x-ray_Bravo

I am fairly new to this forum. I post sometimes and lurk most of the time. I have noticed when people get a new xB and show it off, the first things people recommend they do to it are lower it, debadge it, and sometimes remove the rear wiper. Here are the questions:
Why lower it? I don't know about other parts of the country, but here in Alabama, I feel it's too dangerous to lower a car. There are huge potholes everywhere, rough railroad crossings, and every month or so, a truck loses a giant steel coil, punching holes in the road, which are then covered by a huge steel plate that's a couple of inches thick. There are places all around the area that have huge, deep puddles of water after every rain. Also, on some parts of the interstate system, it feels like you are jumping on a trampoline as you are driving along. Up and down and up and down boing boing boing. If I lowered my xB, I would be afraid of underbody damage, as well as my body damage!
Why debadge it? I personally am very proud of driving a Scion xB, and am happy to show it off to anyone who has never heard of one. Someone can look at my car and say, what is that? Oh, it says Scion xB. Huh.
Why remove the rear wiper? This is a very useful piece of equipment for me. I use it more than the front wipers, I think. Lots of times, it has finished raining, so I don't need the front wipers anymore, but the roads are still wet, so I use the rear wiper to clean road spray off the back window. It really improves visibility, in my opinion.

This post is not meant to flame, disrespect, or make fun of anyone who does any of these modifications to their vehicles. It is merely meant for information gathering purposes for me. My husband also wanted to know about why these modifications are so popular. (He's 68, and the last "cool" car he had was a Model A ) Thank you in advance for your information and opinions.

redfins

Do What You Like......Or Stay Stock...

nnj

debadging and removing the rear wiper give it a more "clean" look.. as for lowering.. that just preference.. but if youre going for a show car.. wheel gap gets last place

jasonlm429

Lowering it enhances the look of just about any vehicle, not to mention the stability improvement. If your roads in your area are not friendly to cars with a stiffer suspension, then by all means stay away from lowering.
Debadging, just happens to be a free and quick mod that anyone can do, to set it apart from stock. I personally like how it cleans up the rearend.
Removing the rear wiper? I've seen them replace the rear wiper with a rear camera, because it's a good access hole. Some others think that it is not very useful, I like mine just fine and elected to mount my camera in the third brake light.
Just my opinions, hope they were helpful.
PEACE!!!
Jason

Jhhnn

I'm with the OP- I bought my xB because it's a really practical automobile, because it doesn't look like everything else on the road, and because the price was right, with Toyota quality.

Mine got the rear bumper applique, roof rack and a set of 15" alloy wheels right away... The latter being too pretty and too good a deal to pass up... Then the TRD short shifter, not really necessary, but what the heck... It plowed pretty bad when pushed hard, so the progress rear sway bar solved that... the front strut tie bar was an apparent waste of money... The TRD air filter element offers extended changeout intervals, and the soon to be applied RAAMmat bxt will hopefully help with road noise.... I'm thinking about some vent shades so I can crack the windows open when parked in hot weather, w/o fear of rainstorms...

Lower the suspension? How would I get to my fishin' hole?

I like the rear wiper, particularly after owning older cars and wagons that didn't have one... and it's fun at stoplights, flick it once just to see if the person behind me is awake...

Debadge it? I might take off the dealer emblem, seeing as how they already ____ed me off, nearly screwing up my financing...

Oversize rims and low profile tires? Why? it already rides like a little lumber truck, and the pics of my coworker's oversized rims shattered in a pothole are... scary... not to mention that they don't fit into the whole fishin' hole scenario...

