When I first brought my xB, I consider it to be just a “car” but my insurance company classifies my xB as a SUV. Since my other car is a “true” SUV and I pay the increase insurance premiums for owning that SUV compared to a car. I feel that the insurance company has classified my xB in the wrong automobile classification. I tried to research what classification the xB is officially assigned but have seen it assigned to different classification by other websites. What automobile classification do you consider your xB to be?

 

It's a small wagon according to my window sticker.

 

My license registration says my XB is a wagon.........

 

I work for State Farm and we classify it as a "Van". It really doesn't matter in the price of your insurance. If you have comp and collision on your vehicle then the premium is based on how much it would cost to repair or replace the parts on your vehicle.

 

Mini-Truck?

 

If you ask my 2 year old...He'll say "Truck".

 

My insurance and state DOL say my xB is a station wagon.

In my opinion, especially considering its origins as a 'Tokyo City Car' I think the term I've seen Scion use in some of it's stuff 'Urban Utility Vehicle' or 'UUV' fits it most closely.

Yes it is a station wagon or a hatchback or an SUV, too. Maybe even a CUV, a trucklet, or a micro van. But I view it as really the result of the utility vehicle needs of the urban dweller, hence a UUV.

There are others, too, that fit the UUV idea. Most of 'em are running around in Asia and Europe, very few in North America.

There WILL be more here some day.

Thing is, the US also has some rather unique criteria. Not only do we have urban areas, we also have the 'wide open spaces' and they require different base vehicles. We have compact cities (SF, CA for one - 36 square miles) and we have spread out cities (SLC and LA for example).

More than anything else, though, we have d i s t a n c e . . .

Driving from the largest to the second largest city in my medium size state is 300 miles from saltwater shore to plains - over a mountain range...

Someone driving from LA to NYC is the equivalent of someone driving from Lisbon, Portugal to Moscow, Russia - look at a map!

In one trip, though, one passes through numerous countries, crosses many borders, in the other, one never leaves the the country one started out in.

One trip is a seldom done adventure, the other a simple daily occurance.

In the US we think in a different scale than most of the rest of the world.

One requires many languages, cultures, laws, and currencies, the other only one...

Someone living in Nebraska can travel a thousand miles in any direction and never need anything but English, never *hear* anything but English...

We need different vehicles to do the UUV job, the SUV job, and the cross country job. One vehicle just can't be everything.

Just as a Porsche Boxter can't do the job of a Kenworth (or vice versa), a Hummer H1 can't do the job of a Scion xB (or vice versa).

My needs are for a "city car" to move me around the urban landscape efficiently, easily, and elegantly. That's why I have an xB.

When I needed to travel to remote sites to plan communication routes I needed a big 4X4.

When I buzzed along the interstates and blue highways for long distances, I neede a touring sedan.

I match my vehicles to the job they must do, and the Scion xB is my UUV.

(OK, who pushed one of my buttons??? Sorry folks, it sort of got away from me. I'll be quiet now.)

 

UUV sounds about right, but my insurance (Allstate) says it's a small wagon, and definetly not an SUV.

 

FUV

Freakish Utility Vehicle

As some articles would put it... kinda like it!

 

I think the Xb starts out life as a UUV or CUV. However, when we finish with them, they are often sport sedans. My box drives more like my sports cars of old... not dependent on horsepower alone, but on handling and "feel". Throw in some creature comforts and a lot of style and you have the Xb.

Part of the panache of being an Xb owner is the incredible amount of customization that can be done to the box as demonstrated by the creativity of the owners. You can't capture that in a vehicle classification. Perhaps we should be tax-exempt and get free vanity tags for being the enlightened souls that we are!

As an aside... how do Xb owners feel about the big SUVs? One reason that I got a box is that I am sick and tired of over-consuming, cell phone-waving jackasses in Expeditions running around like they own the road. The Xb is my statement that I am officially opting out of the Ugly American society.

 

Myself when I first looked at the XB, I thought it looked like an mini-crew cab pickup with no bed.

 

I think the technical term would be BOW or "Box on Wheels" hehe That's what I tell everyone who asks about it.

 

In all the big car magazines it is classified as a wagon and from toyota it is classified as a wagon. but some insurance companies have their own opinions

 

Agreed. The worst thing as that many of them use it as their daily driver. The size and space of it don't even come into play, maybe for a few hours over the weekend, but by then the price they pay for gas has outweighed any usefulness the SUV can offer.

 

Personally I consider it a hatchbox. like a hybrid between a hatchback and an suv. My insurance company, progressive, considers it a sedan.

 

Toaster (according to my kids...)

 

Obviously I'm partial to microbus.

 

Do your insurance company also show you the car classification of the leading insurance companies in your area

 

5-door wagon! End of debate!

 

Hatchback/small wagon.