a couple of movies in, but it's easy to convert them on the PC.

The controls on the PSP are easy enough to use on-the-go as well, so maybe I won't be buying that new head unit after all =P I'll have to wait until it gets sunny here in LA again (mostly cloudy/rainy days this week) to see just how bright the 180cd/m screen (max on batteries) will look under direct sunlight. Maybe it'll be bright enough?

Anyways, hope Sony comes out with an optional GPS unit (like they showed at E3 last year) and maps for the USA - that would make the PSP an awesome & cheap upgrade!

Picture slideshow feature is pretty good as well - you can have a bunch of Toyota iSt ads shuffling by on the screen as you go. (Hey, Toyota! If you really want to suprise us, not only drop in a standard GPS/DVD unit, but one with changing iSt screensaver graphics!)

PSPs are going cheap in Japan nowadays - only 180,000 Yen (~$180 USD), so I wonder what the market will be like when they release it in a few months from now in the USA? Definitely blows the Gameboy away for graphics and screen quality! And the built-in MP3/MP4/JPEG capabilities make it fun right out of the box.

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Overdrive button on the auto tranny is definitely 100% computer controlled and there's no mechanical linkage to the trans underneath. Unlike older compacts where you can definitely feel the gears shifting as you click the button rapidly, the xA protects the transmission by delaying the gear shifting for up to a second as the engine spools down. Don't expect to see any miracle instant shifting and splash of power on this baby! (On other auto compacts, you can 'downshift' the engine sometimes and manually get it to spin past 4000rpm by clicking the OD button and mashing the accel.)

Definitely a smooth & easy city commuter, this car!

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Tried a short freeway commute and got around 32-33 mpg! Yeah! So it can get above 30mpg! But I'm back to city, so the mpg average has dropped once again below 30mpg for this tank of gas.

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Seats are settling in - maybe a break-in period? They're easy on the butt and back now, and an hour freeway drive flies right by quite easily.

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What are the pluses of this car? Smooth & easy. It shifts smoothly (ie. transmission shifts w/o a hiccup), gets up to speed easily, brakes with a light touch, and generally everything works smoothly and easily. Not Lexus smooth, but you can feel the similarities. Anyways, definitely a good pick vs. the Civic.

That said, 1k miles & 2 months later, good pick? I'd say so. As long as you don't mind the small trunk and can-be-sometimes jittery ride, it's a good car. Short length makes parking a breeze anywhere you go, and the higher ride is definitely a plus vs. the other, shorter compact cars on the market. No real regrets here! =)

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Hearing from how high the manual trans revs, and having been in one, I'd definitely test and drive the auto if you're looking at a xA. It's pretty good at the city 0-45mph range, and short of trying to race/zip by some flying roadster, it has enough pep to get you up to speed w/o having to mash the accel pedel past 1/3rd. Quieter drive overall as well, and add to that the smart hill climbing/descent feature, it's the right match for this car, IMO, for a daily driver.

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Speakers are settling in better - not as 'odd' sounding as they were at first, and most music plays fine on them. Front tweaters crossover are interesting - sometimes, you can hear the timbles coming from both the tweeters and the front, lower mounted mids, and that's confusing. The audio sound placement isn't as refined as it could be - or maybe they need to tweak the Pioneer sound processing a bit more for the xA?

It's really odd when the voices sometimes come from below, sometimes from higher up depending on the octaves they're in.

(Of course, an 'awesome' factory upgrade would be something like the Mark Levingson stereo system from their Lexus line =P Friend's ES330 is sweet!!)

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Pioneer deck is funny - you'd think they'd get the disc stabilization right after all of these years, but nope, the baby doesn't play discs w/o skipping nearly as well as my Philips portable CD/MP3 player.

I was just crossing lanes on the freeway, car went over a row of Botts dots, and suddenly, the CD was skipping. I waited a bit, then drove over another row, and right away, the CD stopped skipping.

Luckily, it doesn't happen most of the time - just now and then when you go over a bunch of dots or some bumps in the road. It shouldn't happen at all - but oh, well - at least the deck mostly works.

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Lack of interior lighting on the door controls/handles/etc. is a minus. Friends are always trying to find the handle/latch at night, and I wish Toyota had finished lighting the entire interior as they should have done. Lighting only a few of the controls on the panel & front is okay for day driving, but night, they should have had everything lit.

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Rear hatch is still nice on rainy days - well designed and it covers you and the rear from rain pretty well when open (excepting times when the rain is going sideways). No drips on your head, no rainy gathering insides, just works!

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Besides noticing that the odo & the radio LCDs are polarized in the opposite direction of each other (ie. when you're wearing polarized sunglasses, you'll tilt your head one way, and only one of the two LCDs will be readable. Usually, it's in between and both are barely readable), noted that the fuel gauge needle does not stay at the current gas tank level when the car is turned off. Bad! This means for travellers and others, you'll have to start the car to check the remaining fuel level each and every time.

Very annoying!!!

Toyota should really have kept it simple and simple dropped in the usual ol' analog fuel meter & odo instead -- they're super reliable, works, and you can read them any time of the day regardless of whether the car is on or off. Sometimes, trying to get everything 'electronic-ized' is just a waste of everyone's time (including the designers who had to come up with an electronic odo & fuel guage to replace perfectly fine analog ones), and they don't add any real benefits at all.

