2008 Motor Trend Car of the Year Finalists

Scion xB: Breadbox Now Holds More Bread

The moment the initial images of the xB flashed through the blogosphere, naysayers marshaled into two groups. One was miffed at the very idea of a follow-up xB, recalling that the whole Scion premise was to never repeat itself. The other faction accused Scion of reading from that tired old script of adding length, width, and height and then announcing-ta da! -it's new and improved! Well, not according to "Sciontists." The fragile trust between Scion, the brand that pretends not to be a contrived rebel outfit dreamed up by one of the world's largest car makers and its eager-to-believe owners was shaken.

We happen to have liked the first xB and think this second one's even better. XB version 1.0 was a happy little buzz bomb, feathery enough for even its puny 1.6-liter, 103-horse engine to impart a feeling of perpetually traveling downhill. It was fun. And a heck of a value. But it also was noisy and so small-scaled as to invite morbid thoughts of the horrors a Yukon could bring to it should their paths intersect.

The 2008 version is 12 inches longer, 2.8 inches wider, 600 pounds heavier, and 55-horses gutsier from its 865cc-bigger engine-numbers that impart the 2008 xB with some inkling of hope against roadgoing Queen Marys.

The stretched exterior makes for an almost luxury-car-dimensioned interior, though with such design quirks as a center-mount instrument cluster, you're not likely to confuse the two. Outside, it's more R. Crumb cartoon than quirky, all angry-faced and slot-windowed in a custom-car sort of way. Too bad angry boxes don't move through the air efficiently, either.

-Kim Reynolds

What they did right: Built off a new, larger platform the original's lunchbox-on-steroids look has been refined into a kind of appealing postmodern transportation device worthy of a bit part in "Blade Runner."

Room for improvement: An extra cog or two in the xB's four-speed automatic would improve the little car on several points, not the least of which would be in the noise/vibration/harshness and fuel-economy areas.

Bet you didn't know: The xB isn't built by Toyota at all but comes from a Daihatsu plant. What's more, in Europe it's sold as the Daihatsu Materia and in Japan as the Toyota Corolla Rumion.