What kind of car do you drive?

Jeanum said:

Overall we're pretty happy with the '08 xB. We like that it has standard side curtain and front side torso airbags, stability control, and enough head room for freakishly long torsoed DH with its boxy shape. I really like driving it and it's very easy to park around town compared to the Sienna in the tighter parking spaces in parking garages or at newer parking lots with tinier parking spaces. It's a bit of a gas hog for a small car IMHO due to its 3250 lb. curb weight, cubicle-like shape (DH jokingly calls it his cubicle on wheels ) and ~150+ HP 2.4L engine. Previous gen. xBs (pre-2008 models) had smaller engines and lighter weights with correspondingly better mpg, but didn't have side curtain airbags and had poor IIHS side impact crash scores. I get mid-20s mpg at best in mixed driving in our '08 xB, low 20s mpg in all city driving, and 28-29 mpg at best on the highway. I can get 25-26 mpg on the highway in our Sienna, and only 17-19 mpg on average in the city (another reason why I like to drive the xB around town if possible for the city gas mileage savings over time). I haven't installed a Frontier in the xB, but a Regent installed just fine in the rear center using the seatbelt and I'd expect a Frontier would install there, too. There are 2 full sets of LATCH outboard, and like parent brand Toyota, LATCH borrowing is not allowed for the center. Tether anchors are located on the rear seatback for each rear seating position.

Funny you ask about repairs. Until late last week, I would have said no repairs other than regular maintenance like oil changes, and replacing some adverse road condition damage/wear and tear. The xB had a cracked windshield from a freeway stone/grael chip a year or two ago that wasn't the car's fault, and a bent standard steel wheel rim last year thanks to a pothole. The windshield was covered by our car insurance minus the deductible, and the bent rim was ~$50 to replace using an extra, new standard steel wheel pulled from a new xB whose buyer upgraded to optional alloy wheels at the Toyota dealership prior to taking delivery of the vehicle (this extra wheel swap situation was the Toyota/Scion dealership's unprompted suggestion to save us $ on the wheel replacement, surprisingly). Otherwise it would have been about $150 for the wheel replacement since the xB was out of warranty by that time. Speaking of insurance, it's slightly higher to fully insure the xB than our Sienna, not all that surprising for a newer and smaller car I suppose. New tires were necessary on the xB about a year ago at 20K-something miles. The original OEM Bridgestones all season tires were disappointingly very worn at that mileage.

Last week an actual issue not related to potholes, wimpy OEM tires, or loose stones/gravel on the freeway popped up when the ABS, Brake and VSC (vehicle stability control) dashboard "idiot" lights stayed on to signal a problem on after the normal initial idiot light display sequence at startup. Diagnostics at the dealership indicated a short in the wiring for the rear wheel sensors (part of the VSC system) and the dealership needed to order parts to replace the wiring. I was scheduled to bring it back in today to replace the wiring for an estimated $352 (goodbye tax return $, ack!) but we're all sick with respiratory flu crud and I rescheduled taking the car back in later this week. Comparably speaking, our 2005 Sienna has 40K miles on it and hasn't needed anything other than regular maintenance, battery and tire replacement, and a couple of recall repairs so far. One true mechanical problem in 4.5 years of ownership ain't all bad really I suppose, especially compared to problems that cropped up with other cars we've owned previously over the years. I'm just bummed that it's the newer car with relatively lower miles on it that had it happen first. Sorry if this rambling on, I'm still a bit feverish.

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NoahsMom24 said:

Tell me more about the '08 Scion Have you had to replace anything so far on it, I ask that because I have seen these and wonder if I could afford to replace parts. Do you know if FR85 fits in middle seat in the rear? Do you it or is it just Meh...?

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