to me i do find the car to be a little cheap. i'd compare it to the new civic coupes and i think the civic's interior is a little bit better textured and less cheap compared to the tC.

i have mix feeling about the japanese paper design of the dash board. overall impression of the interior is just OK. but when compared to other cars at this price range it's actually pretty good. i have a friend with a mazda 3 and her car has zero rattles or creaks. i even tried to budge, knock and move the dashboard/center console's material around. not a sound. everything fit perfectly. nothing that felt cheap or moved around. the tC's interior has some play in it. and i mean the whole interior pretty much. push the center console around and you'll hear creaks of loose fitted plastic. the plastic part you put your key in has a lot of play as well as the plastic trim of the guage face.

i donno if i sound like i'm hating on tCs or what not, but it's something that I experience on my tC as well as others that i encountered.

just tap at the roof in the cabin at random places, you'll find rattles and loose fitted parts. a reason for this is b/c of the all glass roof and all the extra stuff up there. ex. sunroof curtains etc.

rattles are in my tC. some here, some there. i hate rattles, especially on a new car.

i don't have an issue with paint. as far as i know i wouldn't even think the tC has a cheap paint job if it wasn't for everyone complaining about it on scionlife. then again i just got my car 3 months ago.

i still think the civic's interior has a better feel.

 

Planning on a re-spray after I pay it off in 5 years, but still not excited about the chips in my paint already. What can you do? Driving on the freeway 70 miles an hour your gonna hit a flying rock now and then. At least in Oregon anyways, where there are pot holes and gravel everywhere. Man our roads suck right now

BEst car under 20

Rattles like no ones business, but I like it .

Stock sporadic performace?

Sometimes I feel like I have an intake and sometimes it feels like it's towing a jet ski?

Interior Thumbs up - Gull wing doors should be standard like the concept FUSE. I always numb the bottom quarter panel of the drivers side door with my shoe and its making scuffs in my plastic!

Bottom line is just drop 5 grand into it and you'll be all good.

 

if you mean cheap as in inexpensive, YES, you wont find a car similarly equiped at 17K. But if you mean cheap as in poorly made, NO...toyota use the same interior for the new Rav4(thats not a cheap suv) most car will have rattle issues even luxury cars.....the bridgestone potenza tires cheap???? i paid 200 to replace one...i owned a civic, bmw and hyundia, they all scratch and chip as easily as my scion...

 

I say, for what I had to give for the car, it's a great buy!!! a similarly equipped Civic Si(with slightly more powerful 19xHp engine) will be OVER $20k... and you won't get 17" wheels or an all glass roof, or auto up and down driver and passenger windows... and the car won't look NEAR as good IMO... not to mention with regular maintenance this car should run for 150k miles +....

Toyota=Reliable!!!!

 

I don't have any rattles or paint problems after 22k miles.

 

you say you own a 2005 but yet you still question it? If your not happy move the frick on and stop complaining geez I own a 2005 and I dont experience alot of the issues ppl complain about. I love my tC and no one will change my mind about it. To me its one of the sexiest (modded) cars out on the roads today. I dont consider the "plastic"interior to be cheap looking either. I actually think it looks pretty damn good. I dont have any complaints for what I paid for, Im still loving my tC. Whats with the whole Saturn thing, lol Saturns are great cars! I own a 2002 Satty as well and its ummm still running like new and looks like new just like when I pulled it off the lot. Saturn did right with the polymer panels, I dont have a single dent or for that matter anything wrong with my paint. So lets leave Saturn out of this, lol. People should research cars more before buying them or just fix the issues you may be experiencing instead of trying to bash a car.

 

I love my car, but before this I was a big member of saturnfans.com. I actually have owned 4, 1992 SC2, 1997 SL2, 2000 SL2, 2000 LS2 (now called the L300). The 1992 I crashed into a dump-truck at 85 mph while drag racing someone and i walked away without a scratch. The car was awesome, fast, and safe. The guy who was sitting shotgun when i totalled it was the same friend who sold me my tC, and he owned a 1997 Saturn SC1 too.

 

The tC is the best car under 20k period.

There are rattles and such, but things happen. the new vics have the rattle and already have had one MAJOR recall. How many recalls have the scion tC had?.....

Civic is an overpriced cheap car. it really is. And i think the original poster intended on a flamewar.

I say this because He brought up things no one even mentioned. "Cheap metal"? WTF is that. Every car manufacturer in the world use recycled cars to build new cars. Including plastics, metals and synthetic fibers.

