The Scion brand was a pretty daring move by way of Toyota, when it waslaunched a couple of years ago. It brought Japanese domestic market products with radically different styling to the table, yet, underneath these funky bodies were simple Echos at heart. Interestingly, Toyota durability and reliability weren't the selling points of these new little cars, but rather their unique style, and the ability to personalize was. The xA, and in particular the iconic xB were the vehicles for which a new generation could express their automotive ideas in metal on a new car, without breaking their budget. Needless to say, it was a move that paid off, as the xB is now entering a new phase in its second generation.
The new xB is a bigger vehicle, it's significantly | The x-box rides again... (Photo: Toyota)
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longer overalland in wheelbase at 12 inches and 4 inches, not to mention width. In fact, there are some pretty interesting tidbits of info to be drawn, should you compare the width and wheelbase values with those of the new Toyota Auris, or the Japanese/European market Toyota Corolla. What you'll find is that the xB shares those main dimension points, which leads us to believe that the xB has been scaled up from a subcompact platform to a full-out compact architecture, | | It's been no time at all, and already, tuned versions of the xB are popping up. (Photo: Toyota) |
namely, the next Toyota Corolla. This isn't at all a bad thing though, as Scion knows that if anything its customers wanted its versatile box to have more room on the inside.
And if it's room that buyers are looking for, it's mostcertainly room that they're going to be getting. Increasing the xB's size means that there's more living space for passengers, not to mention the cargo that they'll inevitably be carrying along. The xB's cargo area grows by nearly eight cubic feet to 29.1 cubic feet, which | | Lots of space thanks to the larger design. (Photo: Toyota) |
is a pretty impressive cargo hold with the seats up. The Scion doesn't offer any clever seating arrangement system like the Honda Fit, but the 60/40 split seats do fold flat against the ground for a smooth, open floor. For certain clients, the xB's trunk may never hold crates and boxes, just speakers, subs, amps and other sound system gear. In any case, it'll hold more of that stuff too.
The xB's interior has been overhauled too, in a major way. The layout ofthe dashboard is a cross between the Toyota Yaris, with its centrally mounted instrument cluster, and the Honda Element, with its upright dashboard | | Interior is funky and functional. (Photo: Toyota) |
shape and console-mounted gearshift lever. But what separates the xB from almost anything else we've seen is the staggered layout of the center console. From the center of the cabin, the gearshift, HVAC and the instrument cluster look skewed in a left-right-left fashion, which is not only different, but cool looking. As for the gauges themselves, they're set in an ovoid binnacle with four overlapping dials that also look great. You can't help but feel a touch of irony: Toyota's interior designers must have been thinking outside the box for this one. Of course, this being a product conceived by Toyota, you know it's going to be infinitely practical and well built. The xB has tons of places | | Gauge cluster - part digital, part analog - is cool. (Photo: Toyota) |
to store your stuff, from convenience trays and console boxes to a tray located beneath the rear seats that can accommodate everything from a laptop or camera to a small stack of magazines or CD jewel cases.
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