The Scion xB is a 5-door compact vehicle made by the US-exclusive Scion division of Toyota. It has a unique box shape and is targeted at the youth segment of the market known as the "Y" generation.
The xB was one of the three models in Scion's lineup, the others being the xA and the tC. Launched in 2004, Toyota made the Scion xB attractive to it's target segment by making it easy to personalize their vehicles by offering an extensive list of factory accessories. This includes light kits, spoilers, wheels and music systems among others. It's really amazing that you can actually choose your car, customize your vehicle and order it online. Scion builds it to order in about a week.
The maximum suggested retail price for the base models are $14,610 for the manual version and $15,410 for the automatic. This price is of 9/18/06 and includes the delivery, processing and handling fee.
I would consider that as a really good price for a Toyota but the question is, whether it is value for the money?
Going through what owners and fans of this has to say in the scion xb forums, I believe that it indeed is a good buy.
Even though there have been some criticisms that the car looked like a box or a crate or or that it is underpowered (it has a 1.5 liter 4 cylinder engine) it has developed quite a bit of a fan following. Another surprising thing was that even though it was targeted at the young hip generation, a lot of older people in their late 30s were attracted to the car because of it's fuel efficiency.
Another information I gathered from the forum is that the present Scion xB, which was launched in 2004 is the first generation. Toyota unveiled the second generation xB at the 2007 Chicago Auto Show. It is a larger, more rounded than the present xB and is styled as a 5-door version of the t2B concept unveiled the year before at the 2006 New York Auto Show.
The second-generation xB, which is expected to come out in 2008 is powered by a 2.4L engine shared with the tC and the Camry. That should silence some of the critics who claim that it is underpowered. Besides VSC and ABS, the new generation xB will have six airbags, as well as cruise control as standard.
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