Well a little history on me and my screen name first....


My old car was a 400+ Horsepower LT1 Powered Caprice. I had upgraded darn near everything in it, from new shocks/springs/swaybars, to engine mods, to brakes, and all.

http://home.insightbb.com/~grstevens80/In_Car.wmv

http://home.insightbb.com/~grstevens80/Dyno_Drag.WMV

Then I decided it was time to cut the cash flow to the car, and stop paying for lots of repairs (400HP in a big car likes to destroy transmissions) and lots of gas. 12-14 mpg on premium is not fun.


So I tried selling it local, with no luck, so on ebay it went: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4516360650


After shopping around alot, I started looking at compact performance cars, Neon SRT4, Focus SVT, Saturn Ion Redline, etc. None of them had any space in them. I am 6'3" and you would think finding a car with enough headroom wouldn't be a problem, at least I did. I was wrong.

At first I did not really like the style of the xB but it started to grow on me. So last Wednesday I stopped by the dealer to check one out.


14,195 for a fully loaded brand new car with space to spare and great gas mileage! Sounded too good to be true! I took it for a test drive (they only had an auto on the lot) and liked the way it drove but it just felt too sluggish for me. He told me he had one coming in any day with a stick. The very next day the dealer called to let me know the stick shift xB came in, I went over to check it out on my lunch break. When I got in it had only 3 miles on the odometer, I took it for a little drive and left them with a $300 deposit. The stick shift really helps it to feel a lot "peppier" and fun to drive.



Sorry for the somewhat dirtyness in these pics, it has been snowing on an off here in central IL for the past week.


http://home.insightbb.com/~grstevens80/Front.JPG
http://home.insightbb.com/~grstevens80/side.JPG
http://home.insightbb.com/~grstevens80/side2.JPG
http://home.insightbb.com/~grstevens80/side3.JPG
http://home.insightbb.com/~grstevens80/steps.JPG
http://home.insightbb.com/~grstevens80/crooked.JPG
http://home.insightbb.com/~grstevens80/interior.JPG




Now my plans are to transfer my stereo into the car, maybe tint the windows a bit darker, and I do want to get a cold cathode kit for the interior.


My buddy works at a neon install shop, so he can get me custom blown glass neon tubes for under $25 a piece, and transformers for about $35, so I can put together a good underbody neon kit for about $100. I am not sure if I want to do that though....

Eventually I want to get some 17" or 18" black powdercoated or painted rims.


All in due time though, one step at a time.

Very nice! Congratulations! I just bought one myself a week ago. First things first... stop by the local Walmart, KMart or Target and get some carpeted floormats ASAP! They'll only cost $15 or so, but they'll protect the carpeting from the wet stuff... and if IL is like the northeast, they salt the roads and sidewalks and you wouldn't want that stuff tracked in.

The nice thing about the xB is that you'll probably regain 50% of your garage space back! :lol:

Congratulations and welcome to the family!

Beautiful car, i like the color, i also think that car would look awesome with black caoted / painted wheels, thats waht im planning on doing, only with Camo Green. :silly: :clap: :clap:

Welcome and congrats !!
I live in a snow area too and agree. Get mats quick !! I got the factory mats and they are nice. I keep the front one covered with those thick rubber heavy duty ones you get for winter at K-Mart and such. Just my thoughts.

something about a nice clean stock box... it's like a fresh canvas...

congrats and welcome aboard!...

looking good in the snow! Great buy and welcome to the scion world.

Congrats and welcome to the family, now get tuning!

Hey, I want that front plate - Green, baBy...

Hey, I want that front plate - Green, baBy...


I bought it from "Green Toyota" I do not intend to advertize for them, and will be taking it off. If you really want it I can send it to you, just paypal me $5 for shipping and give me an address to ship it to and it's yours. If not it'll just be goin in the trash!



This weekend is the big stereo install, I will be putting in a pioneer mp3 deck with xm control, my xm radio reciever/mini antenna, a 4 channel eclipse amplifier bridged to 2 channels on a pair of infiniti kappa perfect 6.5" components, and a piece of junk sony 760w amp running a nice Rockford Fosgate 12" HE2 on a very custom "aperiodic bi-chamber" box in the back.