 

You wanna talk crappy paint and rattling interior pieces?? See G35.

 

i test drove a g35. besides the exhaust note i don't think there is one thing that i really like about it. but i did see a few black ones that looked sexy as hell.

in my opinion i just feel that the civic is more sturdy (interior panel wise). and i do think it's a bit overpriced if you can't haggle down from msrp. my first choice for a new car was actually an EX, but then i test drove the tC and saw the features that it had (reclining back seats, auto window both sides, hidden hatch, glass roof, rear leg room). mostly what got to me was the rear seat room. but the EX model offers a lot for the price as well. sunroof, 350watt sound with sub. if i could do it over again, i would probably still buy a tC over an ex, but i'd rather have the Si over my tC. since i added 2100 worth of options on my tC, the price is just the same for both cars and i could of got more performance from the si.

i still stand by what i said earlier. the tC's interior is a little cheap (as in poorly built), just a little. but when compared to other cars that's 17000, it's probably one of the better ones.

 

Yeah, that was kinda my point too. My g35, at twice the cost of the tC actually had more problems than the typical tC complaints. IMO, the tC's interior is very attractive for the money.

 

tc=cheap, but cool looking.

 

Well maybe if you can read you see were it say that this are complain from people that i read here in the forum and also were it says

* Am not saying that the car is cheap, am just giving some complain from a few people here in the forum.
I think that it is a good car and i really like it, also you get what you pay, i just wish that there was'n any rattle noises.
So what ya think is it a cheap car like a saturn or a kia???


next time first read before you post reply

 

Did you miss those posts above talking about the saturns?

 

What that saturns are cheap cause they is cheap my sister have a 2005 Saturn ION and i think that car made from platic, anyway that is not the point here were re not talking about saturns were talking about scions

 

Is THAT even ENGLISH?? i didn't follow any of that.

 

Check this out I never test drove or even saw the Nautical Blue color in person before I bought the car. I just ordered it and had it trucked down from Kirkland WA purely based on the research I did.

On top of that I NEVER EVEN TEST DROVE ANY OTHER CAR EITHER before I had my mind made up. Honestly I had to stay under 20k so my choices were limited:

I've been beating myself up everyday thinking, geez should I have gotten something else? 6 months later still can't find a better car in the price range.

If I had 25k I would have gotten a Blaze Orange 06 RSX Type S

 

No rattles in my tC...and also no paint problems either...but i only had it for about two weeks. My interior is excellent.

 

This is my 3rd brand new vehicle.

First was a 2000 jetta 1.8t, fully loaded, the only option I did not get was an auto tranny. Its fit and finish was twice that of the tC. Its problem? It was at the dealership getting fixed for electrical problems more than I was driving it. (however I was always getting to drive different Vdubs. My second brand new car was a 2004 Toyota Tundra, SR5 access cab V8. Road noise was way less of an issue with the Tundra, however the dash was similar in build quality. I will tell you that alot of the buttons and ***** in the tC are the same as the Tundra ( turn signal, mirror button, cruise stick, etc. And my 3rd new car is the Scion tC. Other cars I was looking at were the 350z, RX8, G35, GTI and a used supra caught my eye (wifey wouldn't go for the supra). I decided on the tC for one, becuase it comes well equiped in its price range, gets better gas mileage than the other cars I have looked at, and I can pay the thing off in less than 3 years. I agree that the interior pieces are not luxury quality, but my jetta didn't have a real live aluminum HAVAC ****. If you really wanted a luxury car, then dish out some money for a luxury car. If you want a sports car, go buy a sports car. What you have to realize is that the tC is not either of those things, it is a stylish sporty touring coupe, a budget one at that. In order to really relize the value of a tC, you need to compare it to 16000 hyndai, Kia, or any american car in five years. You will then realize that you got your moneys worth, more imho.

just for reference, I had a bad ignition, bad coil packs, fried ecu(before i even had a chance to get chipped, burn't up a fan motor, had fouled O2 sensors to just get started with my jetta, My tundra never has been in for waranty work. You decide where quality lies.

 

I have very very minor rattling problems starting to develop at 6k miles. But then again I do play the music around at volume 30-45 usually and have the bass at 5 and ssp on Feel.

My only complaint is the paint seems to chip very easily. I do a lot of long distance driving that is mainly on the highway and rocks flying is common in texas...

However I have some paint chips on my rear bumper and even a couple on my trunk...I don't know how...