Car offers trouble-free ownership experience
Of the 16 engineers tasked by the Swedish Aeroplane Company to design the first Saab automobile, only one possessed a driver’s licence.
England’s Swallow Sidecar Co. manufactured aluminum motorcycle sidecars and then automobiles, prompting a name change to SS Cars in 1933. After the Second World War, it was rebranded as Jaguar to disassociate itself from the Nazi paramilitary organization.
In 1903, machinist brothers John and Horace Dodge built engines for Henry Ford in a supplier deal that included equity in the Ford Motor Co. John Dodge became a vice-president at Ford before bowing out to start his own car company with Horace.
A lot of automobile brands have long and colourful histories, many of them born of necessity like the inventions they created. Then there’s Scion.
Toyota’s nascent brand popped out of a Petri dish in 2002, cultivated to appeal to fickle youth that had largely spurned Toyotas for being dull and stodgy. Configuration Scion — English for “descendant” — is a fitting handle for a car brand spun off from a well-bred family. Toyota merely had to survey its models bound for foreign markets to see what could be redirected to North America under the new banner.
That was the case with the tC, Scion’s first coupe after the minuscule xA and xB hipster containers hit the streets of California in 2003. For the tC, Toyota tapped its mid-size Avensis sold in Europe.
Scion started small with dealerships on America’s left coast before spreading eastwards. Scion didn’t arrive in Canada until the 2011 model year. By that time, the second-generation tC was just being introduced.
As before, it was based on the Avensis, but cast solely as a two-door hatchback. It employed the same MacPherson-strut front suspension and double wishbone rear setup, but with a wider track for better stability.
The hydraulic power steering system was changed to electric assis- tance to reduce drag on the engine. Significantly, the tC sported larger brake rotors all around with standard antilock, stability and traction controls.
The roomy cockpit featured deeply bolstered front buckets that offered great support, as well as equally deep recessed instruments. The steering wheel got some thoughtful attention, with an extra-thick rim and a flat bottom that shouted boy-racer like nothing else.
The reclining back seat was unusually large for a coupe (the donor Avensis has four doors), with accessibil- ity aided by driver and passenger seats that moved all the way to the dashboard.
“While I’m six-feet-one-inch (tall) and a huge dude, I feel comfortable in the back seat, something rare for a two-door,” reported one impressed tC owner. An aluminum 2.5-L DOHC four cylinder was the lone powerplant, lifted from the Camry, making180 hp and 173 lb-ft of grunt thanks to variable timing on both intake and exhaust camshafts.
The available manual and automatic transmissions were new, both of- fering six forward gears.
Coinciding with the introduction of the rear-drive FR-S, the 2014 tC got a refresh consisting of a revised grille and headlamps, LED taillights, new alloy wheels, a sport-tuned suspension, faster-shifting transmission and a new touch-screen audio system standard. Driving and owning the tC Zero to 97 km/h came up in 7.4 seconds with the automatic transmission, and 6.9 seconds with the easyto-row stickshift. The numbers were merely OK for what is supposed to be a sporty starter car. Weight had gone up by 144 pounds to 3,160 (1,433 kg) during the redesign — a little porky for a four-cylinder coupe.
“The car’s performance does not match its looks at all. When people call it a two-door Camry, they aren’t kidding,” posted one wag online. The tC redeemed itself in other ways.
The steering was immediate and linear, if a little numb, and body control was disciplined. However, lumpy asphalt made for a rough ride on the car’s standard 18-inch wheels and skimpy 45-series tires. The stiff suspension needed rubber with a more forgiving sidewall. At least braking performance was exceptional; thank the pie-plate-sized rotors.
Handling fanatics may want to test drive a 2014 or newer tC, since the retuned steering and suspension pieces, along with more structural spot welds, sharpened the frontdrive chassis noticeably.
The Camry engine was tuned to deliver good power and better fuel economy than the first-gen car, and owners largely concurred with the result.
“I average 31 mpg (9.0 litres/100 km) highway and around town combined — not stellar but not bad at all for what you get,” advised one owner online.
Balloon-footed drivers have been rewarded with especially good mileage.
Mechanically, the Scion tC has provided a trouble-free ownership experience for many. An online scan reveals very few quality lapses of any kind. The most notable involves a cacophony of interior rattles, sometimes unleashed by the car’s eightspeaker sound system.
Other gripes mentioned, in very small numbers, include faulty sunroof mechanisms, bad door-lock actuators and short-lived water pumps. Some drivers pointed out the large blind spots attributed to the bulky C-pillars.
Overall, the little-known Scion tC has impressed those who stumbled upon it.
The refined drivetrain, spacey interior and bulletproof engine are universally appreciated. Performanceminded hotshoes should look elsewhere. Tell us about your ownership experience with these models: Volkswagen Jetta and Hyundai Equus. Email: toljagic@ca.inter.net.