I’ll tell you, I drove a CIvic around for a while and a Cobalt. The Cobolt really isn’t half bad and is very cheap. But, dollar for dollar, the current Civic two door stick is one of the great cars of all time.

Is the car too tall, too heavy, too “sedan-y”? Maybe for some folks. But I’ve hauled a mountain bike, a full 88-key synth, and a filing cabinet in the back of that thing (not all at the same time, of course!), and I’m just fine with its size, and consider it a selling point. And compared to any other “sedan” in its size and price range, it will do pretty well off the line and in the corners. I don’t buy fancy, expensive cars, but I did get some of the extras on my tC (pedestal spoiler, exhaust, OBX shifter, pedals, etc.) and several times people have offered an unsolicited “Nice car!” Of course, I never mention that it’s about 1/2 the cost of the BMWs you see driving around these parts.

I would say the only thing I would really like to see is a 6th gear on the manual, to get better mileage on long trips (I think it could do 33-35 mpg easily, and most of the time I don’t need the extra torque at cruising speed, but if I do, I can always drop to 4th or whatever).

Come on now, let's get into reality. The decision to drop the Celica was made before the tC was even released. The Celica also wasn't the longest running model in US history. Not even close. Even the Corolla has been around longer. It hurts your credibility when you make statements like that.

I've driven the tC and I thought it was a ok car. My main problems were with the interior, which I found to be cheap and ugly, the not-so-great shifter, and the unimpressive EPA mileage estimates. I liked the torque laden engine, the solid handling, the styling, and the visibility was good for a 2-door hatch. I thought the sound system was a little too boomy, but that may have been cured with some tweaking. The throttle and clutch feel could be better. I'm a hard critic though, and it's rare that I actually like a car.

I think it is so absolutely unfortunate that prospective tC buyers are going to stumble across this website while researching their future purchase and take some of this negative info to heart. The Scion tC is an excellent car made by the best car company in the world and is a best buy.

I have owned my manual tC since it was first released back in the summer of 04, it has 85k miles on it and it runs and looks as well as the day i bought it. For the first six months I had my tC the only additions I made were a spoiler and exhaust system.

To dispel the myth made by a comment above, the clutch is not horrible and no mater how bad off time i was I was never able to make the car shake when I started into first gear,

The Scion tC isnt intended as stock to be a performance car, it is a touring coupe, hence the name tC, yes its true. The tC is a very high quality for its class and price range and an exceptionally reliable car and in my opinion as well as many others I know, leaves very little to be desired styling wise. When timed correctly, in a manual, the scion's accelerates like a beast, believe me when that car is pushed to its potential it steps up to the plate swinging.

After 6 months i had my tC I added a cold air intake, a sports clutch, and short throw shifter, a front strut bar (reduce body roll), and 18 in enkeis and dammit that tC was totally transformed. On the track I clock my 0-60 at just above 6 seconds consistently which is ridiculously fast for such few engine upgrades.

Seriously tC's are awesome cars and with little upgrades, and a driver who knows what they are doing behind the wheel, can be super fun little sports cars. My girlfriend recently bought an 08 manual and all she did was put a strut bar in and a cold air intake, which totalled $250 all together, and that was enough to make it zippy and fun to drive around corners…

the dual pane sunroof is the sexiest thing ever. whoever cant appreciate the quality and sexiness that is the tC should buy a Kia the dealer by me is advertising that if you buy a Sorento you can get a Rio for a buck…

EVERYONE ELSE BUY A TC YOU WONT BE DISAPPOINTED…

btw the reason why Toyota stopped manufacturing the Celica, which was the longest running model of any car in US history, for the US market is because the tC was crushing it in sales… now if that doesnt say it all right there i dont know what would

I bought a 2007 tC 9 months ago. I’ve hated it ever since the “new car” effect wore off (after about a month).

I read so many reviews and comments from people telling me “amazing handling” “sporty”…
It’s all lies. This car handles like a full size sedan (which it really is under it’s fake sport coupe exterior).

It has the WORST clutch I’ve ever used too. It’s almost impossible to get a good smooth start without some kind of jumping, or horrible revving noise. It makes any driver look like a beginner.

The body roll is horrible, I recently found out that this is probably due to the heavy steel frame used to hold the glass roof gimmick in place, which obviously raises the center of gravity too much.

Everything about this car is “for the price” too… it’s got a powerful enough engine “for the price” but you’re totally right that it’s no fun at all.

It looks nice “for the price” but it’s still a forgettable design. The only thing I like about this car is the standard wheels and the TYC taillights I added on. The standard taillights make it difficult to tell apart from any other boring standard car on the road.

I also paid for the short throw shifter. This simply reduced the throw length to the same as previous cars I’ve owned were as standard.

If only they’d get rid ofthe stupid glass roof, and put a proper clutch in this car (oh, and also get rid of the annoying delay on the “drive by wire” throttle), it might not be so bad to drive.
It’d still be pretty boring though, unless they allowed it to rev a little higher (7krpm would be nice) and gave it some more high end torque.

Oh, to finish this on a good note – the paint seems pretty good, and still shines after it’s first winter. This is lucky, as it’ll help me get a good trade-in price in the next couple of months.