Add to favorites Examiner Bio

Road Test: 2009 Scion xB car review, For the hip, edgy and young...and the not so much

It’s not entirely Scion’s fault. The first generation xB was pointedly offbeat, square as a ninety degree angle and contrary to every rule of conventional automotive styling. It was the automotive design equivalent of manga, a modern Japanese art style that was transported to the United States.

 

Part of the Scion mission was to replace models on a regular basis because, naturally, the young have a short attention span and anyway, they thrive on novelty. The trouble is, the xB’s popularity was like the B-side of a 45 that became the hit (not that the average Gen-Xer would have any idea what that means) and didn’t show any sign of waning. Yet its lifecycle was over.

Fortunately Scion had a replacement waiting in the wings.

 

And it was—ta da—the xB. It was everything the original xB was and more. It was still boxy but also bigger and more powerful. The boxiness—the edginess rounded—was tamed, however and somehow, the funky interior was less so.

 

Not that the interior doesn’t have its moments. There’s the love-it-or-hate-it terraced dash with the offset instrument panel, a slot skewed to the driver’s right with four circular gauges overlapping like a spread out stack of CDs, with a digital speedometer, a tachometer that starts with zero rpm at 10:00 o’clock on the dial and 7000 rpm at 6:00 o’clock, redlined at 6500 rpm. Engine temperature and fuel are to the right of those.

 

Keyed into the tachometer’s left is a multi-information display that cycles through ambient temperature, current mpg, average mpg, fuel range, average speed, elapsed time and a clock. The good news is that it’s standard equipment. The bad news is that the small button to change the display is on the instrument panel glass, a long reach and look-down from the road. Not good, especially when there’s no independent clock anywhere else on the dash.

 

The instrument panel is all in a deep orange that like the offset will be considered cool or a complete deal breaker, if our informal survey means anything.

 

We’ve heard that audio is very important to the target market, “heard” being the operative word, with enough volume to pogo cars down the road like a Roger the Rabbit animation with every beat. The standard head is a Pioneer 160-watt AM/FM/CD, iPod connector and auxiliary audio jack, plus “Scion Sound Processing” and “Sound Retouch digital equalization for clearer MP3/WMA-CD sound.”

 

Scion offers a $389 optional audio system, not on our test vehicle, that includes the ability to download “skins”—including images, four-second video clips and eight-second movies all from Pioneer’s website—to play on the organic electroluminescent screen. Or owners can also burn and upload video using Pioneer-supplied software.

 

The Scion xB also has aftermarket audio customization features—if you don’t understand it you don’t have to use it—and the dash head unit is also easily replaced for those who feel compelled to do so.

 

At least heater and air conditioner controls are a conventional three-knob setup, although the shifter is mounted on the center stack. Our optional four-speed automatic had a zig-zag shift pattern with a tip-shift slot to the left of “D” for manual shifting.

There’s a tray that runs under and across the dash on the passenger side, like Europeans cars of the Sixties (for those who know ancient history). It’s ideal for loose pens, thumb drives, cell phones, iPods and any other modern detritus that will slide from side to side because the bottom is hard slippery plastic. In fact, we’re disappointed in the quality of plastic in the Scion xB, particularly the silver colored plastic panel on the center stack and around the shift lever. Scion offers a $175 interior upgrade but c’mon…

 

The base price for our test 2009 Scion xB was $16,700, and it came equipped with a selection of options, including a rear bumper applique ($69), cargo net ($65), XM satellite radio ($449), carpet floor/cargo mats ($155), rear spoiler ($423, and an 18-inch alloy wheel upgrade. Delivery was listed at $620 for a grand total of our tesed xB as $19,276.

 

Additional options include Scion navigaton ($1,950--get a portable), light kit with cup holder illumination ($299), C-pillar storage ($129), carbon fiber engine cover ($325), cargo cover ($259), cargo liner ($1190), cargo net ($65), cargo tote ($40), DVD headrest monitors ($1,599), sport pedal covers ($79), fog lights ($76), LED taillights ($375), carbon fiber window trim ($299), and more.

 

The Hypnotic Teal (not a typo) finish on our test 2009 Scion xB did not cost extra.

 

The bigger size outside translates into more room inside and the Scion xB delivers. Not only do the front seat passengers have generous elbow room but they also have Marge Simpson hair headroom. Extra width makes three passengers in the 60/40 folding rear seat less of a joke. The vertical-ish windshield is still a ways out there, increasing the sense of spaciousness.

 

We don’t know that this translates into, as Scion calls it, a “lounge-like” interior, though we’ll admit that the 21.7 cubic feet of cargo volume behind the rear seats could meet one’s lifestyle needs. It could swallow a couple of bags of peat moss without a second thought—though that may not be Scion’s thinking about lifestyles. But fold the second row of seats for an SUV-like 69.9 cubic feet with a flat load floor. Just think of how many patio chairs one could bring home from Target! Again, probably the wrong lifestyle. Although that ladder for cleaning the gutters will certainly fit better with the front passenger folded for a longer load…although maybe not what Scion had in mind. There's no dome light over the cargo area, however, making loading in the dark something done by feel.

 

The 158-horsepower 2.4-liter double overhead cam four is the same engine optional in the Toyota Corolla and Matrix (Scion is a division of Toyota), thought the xB is what Scion calls a “monospec” vehicle. One trim level, one engine, though buyers get the choice of five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission. Scion calls it “fun performance.” We say it falls somewhere between “spunky” and “zoomy,” at least with our automatic, all with the aural input of a Corolla/Matrix.

 

Our fuel economy experience on two separate tanks of gas were 21.4 mpg, at mostly city driving speeds, and 24.8 with high speed highway driving mixed with some slow-speed creeping, all of it at sub-freezing temperatures. The EPA estimates mileage at 22 city/28 highway (manual or automatic), which matches what we recorded, but we find it disappointing for this size of car.

 

The Scion xB’s ride was acceptably smooth despite the optional 18-inch alloy wheels which have a delightfully open pattern that allows a good view of the standard equipment four-wheel disc brakes. For the target market, ride is probably moot as it will be exchanged for a slammed look, and the typical econo-car level of highway road noise doesn’t mean much to those who will enjoy, so to speak, their audio at slower speeds. Still, road noise and wind noise are relatively minimal and won’t bother older ears, even those not exsposed to an earlier generation of rock (although not by the single-speaker AM-only car audio—we mean radio—of that era).

 

In a way, the Scion’s personality has been changed with the new generation, and like the first xB which found a surprising number of, ahem, older drivers, we think the second will as well, if not more so. We received fewer “what’s someone your age doing in a car like that” looks with this Scion xB than the earlier. In fact, several were mentally calculating Home Depot runs. Uh oh, Scion. You may have overdone that practicality thing.

 

Thank goodness for customizing…