2011 Scion tC First Drive – By Roger Carr
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So thanks to my career as a car salesman at Toyota of Kirkland, I got the benefit of going to a launch event for the all new 2011 Scion tC. By no means am I an automotive reviewer, but I figured it'd be fun to put my impressions to paper (as it were) and share my thoughts on the new car.
Before we got in to drive, we got to do a walk around of the car, to take in all the new styling. The car we saw (above) had the new color for this year, aptly named "Cement". It's almost like a glossy primer color. In my opinion this colored combined with the optional TRD 19" wheels is fantastic, though the new standard 18" wheels are much better than the old 17's.
Looking at the car, you can easily see the difference over the outgoing first generation. In my opinion Scion has succeeded in it's goal to create a much more masculine and aggressive look to the vehicle. The new headlights and front grille create a sense that this new tC means business as a performance vehicle.
Continue around the car and from the side, with the new lines you see what Scion calls the "Visor" effect, in the shape of the vehicle. Another great cue is the wide rear fenders again helping create that aggresive look.
My one critique of this car has been the rear end, there's just something about it that seems to fall short of the styling on the rest of the vehicle. However the optional rear spoiler does a great job of remedying this.
A few other small things that are a nice touch, the side mirrors now fold in and include an LED turn signal indicator. Also the Scion logo is etched in the rear brake lights.
Take a look at the interior, and again you see a huge differance in design. Fortunately the panoramic sunroof stays. The cockpit is very driver friendly, everything is angled for easy access. There is an AUX port with USB input for iPod, and a nice place to store your device while still giving you easy access to it instead of storing it away somewhere you can't. The new stereo has been upgraded to 8 speakers, giving a nice clean sound for a stock sound system. Of course you can always do the Scion upgraded head unit for some additional power and the subwoofer output for a little extra boom.
The manual seats now actually have a memory function, so after you tilt and slide it forward on the drivers side to gain access to the rear seat, it returns to the exact posistion the driver last had it set at, so you don't need to constantly be re-adjusting. The new steering wheel is thicker, giving a better feeling to hold onto, and is round with a flat bottom for that sportier look. It also tilts and telescopes, giving you the opportunity to find that perfect driver posistion.
Alright, enough about the looks, time for the good stuff. How does it drive?
Obviously, and for those of you that know me, I usually scoff at the idea of a FWD car as a performance car. You can clearly get better performance out of RWD, or even an AWD application. I must say I'm really impressed with the way this car feels.
One of the huge improvements with this model is the new 2.5L 4cyl putting out 180hp at 6,000rpm, which is mated to the new 6speed transmission in either an auto with sequential shift, and manual. The auto will do 0-60 in 8.3 seconds, the manual in 7.6. And to top it off you still get 23mpg city and 31mpg highway on regular fuel.
Unfortunately, for this event, we only had access to the auto, and while the performance is not bad, left in regular drive mode, (ie the car doesn't seem to struggle to find the right gear), the sequential mode still leaves something to be desired if you are a purist like me and like the control you get with an MT.
So we all got to hop in and take the car around a sort of small autocross style course with a decent straight and long sweeping left turn, a right angle left turn, hairpin right, and a small chicane.
I turned of traction control to make sure I got a really good feel for where the limits of this car are. Taking off on the straight into the easy left, this car has a good feel to the acceleration, and I was pleasantly suprised to feel the rear end step out a little bit for just a smidge of understeer. It may not be the fastest way around a corner, but it does feel good.
This brings us into the 90 degree left, where I really had to step on it to try and trail brake, so as not to understeer as typical with a front engine FWD setup and go off the course. The 11.65" front and 10.98" rear rotors really stop this thing! Very easy to override the ABS system with their power, and transfer the needed weight to the front to rotate around that turn.
The course continues on with some easy turns then leading into the hairpin right and immediately after the chicane. Again, pleasantly suprised with the planted feel this car has, very little body roll makes you feel very confident in the handling, and allows you to maintain good speed through tight manuevers.
Again got to really feel the braking power as we were instructed to come to a hard complete stop at the end of the lap. Almost no sign of the ABS.
So in closing, for the money, this is a great sport compact, with some great standard features, good styling and great performance. When compared to the first gen tC, it is outstanding.
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2011, New, Scion, Second Generation, tc, Toyota
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