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Anyways, besides that, noticed today that the sloping dash is also annoying vs. other cars where it's flat/flatter. You can't put anything there temporarily while you're getting gear into the car, so guns, pens, hunting knives, sunglasses, etc. all slide right off if you forget. No real reason Toyota couldn't have put a flat deck there in front of the driver to store maps, small gear, etc. - that would be so convenient. (Or at least made a popup stowaway ala the Nissan Sentra's center dash popup to put things into to make use of space better. On the Sentra, actually, that's where the Navi unit is supposed to be, but they stripped the USA model of that.)

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Don't know why they bother to red line the guage to 8000rpm at all. You can mash the accel. pedal all you want, but on mine, it's automatically tries to protect the engine and autoshifts once it gets up to about 6k. If the engine is never going past 7k, no point marking the guages so, IMO!

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Noticed the MP3 unit doesn't read Japanese character filenames, so that's a minus. Was hoping that a car made in Japan would at least think of leaving in Japanese music filename readability, but nope, just a bunch of *s instead.

You can get your engine to go all the way to 8000 RPM, its easy, start going down a long hill in first, when you get to where you would shift just press in the clutch(or shift to neutral) then when you reach about 60mph pop the clutch or drop it into 1st. it will make it to 8K (and blow up your engine).
The reason the MP3 unit doesn't read Japanese filenames is because it's an American radio.

If you need someplace to put stuff while shifting try placing it at the angle between the radio and center console.

Seeing as how I really don't need to worry about how much gas I have when I'm not driving and when I start the car I always check my gas anyways.

Lots of driving around and the xA is settling in well. On the Bridgestone RE92 tires, you do notice the difference in tire pressure - 27-28 psi feels soft, bumps less noticed, but below the recommended. 32 psi lets you know almost every moderate bump you go over (not bad, but you do notice), and the car does feel rougher than at 27-28 psi.
RE92's are weak in grip, so right hand turns at 25-30mph cause the tail to squeel.
Got another Japanese Ist magazine and noticed that the Japanese model has an extra storage area under the steering wheel

lots of good information in your thread here adorable....but you fail to mention what speeds you typically drive at...if you are zipping along at 80 mph do not expect to get anywhere near the EPA estimates...if I tried that in my 97 Olds Achieva I am currently driving my mileage would plummet from 30ish mpg to around 20 to 25 mpg...I am in the process of trying to get a 2005 BCP xA...mine will be the 5 speed version...I am not shelling out $800 for the auto...that and it has been awhile since I was able to shift my own...last manual tranny car I owned was a Fiero...fun car but no power at all...some gas mileage tips...
keep tires properly inflated...this means look at your door sticker not the sidewall of the tire...while you can overinflate your tires to squeeze more miles per gallon out you increase the wear in the center of the tire... shift at moderate RPMs...don't run up to the redline...auto tranny drivers...this means don't floor it unless necessary follow the speed limit...this is where the EPA figures for mileage estimates...not 80+ mph... keep a clean air filter in the airbox... run the recommended viscosity oil... run the recommended octane...it has not been proven that increasing octane increases mileage... on highway trips use cruise control if you have it...the ECM can keep a steadier speed than you can, trust me...and maintaining a steady speed is key in getting optimum mpg... avoid taller tires...and even a wider tire will have an adverse effect on mileage but not as much as an increase in diameter...

Oh, that's easy - read the title of the thread!

That usually means - city 45mph or so; freeway - 80mph +/- 5mph or so.

Mixed driving only gets me about 26-27 mpg consistently over 10+ refills.
Only time I topped 30mpg was driving almost all freeway miles, but even then, only 31mpg.

I think you'd have to drive like a turtle to get the rated MPG on the sticker.

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:(... =(...

very sad today

Just picked up the latest Best Car magazine in Japanese, the 4/26/05 issue, and saw two very disappointing articles.

1) New Vitz TS180 with a 1.8l engine and 190hp! in racy red paint.
My xA wistfully looks at this one and wishes she had the 1.8l....

2) Corolla Super Runx hatch - nose looks like the Vitz, body looks like Vitz elongated. 2l 260hp standard engine, but 300hp 4wd option!
My xA's heart thumps and is very, very sad =( =( wishing it had the 300hp option + 4wd like the Japanese ist models.

Heck, at this point, even a 150hp TRD Japan upgrade to the baseline xA doesn't even interest me vs. the above... Really hope Toyota smartens up and really drops in what we want - 200hp base, 300+ prefered - into the xA with some 4WD option for an RS model!

Long time since the last update - the car went through the first free oil change without any problems. Took it to the Garden Grove, CA dealer for the service - nice and quick.

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As for the car itself, note a few things:
1) It's not as quiet as I first thought - yes, it's quiet if you compare to econoboxes, but after being in a few Volva S60s and Lexus ES330s, well, it's simply okay. Not obnoxious, but you really can't get past the road noise (maybe a tire change will help here to quieter tires), and the wind noise (audible once you're up to freeway speeds or faster than about 50mph).

2) Thankfully, the stock stereo system is solid even at higher levels (eg. 30 volume) so you can really crank out a tune w/o hearing anything else even with the windows down at freeway speeds.

3) The paint on the front hood gets nicked easily. Sigh.....

4) Parts that always gets dirty fast - front windshield, rear tail, top - esp. with a white car. Sigh.... Thankfully, the Mr. Clean AutoDry car wash system for $20 at most stores does the trick beautifully - quick and easy way to get the car washed at home w/o much fuss. I really, really like this system and the car is nice and spotlessly clean afterwards.

5) Stoner's Windshield Cleaner spray can - this is THE best windows cleaner I've used! It really, really gets the gunk off better than Windex.

6) Rear hatch expands/contracts during hot days, enough sometimes that the latch & release sticks quite a bit. Sigh.....

