hello everybody, i'm new here.

It rains alot here in seattle, as u all may know already. and snows sometimes in winter. i heard some bad things about the xA in those types of weather... plus i also heard that xA's are not good for hills either, and seattle has alot of uphill roads.

i really want one though, i dont care about the low HP, i think it looks great (im a big fan of mini coopers, though i can't afford one yet, being in college and all).

what do u guys think?

 

With regard to hills, the automatic transmission will downshift to third on an uphill grade of X percent. It will also downshift to third on a downhill grade. There is a graphic somewhere on this board depicting this. I seem to have lost it from my records. A safety feature perhaps.

The xA has anti-lock brakes.

The stock tires are considered poor by many. Mine are noisy. I have had no problem with traction but if I drove much in wet/slick I would get the best appropriate replacement tire that I could find. If I did a lot of driving I would replace the noisy tires with tires of better noise rating. I live alongside a state highway and am amazed at the noise from the tires of many vehicles. Sometimes it seems that one can hear them before one sees them.

 

Power is not a problem. It's not a fast car or a muscle car, but it certainly isn't going to die going up a hill. Test drive it....you'll see.
As far as bad weather goes, it's front-wheel-drive with ABS so that helps a lot. Before you even buy the car, factor in the price of upgrading the tires. The stock set weren't too great. I upgraded to a nice set of 16" rims and a set of Falken Ziex ZE-512 tires. They are rated as a performace all-season tire. I love 'em. They have great traction in dry, rain and snow. Plus they're quieter than the stock stuff was. I look at it this way, even if you spend and extra $800 or so on tires and wheels, you're still coming out ahead of what many other cars will cost you. And you get an xA

 

adorable posted a long review of the xA which covers almost everything about the car. if you have any questions about the car this post should answer a good bunch of questions
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39818

 

I live in Seattle and had the xA for a while. It's a damn good car and you won't have any problems at all... with the auto you really good great unf when you need it. I tackled all of Downtown Seattle's hills with no problem at all... take James's St from 3rd ave up to Harborview..think that is a 20 some odd precent grade? Anywho.. wasn't really trying but the car zipped up it at 40mph (oops)

 

the xa is good little car for bad weathers. besides the MPG that i hate the most, i have no problems with it.

 

buy one w/ a manual and the hills wont be a problem, cause YOU will control the shifting not the stupid cpu (computer). all of the power is at the higher rpm's, just like with any variable valve timing engine (honda's VTECs are the same way). but with a manual, you just keep it about 3000 rpm and you'll love the zip. i wanted a Mini too, but not for the xtra 10 Gs. the stock tires blow and would recommend changing them, but here in SoCal, the highways are not designed to handle the rain we've had the last 6 weeks which gives me that impression. in the dry weather they are fine. you'd be better off to just drive it in the rain, and if you need to change them, then do so. just put a little less down payment and save some cash in case. i am a college student now, the xA serves me perfectly. and there are a million things you can do to it down the road if you choose and when you get those financial aids checks... i have done a ton to mine already!

 

I like it very much i have honda prelude ,chrysler concorde, Tbird, and scion xa !!! ....all other cars compare to scion xa are 50% bad then my xa.......its manual and i love it in snow and winter!! u might have lil more problems with rims because 205-215 tires but u would have same problems with any other car.......i am recomending u to buy one ! ......

 

I was just searching for some info about stock tires on snow and came across this thread. If you want to keep your car at 3k RPMs with an automatic YOU CAN! Just downshift it into whatever gear is needed to rev up to 3k RPMs. It's really that simple! You can shift in automatic if you really need to, like in a situation when your going up a snowy hill. This has been covered in another thread so I won't start ranting about it.

Sorry for the kind of off-topic reply, just had to add a comment on this, it annoys me when people think that when you buy an automatic car that you hand over all the gearing decisions to the computer....

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...=shifting+auto