Thinking of purchasing another Scion for the wife, she likes the xD. She has sat in one and she felt it wasn't quite as roomy as the xb1.

Does anyone here have both, or has moved from the b to the d that could give me an honest comparison of the passenger room, storage room, and overall feel.

Thank you in advance.

 

Well......I think I'm your man. My car is an xB first gen, and we just (this Saturday) bought my wife the new xD.

There are ups and downs to each. And I'll give them to you as I see them.

YES, the first gen xB IS roomier. More leg and head room all around. Getting a tall adult in the rear seat of the xD just isn't practical (I'm 6'3" and I hit my head on the ceiling). But, you really have to take into account how often you'll have tall adults in your back seats. Honestly, I can count on one hand the time I personally have ever had back seat passengers in my car. As far as I'm concerned, the back seat is storage. And honestly, I think the xD has a deeper trunk space....at least it looks that way to me.

I think the xB1 has more responsive handling. The xD on the other hand has a better turning radius and smoother ride.

The xD is about 2670lbs, versus about 2450lbs for the xB (automatics)....so you gain a few pounds with the xD. BUT, since the xD is obviously not BIGGER than the xB1, that clearly doesn't account for the weight gain......so perhaps the added weight is from higher quality parts.

However, in terms of "pep" the xD compensates with a larger 1.8 liter engine with 128 horsies (versus 1.5L and 108 for the xB1). The xD is by no means a rocket ship, but the butt dyno says it's faster than the xB1. When I drive my 04 xB, I floor it off the line just to feel like I'm accelerating at a tolerable pace. I NEVER squeal the tires, and traction control doesn't kick in either, so obviously the tires aren't trying to break loose (the exception is if it is really wet out and road traction is low). The first time I drove my wife's xD, I expected similar performance (I figured that it had extra power, but that would be negated by the extra weight). So, naturally, as I am used to in my xB, I floored it from a standstill......and the tires screaming and squealing (keep in mind, this was far from V8 style burnouts, but I was surprised).

This leads me to my next point though. The xB1 comes standard with traction and stability control........which, the xB didn't really NEED. The xD does NOT come standard with these features, and probably needs them more than the xB1.

Convenience wise, the xD has more cup holders (like I'm sure THAT will make or break your decision). BUT, what is really cool is that the xD comes standard, even on the base stereo, with direct iPOD connectivity so you can plug your iPOD right into you stereo. The xD also has volume and station controls on the steering wheel, which is nice. Standard cruise control is also a nice bonus over the xB1. The AC blower fan in the xD is significantly more powerful than the xB1. The xD also has TWO glove boxes....one above the other. A weird, but nice feature.

In terms of safety....well, as mentioned, traction and stability control are NOT standard on the xD. BUT, you do get full side curtain airbags.....something we don't have on the xB1. Another neat feature is that the front passenger airbag automatically disables if no one is in it.....a big plus if there's a front end collision and there is no passenger. Airbags are expensive to replace.

The basic option wheel size on the xD is 16" versus 15" on the xB1 if that matters to you.

Now, if you are into aftermarket upgrades, the xD is too new for there to be all too much available.....as opposed to the xB1 that has been out long enough for companies to start making products for the vehicle. If aftermarket upgrades don't matter to you (or your wife I should say)....then this shouldn't concern you.

Anyway, that's my assessment of the difference between the two (that I can think of right now). Hopefully this was helpful to you.

As a final note....would I recommend the xD? Yes I would. I think it's a nice little car with a lot of features you probably won't find in "similar" cars.

KiL

 

[/i][/b]Thank you for the detailed info about the xD. As I mentioned, my wife really liked it so we may be going to the dealer this week.

Thanks again.

 

xB1 was one of the slowest cars i have ever raced in my zx3...even modded they are slow...new xd is comparable to my old focus...plus the xd gets as good or better mileage than both

 

Interesting that you mention mileage. We have yet to own our xD long enough to calculate our average mileage, so I cannot report on what we are getting. However, the common belief seems to be that a smaller, less powerful engine inevitably would deliver better gas mileage. I think what has to be considered is whether or not there is adequate power to easily move the vehicle. I have noticed that in my xB, I am constantly having to mash the gas pedal to get it/keep it up to speed. This sends the engine into higher revs and of course burns more gas. If there is a nice balance between vehicle weight, and engine output, this shouldn't be an issue.