7) Black plastic used throughout the car does pickup white from simply brushing against it with your skin. Sunscreen wearers leave a more noticable streak as well. Sigh.... I've been in cars that are easier to maintain and don't stain as easily just brushing/rubbing against the surface.

8) Three Dials for the temperature/air settings in the console - noticed at full OFF position, they're not aligned the same direction. Wish they could have done that to make the area more symentrical ala the vents, etc.

9) Backlighting on the guages - orange (and to a smaller degree, white) backlighting simply isn't bright enough vs. the latest other cars (eg. Inifinity M35 series). Wonder why they didn't put in something with a little more umpf?

10) PSP (Playstation Portable) drops in nicely w/o any mounting attachment right where the speedo bay is! Very nice! Instant video-on-the-go while driving (best at dusk to night - can't see it in daylight) around =)

11) ABS is very touchy - baby goes active well before you'd expect it to in other cars, and it can catch you off guard when making some quick changes in speed. Same goes for the electronic braking assist - sometimes, it grabs harder than you expected because it 'thinks' you're panic breaking rather than just having some fun stopping quick. All-in-all also toss the stock tires - they simply don't have much grip at all, and you can easily start skidding w/o much work or speed. Okay for slower, day-to-day driving, but I wouldn't even bother with them if you're trying to stop quick to prevent an accident - replace ASAP.

12) Vents - still awkward - I keep them in defrost setting so that the air goes above my head and cools from top down. Regular mode in sunny So. Cal = the vents either have to be angeled away from you, or they'll blast air into your eyes or at you in awkward ways. They really should have put the vents farther apart with better flow management and/or a diffuser.

13) AC - okay for most weather, but in Sunny Summery So. Cal, it's going to be on a 2 or 3 (out of 4) setting most of the time. Sadly, 3 = the AC noise goes up a lot, so you'll have to live with that or suffer at a slower, quieter 2 setting. Wish they had thoguht of this and made the vents silent up to a 4, if not at least a 3.

14) 38+ MPG!?! Get real! Ain't getting sticker EPA no matter what - get real! It's a solid 28-29MPG, 25 with AC on and heavy accelleration, in mixed so. Cal city/freeway driving.

15) Just not enough storage bins big enough...

16) argh! Just when I thought the cup holders were nice because they're big enough to hold larger sized cups, find that tall bottles like Aquafinia 16oz etc, topple right out in a hard turn! Ack! They need to be made with taller lips so that these cups/bottles don't get tossed out! Bad cup holder design, bad!

17) Sun visor requires too much force to pop out of the clip. No idea why they did that - just inconvenient.

18) Rear bumper is so-so. It really picks up the debris kicked up from the tires, and does get marked/spotted/nicked quite easily. Terrible design! The rest of the car is still 'nice', but the rear bumper is really picking up quite a bit of spots and so forth.

19) Why do they require a right angle drill to mount the rear mud flaps?!? Argh.... another silly part to buy! They should have pre-drilled the whole mess at the factory so it'll be an easy screw-on job. Nope. Nor did they think of including the mud flaps in the rear with the car.... Stupid.....

20) Otherwise, besides these nitpicks, it's been a fine subcompact to drive around and park. Easy to get in and out of any spot, and decent as a city cruiser.

http://www.infill.co.kr/main/index.asp
In dash PC from Korea! Just drop it into the standard stereo slot, and run Windows!

1. Drat! Normal mountain bike doesn't fit in the rear with the seats down and the forward ones all the way front. Only the smaller woman's mountain bike fits, and just barely! Sigh... time for bike racks.... And getting the bike into the rear is a real twist and tuck - practically like a chinese puzzle getting it in w/o scratching anything. Wish they thought of this and made the xA a touch bigger to fit a bike.

2. Engine is usually just powerful enough to let you squirt past traffic, but now and then, you'll be wishing they tossed in a 200hp+ engine. Why they always underpower these subcompacts...

3. The CD player does skip over bumps. Wish they'd fix that! Even my portable CD Player does a better job than that.

4. AM sound volume for Los Angeles channels are always much lower than FM/CD. Wish they'd fix that as well. It's annoying going from a volume of let's say 10 to 25 or the other way around.

5. Front left plastic housing around the tire well is already a little loose. Don't know if it's because the front underbumper hit something, or if it's just loose because of jitters. Have to get that tightened up a touch.

6. Plastic hub & retainer for the gas cap is getting a bit tight. It tries to turn with the cap now when putting it back on - unlike before where the cap would spin w/o the retainer spinning with it. Wish Toyota simply had put in a metal clip on the door to hang a normal cap off of like other cars.

7. Latch for the rear hatch, underside, really, really gets dirty and filled with dust fast! Have to always make sure to clean it out when washing - wish it was designed better w/o so many openings to let dust in under the handle.

8. ooooh, side-mirror with signals on the new 06! Must upgrade!!

9. Other than that, an easy car to drive, no real downsides, a great buy for the price and still happy with it.

1) Tires are still stock, and still crazy! Barely do a 25mph right hand turn, or moderate braking on the freeway, etc. and they squeel right away just before the ABS kicks in (if you're braking harder). Still saving up for new tires & rims, so stuck with these very sad and dangerous tires =( =( =( Seriously! if you buy a xA, do yourself and the insurance company a favor and upgrade to something fatter and grippier. These stock tires have no grip at all, and even my old Sentra would have done loops around the xA.
You really do have to test and get used to the stock tires for daily driving - gotta know how far you can push them (not very) before the slide, and before the too-sensitive ABS kicks in (which can be activated going over a bump with the foot on the brake lightly at slow speeds even in a parking lot!)

