GTP Cool Wall: 2001-2006 Toyota ist / Scion xA

  • Thread starter Wiegert
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2001-2006 Toyota ist / Scion xA

  • Total voters
    94
  • Poll closed .
Wiegert

Wiegert

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United Kingdom
United Kingdom
2001-2006 Toyota ist / Scion xA nominated by @ThrasherDBS

toyota-ist1.JPG


Body Style: 5-door hatchback
Engines: 1.3L 2NZ-FE I4 (FF ist), 1.5L 1NZ-FE I4 (Scion xA and 4WD ist)
Power: 103 hp (1.5L 2006), 108 hp (1.5L pre 2006)
Torque: 101 ft-lb (1.5L 2006), 105 ft-lb (1.5L pre 2006)
Weight: 1100 kg (ist), 1062 kg (xA)
Transmission: 4-speed automatic, 5-speed manual
Drivetrain: Front-engine, Front Wheel Drive; Front-engine, Four Wheel Drive (ist only)
Additional Info: A Toyota subcompact built on the Vitz/Yaris platform, with a "crossover SUV" design and was marketed towards younger buyers. Sold in North America as the Scion xA, and everywhere else as the Toyota ist (except the middle east where it was the Toyota xA). The instrument cluster was centerline on the dashboard, as opposed to behind the steering wheel. The car had a facelift in 2006 before it was replaced by the next generation of ist (or in North America, the xD).
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This is easily one of the most hopelessly, pathetically unhip car sold in the US in the past decade or so. Even the middle aged sandle wearing white people that Scion immediately attracted avoided these, and those were the same people who happily snapped up Toyota Echos and Saturn SCs just a few years prior.
 
...and this is my first car. I'd definitely wouldn't say "I've given up".

This has been a pretty reliable runaround car for me for the past three (nearly four) years. I'm not necessarily concerned with "Cool" factor because it's a daily driver type car made to get you from point A to point B. This car would earn a Meh from me, because if I didn't own one, I think it would blend in with the rest of traffic.

However, since I do own one, this can only go one way.

Seriously Uncool.
 
Shame there's nothing below SU. This wouldn't warrant it, mind you, it's just that there's nowhere for the still-less-appealing xB to go. Oh well...SU.
 
Seriously uncool. There are absolutely no redeeming qualities about this econobox. The exterior is as bland as heck, there is no technology in the interior, and no performance model. Why would someone buy this when they could get better, cheaper cars than this, like the Honda Fit.
 
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Es ist ein Auto. That's a Meh. It doesn't presume anything, even if the marketing team Toyota employed for Scion did.

Though, if we're voting on a horizontally reversed image of the car, should we invert the results of the poll?
 
WeThePeople
Fixed.
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In the United States the Fit also didn't exist until after this went out of production. Your point is still valid, and people by and large didn't buy them, but instead of buying any direct competitors they mostly just stayed away from Scion in general unless they wanted an xB.
 
ThrasherDBS
...and this is my first car. I'd definitely wouldn't say "I've given up".

This has been a pretty reliable runaround car for me for the past three (nearly four) years. I'm not necessarily concerned with "Cool" factor because it's a daily driver type car made to get you from point A to point B. This car would earn a Meh from me, because if I didn't own one, I think it would blend in with the rest of traffic.

However, since I do own one, this can only go one way.

Seriously Uncool.
Click to expand...

Sorry! You're the exception that proves the rule? ;)

Thing is, given the average Scion client back then (far older than Toyota's optimistic guesses), and the availability of the first-gen Yaris Vitz Echo hatchback up here in Canuckistan, these really were the four-wheeled equivalent of a dishwasher. Not that the Yaris was much cooler, but it certainly didn't help the xA any.
 
Cool. While an economical car is always S-Z for me, the styling went a little too far.
 
Oh wow. Looks like Toyota/Scion decided to build a family hatchback where it doesn't look like a box car.

Uncool to SU.
 
The only way this could possibly be any less cool is if Toyota had used the names for the replacement Scion (xD) and EU equivalent (Urban Cruiser) here first.
 
You know, for all the flak this car gets I think Toyota deserves some credit for accomplishing something nobody thought possible beforehand. With the release of the Scion xA, they managed to make the Camry seem interesting in comparison and that's not an easy thing to do.

Seriously Uncool.
 
Wiegert
The only way this could possibly be any less cool is if Toyota had used the names for the replacement Scion (xD) and EU equivalent (Urban Cruiser) here first.
Click to expand...

Don't offend me, or I'll quit in a sweary fit...or Fit.

In short, not everyone wants a $15000 used car.
 
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