But the beauty of the xB is that it's adaptable to a lot of different purposes... some of them not very practical from my personal POV, but, then, it's not like anybody will make me do it to my car...

shorberg

the xB sits at 6.1 inches ground clearance stock, and 5" is just fine for normal driving in most any areas. my TRD lowering springs firmed up the ride quite a bit and i can tell a real difference driving with my 8" wide wheels and the springs. especailly on the HWY where the stock xB sways a little, and mine is pretty much glued. lowering it gives it a better look, by minimizing wheel gap and the wider wheels(which are also 19's) improve handling and make the ride stick better. so i think as long as you are careful not to ram into curbs, and to be careful going over potholes you should be fine even if you lower and grap some big wheels.

btw, after owning 19's and driving a million xB's on 18's. i thnk the perfect wheel size is 17x7 with a sweet lip and TRD lowering springs and shocks. this makes it look good, drive well and feel nice. also it's not as expensinve as 18's or 19's and still is great for the everyday driver.
debadging is just a pref for me, i painted mine, so whatever, lol.
i still have a rear wiper and would remove the worthless thing if i had some reason too, for now, i just don't use it. i wish it applied more pressure to the window so it was actually useful.

WSU-Coug

So your husband is 68. You're not really 27 are you? I'm not too much of fan of the debadge myself, or removing rear wiper. I like the idea of replacing the badge with a bB. I like the clean, even finished gap that lowering has to offer...I wonder if anyone has cut out a section from the back door and put in glass... random thought.

x-ray_Bravo

Yes, I really am 27, and he really is 68. He'll be 69 in October, and he loves my xB. He says he'd buy one if he could. But I digress. My xB got the roofrack (to carry a bike or two) and the cruise. I now wish I had gotten the rear bumper applique, as I haul stuff around in it fairly frequently. I don't plan to lower it, or get different wheels, until we move off our rough dirt road. I'm with shorberg, I wish the wiper had more pressure, but I still use it. And when I bought my car, I told the dealer I wouldn't buy from them if they insisted on badging the rear with their emblem. It cheapens the look of the car, especially since the emblem is black and red and yellow. So they didn't put one on! I like it! I'll try that some time, thanks!

Keep the opinions coming! I'm liking what I'm reading!

Jenna

Sort of an OT rant... I would flip out if the dealer but an emblem on the back of my car. Fortunately out here in my neck of the woods, you'd be very hard pressed to find a dealership who does that.


I also never understood why people out here leave their dealership's license plate frames on. They're so tacky looking AND it's not like the dealership is paying us advertisement fees.

kustom_play

i like my rear wiper

sometime i turn it on and wag it back and forth to make my xb look happy

xBHAWK

You are correct about the drop, stay high and dry.
Rear wiper works well enough for me.
De-badging is removing the Scion emblim and the xB emblim from the rear.
I always recomend that you install a CABIN AIR FILTER in the empty CABIN AIR FILTER TRAY behind your glovebox. Often called a pollen filter, Scoin does not provide one in thier new cars. You need to read the TECH thread called 'Fabricate your own CABIN AIR FILTER", see the photos of how to pop out the glovebox to access your empty tray. Buy one from advanced or autozone or pep boys for about $12. Do not buy one from the dealer for $22. This will stop the dash board dust build-up.

If the ride is hard on any old bones, swap in two rear shocks by Monroe, the cense-a-track(5870) for about $30 each. Swap them into the car easily and enjoy a softer, more dampened ride. Stock ride is like being spanked for every bump.
Read what they say in the suspention section.

ChefXB3

Wow Ive had my box for 3 weeks as of yesterday and just realized from this post that I had a rear wiper, LOL Guess I was too interested in my sound system to look at the vehicle. I like the Idea of "wagging" it to make it look happy.

I agree with you X-Ray, I live in west GA off of I-20 and used to drive back & forth to B-ham from time to time, either going to Talladega or to the B-ham airport and that stretch of 20 between the GA border and I-20 is the absolute worst piece of Interstate I have ever driven on. Reminds me of driving up in the Sierra Mtns in California where all the tire chains have pitted the road, but worse.