2) Why is Scion charging $60+ for a set of rear mudflaps that should have come stock?!?

That's the price at the local dealer, and although they look easy enough to install, the biggest problem ?!? The fact that you have to drill four holes into the bumper to install these flaps, and you'll need a right-angle drill (rare) that's short enough to clear the tire to wheelwell space, with the drill bit attached. In other words, most people will go out, find that nobody carries a right-angle drill that short, and you'll have to make do with a right-angle drill attachement on a regular drill (which will be a touch too long for the lower hole).

So what to do? You can either remove both tires, get a proper right-angle drill, or drill through at an angle and hope that the hole in the liner is close enough to the bumper hole so that when you screw it all together, you don't have the liner being pushed by the screw, creating an ugly gap between the liner and the flap/bumper.

Why they don't predrill and/or simply install the mudflaps stock is still beyond me.....?

Anyways, making do with a right-angle drill attachment ($19 Harbor Freight Supply in orange county , ca) to a regular drill, was able to drill the holes decently enough with a bit of trial and error. Duct tape helps to keep everything in place, but you still have to watch out about the drill getting too close to the tire sidewalls when drilling (or pop your tire) at an angle. Everything screws in after that, and it's about 30 minutes total to install both mudflaps, including time to gather the right tools, run the AC cord, setup, clean the area, etc, and put it all away.

Very easy for the most part, and anyone who knows how to run a drill right can do it just fine. (Think Ikea tough, not rocket science.)

If you can't get the holes drilled right, get a mechanic or someone with the proper drill to do it for you first - they make all the difference in the proper mounting.

That said, they look perfect on my xA - like they were supposed to be there, not like some mudflaps that look awkward, and hopefully, this will cut down on the dust and debris kicked up by the tires onto the rear area of the xA (which always gets dirty fast). And, hopefully, rainy days to come, someone behind me will thank the flaps for not kicking up tire spray from hell like some cars w/o mudflaps do.

3) MPG is still <30 mpg, typically 25-28mpg on this automatic xA with mixed city/freeway driving and occasional AC. Not much better than my old Sentra at 25mpg for sure!

4) Front bumper lip is a touch too low going into dips - often get it scraped because of the airflow flaps in front of both front tires, and not wanting to slow down all that much. Wonder how much of a clearance it'll get once lowered?

5) Front of the hood where the logo is just got a new mini-crack along the plastic horizontal dividers from something kicked up from the road =( Definitely not as sturdy as my old Sentra or Civic, and looks like they're putting in cheap parts into the xA up front. They were right when said that the xA gets chips and so forth up front a lot easier than other cars! Maybe they ought to go back to putting up nice wide swaths of shiny strong chrome up front like the old days...?

6) still don't know why the windows are UV & IR blocking green tinted, but not the front windshield where most of the sunlight comes through (which is clear). Be nice if they cut down on the light.

Hey,

Thanks for all the great info. I also live in LA and just picked up my XA this week! I definitely want to install keyless entry and am looking for a decent audio or car place in the area that will install it for me. Any ideas?

Thanks!

In response to the post from Adorable on 9/12, here are notes on my xA ownership experience:

1)I have the stock tires and have never heard any squealing, nor has the ABS ever came on. I drive on a variety of surfaces at a variety of circumstances under a variety of conditions. The tires are fine.

2)The mudflaps are priced seperately for the same reason all accessories are priced seperately: you add what you want and don't pay for something you don't.

3)My MPG is 34 combined city and highway.

4)I have a 2" drop and have only scraped the front end once, and that was my fault for descending too steep an incline.

5)I have no cracks in the front of the car, although I have gotten two small chips in the paint.

6)The factory tint is designed to conform to the regulations of 50 different states. I added aftermarket tint that is darker, but it is still illegal to tint the windshield here.

As you can see, not every xA owner has the same results or opinions.

Hey,

Thanks for all the great info. I also live in LA and just picked up my XA this week! I definitely want to install keyless entry and am looking for a decent audio or car place in the area that will install it for me. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Take some pics of your xA and post them in the 06 picture thread asapplease. We don't have nough good IIP pics.

Argh! Now another nick on the front A pillar from rock/debris. The paint on this baby is weak! or something! My other cars have never picked up so many paint chips so quickly!

Wish they had some option like the protective film they offer for the RX400h (http://www.lexus.com/models/accessories/rx_hybrid_film.html). At least that would hopefully keep the front end chip free longer.

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Yep, tires lock and squeel here for my xA. Just coming into work and doing a rapid 65 to 45mph braking on the freeway (silly driver ahead - loves to jump on his brakes for no reason) had my rear wheels lock a bit and squeel. Nothing hard enough to kick in the ABS system, but definitely shows that the xA needs better tires (ie. wider & lower profile).

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Still praying that maybe someday, my xA will stop gobbling gas and actually get above 28mpg! Past four stops have averaged around 25mpg. Maybe they're doing something to CA gas?

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Mudflaps still do better at keeping the rear clean vs. not having them in back, but due to the recent rain, can't say much more - have to re-wash my car again and see how fast the build-up is on the rear hatch.

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Stock single disc radio is still horrible at AM broadcasts. Far too much bass, too little vocals, and you have to manually tune the bass all the way down, the treble up a bit, and the volume up twice as loud as normal to simply get a decent, audible broadcast. Pioneer needs to talk to Grundig and see how they got their little YB shortwave radios to sound SO good - crisp and clean vocals - on AM broadcasts.

