This article is full of hilarious, disdainful comments.
It's rated at 23/31. There is a new 2.5L 4 cylinder putting out 179hp. Sadly, this now weighs over 3,000 lbs. Actually 3,124, which is kind of ridiculous.Other than the well-bolstered seats, red-font gauges and flat-bottom steering wheel, the cockpit is relatively bland in a typically Toyota kind of way. Rear passenger room is a pleasant discovery and not necessarily expected in an entry-level coupe, though I suspect some will likewise be unpleasantly surprised at the rather average fuel-mileage ratings
This car -- especially without any of the wide range of tack-on features and trim -- somehow reeks of the very blandness that Scion proclaimed itself to stand against.
Anyway, last I'd heard he had totaled it, but I guess where I'm going with this is: This new Scion doesn't do anything for me. I'm able to remember a lot about an acquaintance's doomed tC several years after the fact, but I can't really remember much beyond the color and hard plastic interior of this one, which I drove a few days ago
Like the softened-up xB, though, the tC has just become a bland-if-not-terrible competitor into a crowded segment
Gather 'round, kids, and let me tell you a story. Years before the “yoofs” saved up their pennies working overnight shifts at the White Hen Pantry for an FR-S, the only Scion two-door was the tC. It was the only vaguely sporty car Toyota made that was south of a Solara. For years, the brand dragged its enthusiast credentials on just that. And may God have mercy on the poor and benighted early adopters who ever thought the tC fit any skewed definition of “sporty motoring.”
Where to begin? In every function that defines a car's character, the tC seems dowdy and uninspired. Steering is devoid of any feel or weight. The brakes are spongy and squishy. The clutch and shifter on our manual-equipped test car in California are light enough for traffic but feel flimsy -- Toyota once proved on the MR2 Spyder that a manual transmission could be delicate but also have feeling, an essence that just isn't present with the tC. Rare is the moment when an automatic is preferable, but most Scion buyers know that, too. Perhaps most damningly, the 2.5-liter inline-four loathes to rev.
The rest of the car weighs over 3,000 pounds. Is Toyota smuggling gold bars underneath the seats?
We checked. They're not. We were disappointed.
If you absolutely want a sporty Scion, save your dollars and make the $3K leap to an FR-S. The tC is a caricature of a hot hatch from around 1999, designed for a time when APC “carbon” wings flew off the shelves. (If your favorite car in the first Fast and Furious movie was that green, exploding Mitsubishi Eclipse, you might even be enamored with the exhaust note.) It must be working -- the tC has the lowest average buyer age in America, at 28 -- but as a 26-year-old, do I really need another reason to question my generation?
This is Scion's tC by Toyota. Despite the conspiracy theory that “tC” stands for “Toyota Celica,” there's little indication that this car could carry on such a legacy.
This just in! New word! Econopile. Don't forget my old standby for tires: econosquealers. I'm looking at you, Goodyear Integrity.I didn't think the electric power steering, added during the tC's 2010 total makeover to save another half-mile per gallon, was likewise as bad as BZR claims. How much steering feel do you want in a FWD econopile?