I thought about lowering after I got it, but I kinda like it stock, plus out here too, we have some pretty nasty pot holes, and sorry roads and I work in downtown Atl. and the streets there are really bad

xBmore

The dealership can do that. It's only $58 i believe.
As far as dealer stenciling, I would have made them remove it had they had the time to put it on. An xB in my area has the same dealer I bought mine from stenciled on the back. It's horrible, plus I wouldnt want to advertise them anyway after the bait and switch they did with the finacing. I think mine was only on the lot for that day when we bought it.
As far as lowering etc... some people here want to show their xB and compete it. thats what they got it for. More power to them. Me? I have a few mods i want to do (grill, led interior lights, rims), but overall, its still my family car. Practicality is key. Thats the great thing about this car. It services a wide range of people and lifestyles.

ChefXB3

The first thing I did when I got my box home was remove the Dealer plate frame and replace it with a frame that I had already ordered & recieved before I recieved delivery of my 3.0 I hate advertising like that, I do it word of mouth, and I was very happy with my dealer.
As for financing after getting the bait & switch several times in the past, I think I did it right this time for a change
I got on the various financing websites and got "pre-qualified" for the amount I was going to finance, I walked into the dealer with 2 blank checks too write with two different interst rates and terms. The finace mgr, said they would match the lowest rate & terms, I told them it wasnt good enough, and knowing the kick backs they get from banks, they wound up getting me another 1/4 point off the rate.

Moral of the story, if your gonna finance, always get pre-qualified, that way you have the power. The dealer can and will usually beat it to get your business and "Thier loan comission"

shorberg

scions rates are pure priced as well. why did you try to make things difficult?

ChefXB3

I dont think I made things difficult
All financing is based on fico scores
due to a divorce 3 years ago and having to juggle, assets, debts, refis, etc. etc, my score went from a 757 last year to a 699, when I bought this car last month.

national average is 678, so I was still above average

I was told to get the "preffered "toyota" financing by the finance mgr. at that time I needed 700+, so what is one point?

They said Toyota/Scion would match my best rate

Scion came back at like 7+% as first quote on a rate

I went out, got pre approved and wound up in the high 5% range,
3 weeks ago toyotas/scion was at 6.04% as their preffered rate

So actually I made things very easy, I walked in with a CASH, deposit and down payment, did the deal and I was in & out with my new box in 30 minutes

My loan is not with toyota/scion, but it is with a major national bank and on my terms, and once again it was thru the dealer, rather than eloan, cars r us, capital one, mbna, wfs, bla bla bla financing. The dealer still got their kick backs

doesnt matter where the money comes from, as long as it ends up on the credit report as "paid as agreed" or whatever it says

ChefXB3

Hey Shorberg,
Followup,
I went to your link on your signature,

This is not a flame or anything, Im being very nice

But either I think you are a finance guy, or in sales at the dealership

The pure pricing is one thing, on the vehicle. I love it

In the world of finance and banking it is another

Once again, no flame, I have lived & learned in my 20 plus years of car buying & selling

xBmore

our finacing issue was a little weird. my wife actually bought the car, and she has excellent credit. She got a better rate from a credit union. However, she recently graduated college and was eligible for the $400 off that scion offers students and new grads. But to get that, she had to use toyota financing. It was more then the difference from the credit union over the life of the loan. so she got toyotas best interest rate, and initialed on the line. then when it came time to sign the final deal, it was a different rate. "Blah blah blah, scion hasnt updated their site, this is the only rate availible. " classic bait and switch. It equals $230 over the next 5 years, so its not a huge deal, but we wont go back to that dealer.

1epoXyBox

Xray, if you haul stuff in the back all the time, consider getting the cargo liner. It fits great, protects the carpet, and has a flip out section that covers your bumper somewhat when moving things in and out of the cargo area.

x-ray_Bravo

I went to the thrift store and got a moving blanket which not only covers the cargo floor, but the sides and the back of the front seats, too. It also flips out over the bumper, but it slides around if I try to slide something across it. I would have gotten the cargo liner if I had known about it before I got the blanket.