Makes me want to rip that baby unit out and toss in a 'proper' head unit.... sigh, budget, budget....

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Mr. Clean AutoDry car wash kit still does wonders on this car - easiest way to self-wash the car at home, and it's great in that you don't ever have to dry the outside at all to get a nice shine the next day. My #1 pick for doing it at home. (I hate swirls, so no car wash store for me)

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Cup holders are still too short in depth. Have Pepsi 20oz bottles flying across the floormats right after hard turns, and honestly, my prior Sentra did better at this! (Hate it when a car decades old can still do better in some areas than a new model.) More depth would have instantly solved this problem (wider, too! - can't fit anything larger than a typical 20oz bottle, so no Super Big GUlPS!... you'd think the Japanese designers would have thought about this, but there's no such as a Super Big Gulp cup in any of the 7-11s in Japan, thus, no cupholders that big in the xA.....)

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Other than that, pretty uneventful. Car just goes w/o a complaint, and it's pretty good at heating up quickly in the morning, has enough pep to squirt through most traffic, and keeps up well in Los Angeles traffic.

Here's news of one accessory they've got in Japan they should release for the Scions!

"Nikkei.Net (subscription) reports that Toyota will introduce a Citizen Wristwatch with a smart key inside to lock and unlock cars automatically.

For new Toyota Crown car owners the fumbling for the car key has an end. The Toyota wristwatch (developed together with Citizen) transmits via a radio signal a code to unlock the wearers car.
There is also a button on the watch to manually lock or unlock the car from a distance. The Toyota wristwatch will be available starting next week in Japan, where else."

Had a great time at Scion night at Knott's Scary Farm on Oct 26th, and was very happy getting in for free! It was definitely crowded, with lines at the main rides going 1 1/2 hours long, but after a nice dinner at the BBQ restaurant in Ghost Town, and shorter rides later on (such as the Aztec tomb ride with a 10 minute line), was able to go on five rides before they closed. Naturally, even the lines for the free entrance was longer than the very short line for ticket buyers who didn't have a Scion.

Could not believe how many Scions are in So. Cal - like every other car up and down the busy street and in the parking lot was a Scion. Naturally, boxes were the most popular, followed by the coupes, so my little hatch was one of a handful.

Very happy bonus for a Scion buyer, and a wonderful night indeed!

(Still can't believe they were giving away so many tickets for free!!)

I also live in L.A. and I drive 2.5 mi to work on Santa Monica Blvd, meaning lots of lights close together, no real speed build up, but not bumper-to-bumper idling. When I don't drive Highway at all, I get about 21 mpg max. When I take a trip and drive all Highway, I get 32 mpg max, windows closed, usually a/c. Car is 4 months old.

I'm getting pretty bad mileage too, although it's almost all hard city driving. I did a test once (where I was helping a friend move and drafted behind a Uhaul truck for fifty miles at no more than 60 MPH) where I got 36 MPG or something, but normally I'm getting low to mid-twenties.

Saw an ad in a Japanese car magazine tooting Denso's latest in-cabin filters which help keep the air inside clean, etc. so I decided to do something about my xA.

$19.99 for the standard 88568-62010 cabin filter - a cheesy, thin air filter if one must ask (wanted to see what the Toyota brand was like; next time, it'll be something nicer from Purolator (believe Bosch has a higher end model, too).

Installation was a breeze once the glove box was opened up. The hard part? Trying to get that wrapped screwdriver into both sides to bend the latches holding the box inwards to release the box. It's tough to do w/o scratches, and they made it harder than it should to release the box.

Anyways, it was a few minutes to do it all, and that's done. Only thing strange was that the manual noted 2 air filters, one for the slide in tray filter I put in on top, the other for a front filter to the box below. Must go back and find out what the bottom filter is....

That said, I agree with many here - easier and cheaper just to buy the Purolator filter and/or make your own from any good furnace air filter (from which you can easily make 4+ filters). Scissors is all you'll need, and the filter won't be going any where fast if you simply tape down the edges (that'll keep it in place, and prevent airflow around the filter due to high pressure).

I seriously wouldn't worry about air flow restrictions on something this tiny - you'd have to stuff socks in there to block anything to the point where airflow is really bad inside.

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Anyways, sad however, is to realize that they've also got the in-cabin Sharp Ion Plasmacluster add-on from Toyota Japan accessories for the xA over in Japan. That would be a good add-on to smoggy (worst! according to the newspaper) Los Angeles where my xA lives. Dusty Santa Ana windy days sure do kick up a firestorm of dust, and sneezes inevetably follow.

I was searching for comments about the fuel gauge and found your thread. Still haven't seen an answer, but it's been interesting reading your diary.

Every other car I've ever owned, Japanese or domestic, has used the letters "E" and "F" at either end of the fuel gauge to represent empty and full. Our Scion has "1/1" for full, and "R" for empty. Definitely a quirk.

A few comments on your experiences:
If typical LA driving means 80mph on the freeway, you won't get good mileage unless you tuck way up behind a semi and stay there. Spend that extra fuel budget on paint though...

Our manual stated that "some models" received the two cabin air filters. Like you, I found the empty tray for the top one, but no provisions for the front mount. Genuine Toyota filter element runs about $22. It's simply a washboard-molded thin white piece, and I'll definitely be cutting my own when it needs replacing.

