I am considering ginving up my beloved Jeep TJ for a Scion xA. I am used to having little interior room, no luxury options, rough ride, poor handling, slow acceleration and a lot of engine/road noise.

I am also used to sitting high in a heavy steel 4x4 with 12" of ground clearance.

Oh, and the Jeep is a convertible too.

I would like to have a sun roof so I was thinking about the RS1 or maybe RS2 model. I would probably also want the automatic transmission because most of my driving involves traffic. I have not driven one yet because I really hate dealing with sales guys. I just came from a car show where I was basically shopping for hatchbacks and the xA was my first choice for looks. It was also the cheapest. Go figure...

Does any current xA owner, maybe one with Jeep experience, have any words of wisdom for me? I am very very unsure about the decision. I really love my Jeep, but I get 15MPG on a good day and often hit 13-14MPG. I had a very good experience with an Isuzu I-Mark hatchback and I have always liked small cars (a Jeep is basically a small car with very large tires).

 

Well the xA will have a little bit more room (but not much), no luxury options, a smoother ride, good handling and the acceleration...well it's peppy for what it is. If you have the 4 cylinder TJ , it will feel like a Ferrari. If you have the 4.0 it will seem torqueless and a bit high strung, but still peppy enough to be satisfying

You'll get a little more than double the mileage with an xA vs. your Jeep. You will notice much higher quality plastics and fabrics and fit and finish then you are used to. It will be much quieter. Handling will be astounding compared to a TJ.

Hope that's some help, not sure what kind of info you're looking for here.

Scion salesepeople, in my experience, are pretty low key. You should feel comfortable going down to kick some tires and maybe test drive without fearing you will get a high pressure sales pitch.

 

I sold my 2001 silver Jeep Wrangler Sport and bought a silver 2005 Scion xA for the same reason, gas prices. I was very determined to get the xA because it got better mileage than the xB. I wouldn't even test drive the xB.

My suggestion, drive an xB before driving the xA.

Buy the xB and have a sunroof installed by the dealer.

 

I like "boxy" vehicles. It's one of the things I like about Jeeps. I have to admit, the xB just doesn't do it for me, mainly because I keep looking at it and thinking "a 6 inch lift and some 31x10.50s and that would be pretty sweet." I love trucks but I hate it when they make trucks into cars. It's just a weird hang up I have that trucks need to have giant tires on them.

That and my wife hates the xB. She thinks the xA is "cute" and I have to agree with her. I looked at the xC as well and I liked the dash and the bigger engine, but I swore years ago I would never buy another two door unless it only had two seats. I also happen to like hatchbacks. The Jeep was an exception, but most of my friends just climb over the side anyway. Having a car that you can literally climb into from the rear bumper is pretty cool. I am going to miss that Jeep a lot if I give it up...

 

I have an 03 wrangler sport now along with my 04 xA and 05 tacoma and to be honest with you, you'll miss the jeep in the summer time. I drive the jeep when it's hot and sunny, and when it's snowy or rainy. The scion stinks in the rain and snow, but that is mostly because of the tires. Get some good tires like blizzak's if you need poor weather capabilities. Even the Wrangler stinks with the factory tires, but once I put Blizzak Winter Duelers on it... Night and Day. If you get the rs1, then you will have the good fortune of gaining traction control... which will alleviate much of my complaints about the car. The scion feels more stable than the jeep will be at any speed. Rolling won't be as big a concern as plowing with the front tires. Everything feels super smooth when you go from a jeep to the scion, the shifter, the engine, the ride, it'll feel like a lexus. If you get the manual xA, you will not regret it, the automatic takes away a lot of the fun of the engine. The xA is an undeniable bargain too, I Get ~28 mpg around town, driving it aggressively, and on the highway, it depends 100% on your speed, if you cruise at 80-85 mph, you can expect to get ~28 mpg, if you cruise at 55-60 you can expect 34mpg. I have taken several trips on a smooth back road with a (heavily enforced) speed limit of 45 for 100 miles and have gotten 40mpg. Are there better alternatives for mileage, you betcha, but no matter what vehicle you buy nowadays, the EPA numbers assume you go the speed limit, so they are inflated. Plus the xA is so inexpensive ,it'll take you a long time to get your money back if you were to buy a prius or diesel something or other, even at 3$ a gallon. As far as room goes, you'll have much more room in the xA than the jeep, front, rear and storage room will feel much larger. Your legs might feel a little pinched up front, but not much worse than the jeep.

In short all the things you said you were used to on the jeep in the beginning of your post, are thing that will be missing on the xA. Plus you will still be riding high because of the scion's riased up seats.

 

My Jeep rides on 31" BFG ATs so I have a fairly good traction in pretty much all weather. I test drove a base xA last night and it accelerated and handled better than expected. It was also bumpier than expected though. I noticed it the most when braking over rough pavement. Something about the weight shift made it much bumpier. Still, there was nothing about the test drive to cause me to change mind mind. I had what I considered realistic expectations and I thought it exceeded my expectations.

Right now I am leaning toward sticking with my Jeep. Mostly it is because I am afraid I will miss having a convertible truck. I really love Jeeps. Partially though it is because I ran some very detailed numbers and they give me mixed results.

I'm a numbers freak and the numbers say I will save over $7000 in the first two years mainly due to car payment differences. If I stretch that out to five years the savings drops to only about $2000. A lot of the drop is because the Jeep is at 0% and the Scion would be 4.5% (over five years I would pay close to $3000 in interest). That would assume I keep the Jeep for a full five years from today, well after it is paid for. I have considered financing the Scion over only three years which wold save a ton of interest, but would also jack the payment up. It improves the 5 year projection but nukes the 2 year projection.

I'm trying to decide if I want to make my decision based on short term plans or long term plans or pure emotion ;).

Isn't is funny how the anonymity of the internet encourages us to share such personal information with total strangers?