Is the xB too slow?
 

I've test driven three first gen xBs so far, and they feel slow to me. I'm wondering how other's have dealt with this. I know many people simply don't care, but I like to drive with enthusiasm. Not like a maniac, but I enjoy driving. Have those of you who are like me found that you still enjoy the car, even if it's zero to sixty times can be measured with a sundial? Does the car eventually feel less slow after you've owned it for a while?

I really like these cars, pretty much the only thing I don't like is the lack of hp, but I'm concerned I'll quickly get bored with it and regret buying one. But maybe not. Thanks.

While the 1st gen xB isnt the fastest car out there, it does decent. In stock form, it handles decently as well. Obviously you're not going to be winning any auto-x events, but you can toss it around and it doesn't feel scary (in my opinion). You have to remember it has a 1.5L engine, and to get the horsepower, its gonna need some RPMs. Having owned a sportbike, I'm not afraid to get the motor spinning to get to the power, but to some, hearing the engine rev to 4-5k RPMs can be intimidating. Letting off at 3k when it starts to get loud means letting off right when the power is coming on. Don't be afraid to push harder on the pedal if you need more power. If the engine has been cared for, theres nothing wrong with getting the motor close to redline occasionally. If you find yourself mashing the pedal constantly though, you might want a bigger engine.

Right now, I have over 700lbs of stereo gear (amplifiers, batteries, subwoofers, etc) in the xB, and it still does alright, imo. Obviously I'm not winning any races, but its still enough power to get around. Before I turned the xB into a boat with all the weight, it was excellent fun to flick around a corner, mash the go-pedal, and let the inside stock skinny tire fight for traction as I pulled through the turn. You know what they say, its more fun to drive a slow car fast, than a fast car slow.

Well you could add a turbo, its about the only way your going to get these slugs to move. The xB was designed for maximum room + great mpgs. Nothing about that says "fast" or even "quick". Go drive a gen2 and its hands down quicker/more torque. IMHO it kind of killed of the soul of the xB with the gen2, but seriously I could most likely beat a xb in a bike race. And to the guy who needs 700lbs of stereo equipment, I am sure your car is a hell of a lot slower now, and most likely you killed your MPG's by about 3-4mpg at least. You cant just tow around 1/3rd of a ton, and expect the same results.

Shift into 2nd gear and you can have a blast in these xB's. Top speed is something that you wont see with an xB.

Thanks for everyone's answers. I've tried keeping the revs between 4500 and 6000 rpm, still feels slow. :biggrin: I'll probably still buy one though. I think I can get used to the lack of power, it's not really that bad, and there's enough to like about the xB to make up for it.

Its doesn't feel so much slower on flat ground, but I live up a 1.5 mile long, fairly steep, twisty road, and you can definitely feel the weight going up. On the steepest part, I'll get down to about 15MPH in 2nd before the auto trans drops to 1st. Living up that hill is hell on fuel economy no matter what, we have a xB2 in the household as well, and I occasionally get 22MPG (according to the dash computer) if I tried hard. But indeed, fuel economy and "performance" does suffer with the added weight, no doubt.

Had I drove one before buying it (have never test driven any brand new car I have had), I might have passed on the purchase but....for the money it is the funnest car to drive. After it loosened up around 30k miles and I got it down 2" with Tanabe's etc. the lack of power isn't a big issue. I cut my teeth in a '65 VW bus in Cali so learned to drive with my brains and steering wheel as the bus offered little else.
With the xB the trick IS to keep it well over 3k RPM and it will respond (in Scion time) as well as get better gas milage.
As a note: A Camrey at 80mph is turning 2,700 rpm or so while my 5spd box is at an even 4,000 rpm / 80mph.

it is pretty slow in my opinion.. but a lot of my friends have super fast.. and i mean super super fast cars.. one buddy had an evo that was running 3 seconds flat 0-60... so after being in that.. the xb feels like a pedal bike. but no one buys the xb to go fast.. its more of a cruiser.. that being said.. i feel like mine is okay.. it really picks up when you get it into 3rd gear i think.. like from a dead stop.. full throttle.. 1st and second are pretty much just decent acceleration.. but once you get it into third and stay on the throttle, it starts feeling slightly quick.

I just bought an 06 a couple of days ago, so to answer my own question, no, it's not too slow. It's actually pretty lively, and while it isn't exactly powerful, it's fast enough to merge safely, and fast enough to be entertaining. I think it's a pretty fun car to drive. I've owned, driven and ridden in some very fast cars, but I realize a car doesn't need to have 400 hp to be enjoyable.

If the xB draws you in you end up loving it.

Don't understand why a person purchasing a 1st GEn xB with a 1.5 liter engine would ever expect speed?????? I purchased for fuel economy, had a large cargo area for its size, to get from point a to point b, I liked the box design + plus was a good value/cheap car.

With custom mods it's all show + still no go.

Peace out......

I spin the wheels in first and got a chirp hitting second once and spin the front tires when they lift off the ground in turns. The trick is to keep the car light weight, nearly empty tank and roll on the gas really early in the turns and on ramps then even in top gear it pulls out nicely at half throttle .... speed limit around here is still 55-65 so ... oh and have your fun diving into turns at crazy speeds and then tap the brakes to Slow down if you in need to. I had my bother reaching for the dash on an exit ramp one time and he used to autocross.

I did autocross mine Sunday, and you were right, I didn't win. :biggrin: I was impressed by the car's handling though. I thought it might be sloppy and understeer and be generally not fun to drive, but the handling was quite precise, body lean was minimal, and it went where I pointed it. It was a very fun and easy car to get thru the cones with. The power wasn't bad either, even though the traction control was on it had enough torque to spin the front inside tire coming out of the turns, and it got down the straights fairly briskly.

I think I ended up being slower than about 80% of the cars there, but that means I was faster than 20% of them, which isn't too shabby when you consider most of the cars there were fast cars like EVOs, M3s, Stis, Vettes, Porsches, S2000s, hot rod Miatas and Civics, along with some all out dedicated race cars. The more I drive this car the more I like it.

Fast, no. Fun to drive, yes.