The broad expanses of glass make outward visibility stellar, easing some of the stress often triggered by urban traffic and tight parking spaces.
Interior quality is better than decent, especially given the xB's price point. Fit and finish are up to Toyota's standards. The stereo is mounted above the air conditioning controls, where logic says it should be. the A/C settings are adjusted with basic knobs, buttons and lever. But the stereo plays to people to whom directional buttons and PDA cursor pads are intuitive. The Scion's interior stylists missed the boat on the dash-mounted vents. Eyeball shaped, these could have been allowed to rotate in all planes, like those on the Toyota Tercel. Instead, the xB's pivot only vertically.
As severe as the xB's outside is, it delivers on its promise of a roomy inside. Next to the two cars Toyota expects the Scion to go head to head with, the Honda Civic and the VW Golf, the xB leads in virtually every passenger compartment measurement, and generally not by small amounts. Remarkably, the xB offers more passenger room than the larger and taller Honda Element.
Scion xB delivers about 6 inches more front and rear headroom and 3 to 5 inches more legroom than Civic and Golf offer. Amazingly, the xB boasts nearly 3 inches more front-seat headroom and 7 inches more rear-seat headroom than the Element, despite the Element being 6 inches taller. The Element does offer a lot more front-seat hip room, however, and slightly more rear-seat legroom.
For hauling booty away from the local flea market and garage sales, the xB offers a smidgen more space than the Civic and the Golf. The Element tops the xB, however, offering 74.6 cubic feet of cargo space versus the xB's 43.4 cubic feet. And be forewarned, ordering the subwoofer speaker requires forfeiting about 2 square feet of the cargo area's floor space.
Cubby space is about normal for the class. There are the usual map pockets in the doors, cupholders front and rear and so on. There's a nook in the lower half of the dash to the left of the steering column, a cranny to the right of the column and a visually symmetrical, but taller and wider, shelf-like opening above the glove box. Next Page