iaknew

Bought a Scion Silver AT xA for the wife on 9/11/03 and I just found this site. Here is my quick review of the car:

Pros: 1. Decent gas mileage - put around 1500 miles on the car so far and averaged about 34MPG (MPG was really important since my wife commutes 100 miles a day from Walnut Creek to Redwood City). 2. Car was cheap - nicely equipped for about $15,000 out the door. 3. Great buying experience, no haggling with the dealer - we were told everyone buys at MSRP, not sure if this is true or not.

Cons: 1. Suspension is quite harsh especially on the freeway - a bit too bumpy on the freeway (I guess since the ride height is a bit tall, it needs stiff springs to keep the car stable). 2. A bit more horsepower would be nice - drives around town just fine but accelerates pretty slow from 50MPH and up.

Overall I think the Scion xA is a great value. I've only seen 2 other xA's since we picked up ours - I'm surprised there aren't more of them around.

batute

Welcome to the club ! I have a 5 spd xA and average about 37.7 mpg. Did you get the side airbag option ? I commute from Union City to Richmond, I go to Martinez when it's my clinical. So if you see a lowered blue xA driving in walnut creek/concord that's me

scionracerxA

welocome to the club. i have an xA also in 5 speed but i'm testing out the SPFR cat back exhaust and right now i have no trouble above 50. the car pulls very nicely. SPFR also has an intake that goes into production on the 13th of oct. pm or email me for more info

2fixA

welcome to the xA club... I'm in Berkeley, live and work here for the moment so the only time I'm on the freeway is to go to Sacramento to see my girl or to drive around the Bay to meet up with our boys here on ScionLife.. check out the Bay Area/NorCal section for the meet coming up on the 18th in Tracy...

as for the car, the ride never felt to stiff unless I started hitting those regularly spaced bumps on the freeway that sometimes hit a bad oscillation frequency.. and the speed, well you just ain't driving it hard enough seriously, I wait until 4.5k to 5k RPMs to go to 5th gear if I am trying to really pick up and go since it doesn't seem to really pull until 3k RPM.. wait a sec, just realized you are driving an automatic, I have no experience whatsoever in how that puppy moves, sorry... hope to meet you soon and in the meantime enjoy the ride.

scionracerxA

i used to own an auto until i wrecked it and decided to get the stick instead. the auto doesn't have much pull unless you go through the gears the same way you would in a stick. that's my experience tho

showpaojoe

I'm definatly down with the stick. the other day I was driving up this big hill near school in my xB and I look up ahead and theres one car going real slow and it happened to be an xA. I breezed right by and when we came to a stop sign, I said "nice car, is it an automatic?" She smiled and said yes, then for no reason we started laughing. After that I started liking the xA alot more. Good job with the wife's car. I need to find a scion bunny to call my own.

iaknew

I would've bought the stick since it was cheaper but my wife can't drive stick :?

eric_m

you would not believe how many times i see that posted here. are women just incapable of learning new things? i mean, i know they're not since every time i get a new girlfriend i teach them tons of new stuff... but that's another subject. anyway, enjoy your xA.

manual or auto, it's still a great car.

LVXB

yeah my wife had to learn as well. and now shes pretty good.

plus if your ever on any mtv reality based show that involves challenges they usually have people drive manual transmission cars. and the losers always lament that they cant drive stick.

i can't drive auto very well myself. i end up speeding (alot)and i start to think its a good idea to talk on my phone or eat or i end up sight seeing and when it gets really dull i start induceing drift via ebrake handle.

Strader

If the cold tire air pressure is much higher than what is recommended on the door jamb, that could result in a really bumpy ride. I had that problem with my xB - easily fixed.

supaguy

i just bought a new XA about a month ago too. car runs great. i don't have any problems accelerating from 50 and up. probably cuz i drive every car like a race car. i was comming back from davis 2 nights ago, and i was ripping down the freeway at 105. so yea...that's my little experience with my new baby :D

iaknew

Maybe I find my wife's xA a bit slow on the freeway is because my previous car I just sold is a 1997 Supra TT

http://home.pacbell.net/wenkai/Supra2.jpg

supaguy

hah...thats probably why then :D