I also had a chance to drive an '06 Camry as a temp loaner while options were being installed, and I checked the filter there as well. First, the glove box is much easier to remove - bigger, thus more flexible. Secondly, still no front cartridge, even though the manual mentioned it. Also, the tray accepts a framed accordion-fold filter similar to what I've seen marked as "HEPA" on vacuum cleaners.

The '06 stock radio may have been upgraded. One thing that took some setting was the speed sensitive volume setting. On high, it seemed too quiet at idle. Medium works well. Also, FM, AM, CD, MP3, and AUX all store the base/treble settings independently, which makes tuning for different sources more consistent.

It's not a Lexus, but it's not bad at all for an entry level car.

Well, entry-level is definitely it!

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Tested the xA along with the brand-new 06 Civic, and it's still a world of difference. Yes, the suspension in the new Civic is now as foo-foo as one of those ol' school American cars - floaty, gentle, forget about feedback - but it's definitely quieter and rides far less bumpy than the xA, which still jumps about like a jitterbug on the 22 & 5 freeways here.

If you don't like jitters, noise, or other low-cost car woes, just skip right past the xA and pick out a nice Civic or Corolla. I still can't believe how jittery this xA is once you've tested out a new compact competitor - they've seriously have got to drop in some nicer suspension gear!

One big reason not to buy the xA again, if offered! Seriously! It made some of my passengers sick to their stomachs on the bumpy 5 freeway! (something a Toyota Camry would simply glide right over)

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Just over 1 year of ownership here, and it's held up decently well.

The rear bumper is a joke! You can squish it and almost pop it off just by gently backing it up into a wall - ol' school metal bumpers never had that problem at all! It's almost like a weak soda can, so don't expect to have any sort of bumper protection (or any bumper left at all) in a crash above 10mph. These are definitely <5mph bumpers. Also, on mine, they get pitted/marred by road debris far easier than any other bumper I've had on other cars. It's also a joke!

(Yes, I'm sure Toyota had something in mind when they went and used softer bumper/hood materials/design for 'crash' compatibility with pedestrials, but honestly, I'm not sure if it'll matter if you do hit a ped. at any speed >10mph.)

Much rather would prefer a nice, solid bumper instead of this joke =(

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Yes, it's a mid to moderately high noisy compact. A new Civic blows it away by far - you can talk at a normal level and hear low volume speakers in the Civic just fine, but in the xA, speak up and raise the radio volume.

As an example, at <40mph, you can hear the radio at a level of 6-7 easily on good roads. Once you're up past 65mph, gotta crank it up to 11-13 =( This car was definitely designed for the slower Japananese streets and speed limits (ie. <100km/h).

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Tires on the xA is a joke - RE92's squeeks like a mouse going around turns, and you've gotta be kidding if you're gonna feel safe in panic and wet weather stops (keep a long lead in front!)!

On the other hand, nothing like making a 180 degree turn in a parking lot and squeeling all the way around =P Makes everyone else think you're some tuner-boy going too fast, when you're actually just annoyed at the low-grip tires giving you no charms at all.

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Trunk is still too small. You can fill it up far too fast to be useful, and another foot to the design would have made the rear passenger entry doors more friendly, and the trunk more useful. They do have better super-mini compact car designs in Japan from other makers, esp. with more trunk space in the same length package. (Just goes to show that the xA design pushing 5+ years is getting long in the tooth....)

Simply buying a new dvd recorder deck for the tv and dropping it into the trunk means you'll have to squeeze the trunk lid closed just to get it to shut. Seriously needs more space.

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Rear Splash guards to help the rear window on wet days, so recommended. Then again, a nice coating of RainX on all of the windows does wonders, esp. for the side windows & mirrors, so highly recommended here. (Otherwise, the side windows are very hard to clear, even rolling them up and down, on wet days.)

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Paint on the front chips easily, still =( Bad Toyota, bad. All that talk about using a more crash compatible front design along with Eco-saving paints = paint job that sucks!

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Forget about the silly Toyota air filter - might as well make your own cabin filter from better filter materials. It's just so thin and pointless....

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Still don't know why they don't carry the Sharp PlasmaCluster Ion cabin filter for the xA here in the USA; they've got it for the Japanese ist model, and the latest Toyota/Lexus models have them. Scientifically tested and proven to kill germs and viruses, so why not? (given how much junk is in LA air...)

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Ignition on the stalk is funky at times. I can turn the key to OFF, pull it out, and the electrical system will still be active - ie. Radio is still on, vents going, etc. Don't know if it'll fail soon or what, but it happens once in a blue moon for no better reason.

I have to fix it by putting the key back in, turn it to ON position, then back to OFF and pulling it out.

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Forget about >28mpg gas mileage. I'm getting typically 25mpg all the time in mixed city & hwy driving here in Los Angeles =( Definitely needs EPA to update their road test figures.....

Anyways, one big reason why is that for a similar Toyota car, a Japanese car magazine article found that slight increases in speed resulted in huge decreases in mpg due to the design of the car & air drag. Boxy, tall shapes like the xA simply don't do well past 60mph, so once you're past the 100km/h design speed of this car (since it was targeted to the Japanese market initially), mpg is terrible!

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And, yes, you'll have to juice the gas getting on LA freeways here or get crushed by that semi just behind you, so no real choice in tough traffic here in LA =(

Forget about trying to outrun anything as well - gas to the floor, this baby is a joke next to anything bigger like a Civic, which can easily outrun the xA w/o even trying hard.

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Suspension and steering is still not as communicative as my 95 Civic Coupe, which rides lower, on better double-wishbones. Sigh.... why car makers insist on putting in anything lesser is beyond me.... The Civic is still a dream carving corners (for a cheap compact car, that is) vs. the xA, which is a bit more floating, and non-communicative.

