Picked up our Phantom xA auto last night. For some reason it's got more guts than the test drive wagon at Pre-toy. Zigs on the freeway nicely. Rides much nicer than our Explorer did and has nearly as much room (Sport Trac Explorer, the truck thing). Though we seem to be going through gas pretty quick. Half a tank in 150 miles on the freeway. Or has everyone seen a bit more gas useage in the first couple tanks. Had a full tank drove about 120 miles last night back from the dealer on I-10, 55, 65, 75, 85, and 92 once just to see how it felt. I've got to say they did a really nice job on this car.

I've got a question though, does anyone elses xA seem to run like a 2 stroke motorcycle? Like it's got a powerband, once you hit 3500 rpm the thing starts to zing.
I noticed that it's got a bit of punch from 1000 to 2400, but then seems to drop in HP, accually feels like it lost HP till 3500. Maybe it's just me being used to 2 and 3 times the HP as an xA but I found it kinda odd.

Oddly we've only seen 1 other Scion in town. Hopefully soon there will be more.

thats probly due to you have to break in the engine still, :?: :?: :?: lol

The powerband is typical with any Toyota 4-cyclnder.- they love the revs! I useually shift at 5k from 2nd to third, and third to forth...

as for gas milage- I have seen as low as 31 MPG, and as high as 36 MPG in my own xB.... Ive noticed if I grandma the engine it doesnt matter- what kills the MPG is city driving. yesterday i average 35.9 MPG on a 220 mile round trip (all highway going 65 MPH)....

just look at the hp/lb-ft graph. it makes peak tourqe around 4000. so when you get near peak it really starts pulling. then it makes peak hp near the top of the revs, so you get another little pull up on top.

it has nothing to do with break-in
it is how toyota makes their motors and the vvti controler

Yeah the 1NZ-FE has a definite kick in power around 4,000rpms. Even the low end torque on it is not that bad.

I noticed the first couple of weeks my car seemed to eat gas. Now it seems I fill up once every 2 weeks.