A good example of this is when I was recently researching big trucks (just for fun....I want a truck as soon as I can afford one), and found that often if the model offered both V6 and V8 engine options......the V6 returned similar and sometimes WORSE gas mileage. It's just not enough engine to easily and effortlessly keep the vehicle moving....so the extra engine work chews up your mileage. And of course, there are people out there that would opt for the V6 thinking "I don't want a gas guzzling V8."

Moral of the story is.....don't equate bigger engine/more power to lower mileage. There are more factors involved than just that.

KiL

 

The xD is rated 28/34 .... my xb is rated at 30/34....HOWEVER, the EPA changed the way in which they rate mileage now and according to fueleconomy.gov website, my '06 would have been rated 26/31.

Pretty interesting huh? Now, with that said, the biggest thing that affects your mileage is your driving habits. I have been working on my habits, as well as some fuel economy adjustments, and I have taken my mileage from an average of 31 to a tad over 35. ANYONE can do this if they just to more time while driving and not be in such a rush, plus keep there car in good tune and tires properly inflated.

Jim

 

On that note, I believe the xD posted ratings are not EPA standards yet. I recall reading through soem of the collateral and there's a little asterisk next to xD mileage, stating those were Toyota/Scion's number.
On the other hand, I haven't actually looked at my window sticker yet.

The xD calculated your mileage on each fillup, I don't know if the 1st gen xB's had that. It will calculate the average per fill up, the running/rolling average while you're driving, well you how many estimated miles you have on your fillup, you can get a digital readout of your speed. Downside to all that, its on the same gague readout as your odo and trip. So you can only see one at a time.

That being said ... I've driven a whole half since taking mine off the lot, that one averaged 27mpg, with a whole lot of street driving and showing it off to people. Since fillup, I've been at 30 as I'm gradually working my way back to my normal routes.



I don't know a whole lot on the xB's, they never interested me, but if you were debating between an tC and an xD, I could tell you aaaallllll about what you're looking at

 

btw ... speaking on safety, did anyone note that the center belt for the backseet is a 3pt? Not just a lap belt? and the back seats have some recline to them, which can be adjusted.

Just throwing out some of the cool things that I really enjoyed.


oh, and that while stability control on the xD isn't standard, it is still an option. Can't forget those

 

An EDIT to me previous post: According to the Scion web site, the automatic xd is "EPA" rated at 26/32. The ones I posted are incorrect. That makes the xd and gen1 have almost identical ratings, even though the "d" is more powerful.

Jim

 

Nope, the xb did not have an onboard fuel calculator, but my Scangauge took care of that !

 

cheater!


I want a scanguage...

 

I average around 30 real MPG (32MPG according to the trip computer) on the xD so far. Not trying to save gas, either. 2ZR is a nice step up from 1ZZ as far as fuel economy goes and gets similar mileage to 1NZ, but with a tad more oomph.

 

I'm KingLou's wife...I love the car!!! It's so cute. I liked it because it's a cheaper version of the Toyota Matrix, which I've loved since I drove it in a defensive driving class. Did you and your wife get one? What does she think?

 

<<<< cheater! >>>>

I've been calculating mileage for years, this little thing is great. A wealth of info at your fingertips !!

YOU KNOW YOU WANT ONE, SO GET ONE !!!

 

+1 for scangauge. After couple of tanks you can calibrate the mileage calculator pretty nicely and it's great for a ton of other things, like determining if your CAI actually produces colder air, getting rid of and diagnosing CELs, seeing how your friend drove your car after he brings it back ;)

 

<<<seeing how your friend drove your car after he brings it back ;) >>>

Yes, that's a nice feature too. I once had a motorcycle (Aprilia) that had a lap counter/timer which also recorded the highest RPM and SPEED since last re-set. I busted my wife (girlfriend at the time) for going 109 and 7500 rpm's. She never believed me about that feature.

Man, you should have seen the look on her face......

 

Haha! Where do you get them and how much do they run? Do you just plug it into your OBD port?

 

My xb has more headroom and legroom front and rear, but the xd has more cargo space. The xd is alot faster and doesn't punish you as much on the roads, the xb has better steering feel. So far the xd is getting better mileage than the xb. The xd has some big blind spots from the c-pillar, but it's not that much worse than the xb. The xd seems to be a couple notches up on the quality/refinement scale in the interior

 

Get it here: http://www.365motorwerks.com/index.a...ROD&ProdID=255

$159 including shipping to your door. And yes, plugs into the OBD port. You can even switch from vehicle to vehicle and it remembers which is which.

 

Haven't heard about remembering vehicles. Settings like engine size and gauge selections stay when it's unplugged, but they are not preserved per vehicle - it's just one setting.