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"The Glosser" towelet sold at PepBoys and other shops is a good and simple way to touch up a just washed car that needs a light touch up before a night out. Easy to use, gives it a good shiny wax, and does the job nicely. Recommended if you're too lazy to always wax & shine.

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Still the worst placement of front vent nozzles I've ever encountered in a car - the right one on the driver's side is just too close to the face and always blows air into the eyes and face unless you point it away - and that means either the passenger will feel too cold, or the head will.

This is one stickler where even side-to-side and front-to-driver distance needs to be identical for both air vents for that person, or else, you'll get uneven heating/cooling, and air in the face.

Total pain! One big reason not to buy the xA again if offered.

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Other than that, it's been a good car in the other points. So besides the above negatives, it's all positives otherwise. So, better buy the xA because you can live with the negatives, and the positives of being able to park this baby just about anywhere is a plus along with the style.

Adorable, do you still own your white '05 Scion xA?

Did you get better tires, if you still have your xA?

Adorable, do you still own your white '05 Scion xA?

Did you get better tires, if you still have your xA?

I still have the xA.

Here's my updates:

1) Scion == Scr*w the Customer!!!

Since the beginning, I've noted the AC just isn't up to par at times. This summer, after 95+F weather this week, I looked online again as to the solution - tinted windows? Recharging? etc.
Well, turns out ..... TSB AC006-04 says it all.
Toyota's own Screw-up Bulletin says that for some 2004-2005 xA's in the VIN range, the AC just isn't up to par. Their fix? COMPLETELY REPLACE the underpowered COMPRESSOR AND RECEIVER/CONDENSOR! =O
Yep, and it's screwed up because nobody at Toyota's dealerships ever bothered to inform me of this before their free 3yr/36k coverage fix ended!

Scion immediately gets my egg-in-the-face thumbs down for not bothering to notify their customers of such a big messup, and I'm stuck running the AC on Recirc on MAX for 20+ minutes.....and I'm still sweating in the heat inside my xA in shorts and a T-Shirt =[ this week.

To add insult upon insult, the Toyota dealer priced it out around $2100 (parts & labor) to fix this mess out-of-warranty should I choose to have this screwup fixed >.< >.< >.< >.< Until then, I'm sweating in my car with the AC on MAX, Recirc on....

2) Paint has got to be the weakest point of the xA, if not any car on this planet that I've owned. Heck, even my first 93' Sentra's paint lasted better! The baby chips like crazy over the hood, and it's just horrible how they went with an 'eco' paint (according to their Japanese brochure). Look, cars destroy planets! It's a fact! 'eco' paint that chips easier than an ol mans' tooth isn't going to make buyers happy, and I'd much rather they simply tossed on some solid, toxic paint that lasts forever instead.
Interior - ditto. Silverish paint around the radio is going, and I can see the black plastic already.

Look, solid paint that lasts isn't tough, and building an interior that lasts isn't tough either. My 93 Sentra's interior never once chipped/worn away like this because they smartly designed it without such silliness. Basically, if you can't powder coat it or do something equally tough, don't bother putting in or on a car!

Heck, even my mom's 95 Tercel's paint is nearly flawless vs. the xA's.

Paint on the bumper is equally weak - having picked up all sorts of road debris and just spotty. Weak, weak paint.

speaking of which, haven't they learned anything from Saturn's plastic doors yet? If you can mold a piece of plastic one solid color, can't they bother to do so with the bumpers?!? Instead of seeing black under it all, can't they simply mold them in white to match the paint and take care of this silly problem once and for all?!?

If you had to go on with the interior, GoDddd! What is wrong with Toyota putting in such an incredibly hard to clean dash pattern? All those dimple thingys just don't clean up well after marks and bumps. (At least, thank the Gods, it's not the horrible ugly looking plastic dash material they've put into the latest Lexus ES300's...) It's the type of dash material that just doesn't wipe down well at all... Next time, how about matte, flat at the minimum?

3) Suspension still sucks, esp. at speed on the freeways.
Can't believe how bumpy it is vs a 95 Tercel, which rides far, far smoother. NO idea at all why the xA is so bumpy, but it's annoying now for long daily commutes in LA. It's not the tires since I've moved on to Yokohamas with 80000 mile ratings on the xA, so it's the usual poor Toyota tuning going on here.

4) Tires. Dealer sucks here. For the longest time, the xA was scary to drive and wrap around corners. Even the mildest 30mph cornering would make the tires squeal. Replaced them with Yokohama Avid's and that totally took care of that problem - no more squeeking until you're easily far, far faster than you should be going, and otherwise, solid, squeel free, dependable performance. Old ones were a mess wearing out in about 30k miles.
Thank the gods for Discount Tire Directs 50% off sale late last year for these new tires!!
And totally research and get good tires for the xA! Even these 'cheapies' from Yokohama gets a very good rating from me for its superior 'basic road tire' design.

5) ABS still tries to kick in if you've got the brake just slightly depressed going over speed bumps fast enough with the accelerator down. Stupid, stupid design and I've got to avoid Scions in the future. None of the other ABS cars I've had or driven have had this problem - cheap sensor? Poorly designed? Whatever, it's just a mess.

