Or tried to. Ended up with this:
Took a serious test drive that left me with some different opinions from all the reviews.
About the toyota (scion); The "prius tires" which are put on to lower grip threshold and let you "drift" easily, or break traction on the street. I want to know what streets the reviewers drive on and what kind of nuts they are. I could see the tires being crap on a track, but this thing grips! I pushed it a little where I was comfortable, but I never purposefully upset the chassis to "see what would happen" Never even got a squeel from a tire, and did some impressive speeds through turns! I had stability control and traction control off, and the roads were slightly damp from a shower a few hours before. I had actually spun (!) my challenger earlier that day. The speeds you would need to break grip in the toyota are far too great to be done on the streets. even with prius tires.
Interior quality... I fail to see why the media gives American cars crap for "cheap interiors" the scion is nice, but its not fabulous, there is plenty of cheap plastic. Nice for the price point, but should be bashed if you don't like plastics. The seats are AMAZING (for me at least). The shifter is ok, longish throws, no miata box.
The drive; it feels like a nice toyota, drivetrain feels very subaru that keeps rev'ing. Steering and brakes are firm and communicative. The engine is noisy, road noise is high, neither really pleasant. Engine pulls well to 8k but never feels strong. It did not feel like 200 hp, but I guess revs+math makes more hp. This thing does not have the torque to bring the tail around mid turn by hammering the throttle, it just goes. I'm sure if your at the limit of adhesion on a track you could rotate it with the throttle, but on the street hammering the throttle mid turn just makes more noise.
On to the boring stuff; I decided I wanted it for my DD, offered my '12 challenger as a trade and made an offer. Got "we don't offer deals on toyota's because they sell themselves" line, after the sales guy corrected me for calling it a toyota. I offered a fair price for my trade (acknowledged depreciation hit, was fair) and told them I would pay MSRP but not for "delivery charge" and all the damn stickers. "oh sorry, we are scion, we don't set the prices, we have no control over costs." I wasn't about to pay 2k for stickers and a delivery charge, they were also 2k below what I was willing to take for my trade so I walked. I know scion is an attempt to rid toyota of the "bend over and take it if you want to buy a toyota" dealer scheme, but old habits die hard.
The good news, for the amount of cash the dealer wanted me to throw at them for selling toyota's, I bought a mint 91 miata! Complete with bird poop on the headlight as pictured. I can actually push the limits on the streets without fear of dying! and I still have my challenger for DD appliance mode.
The toyota is a brilliant car sold by idiots. I was willing to make a poor financial decision to own one, but it apparently wasn't enough. I know there have been lots of discussions about people "stepping up" to buy one now that what we have been asking for is available, but toyota dealer networks are going to make me look at the used market in a few years to avoid their steelerships.
Thanks for reading!