Should sound great http://www.fastrides.net/board/images/smiles/headbang.gif

Congrats and welcome! :clap:

Congrats.

My Xb is the best car I've owned in terms of FUN :) BMW, Mercedes, Ford, GMC.....whatever. The one thing they had in common was BORING.

Love the Box

Congrats and welcome! :clap:

i'm getting so geeked up i'm just blushing. mods baby mods.

i'm getting so geeked up i'm just blushing. mods baby mods.

Do you mean you are getting "geeked up" about my lack of mods?



I am sorry if this goes against most others, but I am not going to try and get performance out of this car.


I came from 400+ HP, there is no way this is going to even come close. I read somewhere that with the blitz supercharger they got it to run a 17 second quarter mile.


If I went all out I might be able to get 15's...My caprice did that stock....


I will put a stereo in it, because I am somewhat an audiophile. I may do minor suspension work (swaybars definitely, probably not much else). I will eventually get rims, I like the idea of the factory fog lights.....that is going to be about it.

If I want performance I will get a different car. I bought this one for comfortable reliable transportation.

Congradulations. I'm with you on the manual. I did the same thing test drove the auto, left disappointed, went across town and tried the manual. I felt a big difference. Only downer is driving on the highway for extended periods of time. I rev at 4k, and was used to 2.5-3k when cruising. Makes me a lil uneasy.

Gratz on your new toy though, you'll love it.

I suggest investing in plastic mats for your xB too especially with the snow.

Do you mean you are getting "geeked up" about my lack of mods?



I am sorry if this goes against most others, but I am not going to try and get performance out of this car.


I came from 400+ HP, there is no way this is going to even come close. I read somewhere that with the blitz supercharger they got it to run a 17 second quarter mile.


If I went all out I might be able to get 15's...My caprice did that stock....


I will put a stereo in it, because I am somewhat an audiophile. I may do minor suspension work (swaybars definitely, probably not much else). I will eventually get rims, I like the idea of the factory fog lights.....that is going to be about it.

If I want performance I will get a different car. I bought this one for comfortable reliable transportation.

This isn't made to be a performance car either. Good luck with your new xB.

Welcome to Life with a Scion.(ScionLife)

Sold 4/2/07.


interesting how different a couple years can be. Also sold the house those pictures were taken at.


I decided I needed something with a bit more zip, when I bought the xB i looked at all the sport compacts, could not find one i liked.


I made the mistake of driving the new 4 door civic Si.


Now I own one and the xB is gone :)


Lots of good memories with the box, not many people can say they had a 3 way active front stage and a pair of 18's. I think in the 2 years I had the xB I changed at least one component of the stereo every month, for all 26 months i owned it.

I see youre a rockford man,thats the good shiot! I have a T1 15" it sounds great in these lil trucks nice truck by the way happy moddin. :bow:

well damn maybe I should read all the post b4 I post.lol :rofl:

Haha, yeah that rockford did not stay in long, it had a loose coil and the rattle was driving me crazy.


Over the time I had the xB I had the following sub stages (no idea on the order anymore !)


Fosgate HE2 12 in a ABC box
Kicker Impulse 15's sealed
3 RE8's in a sealed box in the back
2 RE8's one under each seat
1 Elemental Designs SQ10 under driver seat
2 Kicker solobaric 12's (old school round ones) sealed
2 Elemental Designs 13kv.2's sealed
2 13kv.2's Ported
2 19ov.2's Sealed
2 13ov.2's Ported

i think that is all of em....


Pair that with 3 Headunits, 4 different front stages, And various combinations of amplifiers, and I really had a lot of fun with it.

yea im building a new box for a second t1 15'' and potin it. I know what you mean we are never saticfied.How you like your si?

I love the Si, not as much space on the inside, but I get similar gas mileage (burns premium though) and it is way sportier.


I just raced around with an Acura RSX-S (same engine) last night and had a blast.

I can corner like on rails, and it is very fun when you hit 6000 and rather than hitting the redline, Vtec kicks in and the car just completely changes attitude.


Looking forward to getting a bunch of stuff loaded into the Si as the factory stereo just is not cutting it.