6) Underpowered for LA traffic.
PLEASE, just avoid the hassle and avoid the xA at all costs! Even this week leaving Laguna Woods on the 5 fwy northbound up the slight incline of the traffic had me flooring the pedal and praying I'd get up to speeed before the bigrigs had me for lunch. You know you're in trouble engine-power wise when this happens, and they could have dropped in something with a bit more power? Heck, even the stock Civic 96 EX 2-dr doesn't have this issue on it's tiny engine. Neither did my 93 Sentra.
The gearing on the automatic xA is just messed up enough to drive you nuts! Gun it at any reasonable highway entrance or highway speed and it's sometimes not enough to get you where you need to be fast enough. Even worse! - the throttle response is computer delayed! None of my other cars have ever had this problem - shift, gas, and the response is instant. YOU control when and how much on the other cars, but on the xA, even if you've got the pedal to the floor, the lazy shifter/throttle may wait long enough to scare you to death as the bigrig roars over your butt. I know it's trying to protect the engine, but what's it worth when you're dead? (sigh.... memories of the good ol' days reving the Sentra or Civic all day long....)
The delay is long enough that it makes you wonder what in the world?!? happened to the engine/shifter on this car.

7) Bad mirror coverage.
It's not like I'm driving a F450 and need huge mirrors. But vs. even my 95' Civic's side mirrors (nice broad view), come on now Toyota! Get some mirrors in there that let me see a nice, wide, broad view of what's behind me. Those on the xA have such narrow tunnel view that I'm always annoyed I can't just twitch into the side lanes w/o looking all over to make sure no cars there. Lower the magnification on all of the mirros, and let us see more of what's behind us! (Clearly, Toyota designers on the xA were clueless to LA traffic driving... When there's a big mess suddenly in front, you've got to be able to go 1-2 lanes left or right Fast w/o having to crane that head around or else you'll die!)

8) Poor center console flip open storage area latch.
Bad enough already that it can get stuck and not open at all if a CD somehow gets into the wrong position (which I've had happen), but after a minor bump from behind in an accident, what happens? The lid pops open and everything goes flying about! Damn latch! Fix it like the glove compartment and stop trying to kill us Toyota! Come on now - anything latched closed should not open unless it's one of those car mangling crashes -- not a minor 10-20mph bump from behind.

9) Gas tank cap strap.
Already, due to poor design, it's popped out of the hole it was in, and even after popping it back in, the wrong tug will pop it right out. Again, poor design because a slightly bigger hook to the metal door would have eliminated this problem from every happening. But nope, Toyota design fails once again.

(I'd whine about the gas nozzle popping out too soon now and then, but it's supposidly fixed already based on TSB's. But the gas nozzle definitely pops out far less frequently on fill ups on my 95 Civic and mom's 96 Tercel....)

10) Bad glare on poorly placed radio.
Sunset on the 405, and the sun is right on the LCD panel of the radio and right into my eyes. GRRRRRR!!!!
There is a reason the radio is lower on almost all cars - no eyesight blinding glare!

11) Which leads right into the center display.
I still think it's the dumbest place for anyone to put the speedo. You've got to be psycho to think it's better to crane your neck sideways to see how much gas you've got left or speed/tach/etc. Not to mention that they don't use a circularly polarized LCD display only makes it a horrible mess trying to see anything during the day with polarized sunglasses. (Most sunglasses are linearly polarized, so they filter light along one axis. Circularly polarized LCD displays allow those with linear polarized glasses to see the display, but the xA's linearly polarized LCD display can be canceled out - ie. look 100% black - if both are turned the same direction.)

12) Can't fit anything back there and not 100% flat.
Too short to fit in a bike. Too narrow to fit in a big LCD TV. Too tiny to fit in much for groceries. Makes going to Costco or any supermarket a trunk + rear + rear floor + front passenger seat + front passenger seat floor trip.
It's bad enough it's small, but fold the rears down and you get the most annoying thing ever - the floor isn't 100% flat. You've got the bumps for the plastic bag hangers, the rear seats don't lie 100% horizontal, etc.

13) No interior door latch lights or contrasty colors.
You don't need lights, just chrome or something you can see in dark conditions, but you simply can't see where the door latches are on the xA at night. Terrible since it's a mess in an accident trying to feel about for the latches, but such a simple thing to have fixed in design - white/chrome color, glow in the dark, illuminated. everyone I've had in the car has had to feel about for the latch aimlessly and pointlessly.

14) Lies about the MPG.
Pray to the Gods for a miracle if this baby is ever going to get >32mpg consistantly. We're talking about 26mpg usually for city driving, barely 30mpg or so in LA freeways. Nothing at all like the 34MPG+ of the sticker.

15) No Super Big Gulp cup holders, or for that matter, 24oz of anything.
It's America Toyota. 64oz+ Super Big Gulps should sit in the cup holders, not in between my legs. How many decades have they been in the USA and still haven't learned?!? Dumb Japanese car designers..... Drives me nuts I can't even drop a 24oz bottle of water in any of the cup holders on the way to work >.<

16) That said, I will not recommend any Scion or perhaps even future Toyota's to anyone from now on. Instead, I will simply point out the mess and point people to better cars out there that don't mess up with a) screwed up ACs b) screwed up paint jobs c) screwed up design.

sigh..... saving up for an Infiniti to get back to something sensible....

5) ABS still tries to kick in if you've got the brake just slightly depressed going over speed bumps fast enough with the accelerator down.
I was going to point out that this is rather more of a driving technique issue than a vehicle issue, but then I read the rest as it devolved into incoherent and exaggerated drivel and realized that you're just an uncommon, sophisticated-appearing troll.

How can you even type on a keyboard that was deliberately designed to keep fast typists from jamming up old mechanical typewriters!?

:blah:

adorable, I think it's time you get another car :) Ford maybe??