Got up real early today, and didn't feel like going back to sleep. So I took my XRS out for a morning ride near a large wilderness preserve at the edge of town.
Since the morning roads were nearly empty, I took the chance at every red light to take off as fast as possible (I drive a stick, BTW). As I got further away from the local roads the speed limit climbed, so I tried a few 0-60 runs too, though I didn't time them. To test the steering and the suspension, I tried swerving as I drove, did some mid to high speed turns and at one point even made a sharp U-turn at around 40 MPH. It was very pleasant driving in the early hours, and the relaxed atmosphere allowed me to get my first good feel of the car since I got it over a month ago.
First of all, the steering. There have been a lot of complaints about the EPS, but although it's a bit annoying when cruising (requires somewhat more effort to keep the car going straight) it responds perfectly well to sudden swerves and turns. There isn't enough feedback, I agree, but I actually noticed that
after someone mentioned it. It didn't bother me the slightest bit back when I was test driving. In this sense, I will say that the steering is simply different, takes some getting used to, but has no up or downsides overall.
Secondly, the acceleration is good, but not quite there. Don't get me wrong, in the first 3 gears the car is hideous - I accidently made the wheels screech more than once. If you throttle it enough you can really feel the torque jerking you forward. The problem is that somewhere around 3rd the acceleration begins to flatten out. The speed simply rises at a fixed rate regardless of how hard you step on the pedal. At that point any sportiness is lost instantly - it reminds me of a Camry more than anything else.
Third, speed. This is probably the strongest point of this car. Although I didn't take it up to that today, my current top is 100 mph with one passenger. I'm pleased to say that the car runs fine at that speed. It floats no more than a medium sized sedan would, and it's relatively quiet for a car of it's size. My friend actually turned off the stereo for a moment to listen to the wind and engine noise, because the JBL was covering them up too well. Furthermore, the reason I didn't go any higher was because of traffic, and of course, fear of cops. Given the time and place I feel that this car can probably go near it's max speed and still ride pretty comfortably.
Finally, the suspension. Now this is bad. The car is either too tall, has bad springs, or maybe both. Anyway, there is noticeable body roll when making high speed turns, which is uncomfortable to say the least. It's not enough to make the car flip over, but I imagine that if I had a passenger or two, they wouldn't appreciate it very much. I also heard some tire screeching during the sharp U-turn, though I'm not sure whether that has to do with the tires or the suspension.
To wrap it up, I must say that, unfortunately, I feel that a lot of the reviews out there are pretty accurate. The new XRS is no performance car, it's just a Corolla with a little more power. I'm putting it that way because a few years ago it was. I'm not exactly complaining, since the car fits my needs perfectly - a compact, reliable grocery shopper with enough power to comfortably carry 4 adults at 70 mph. I'm just saying that Toyota really could have made it better. Then again, it
is a first-year model, after all - it hasn't been polished yet. I guess that's the price one has to pay for being so eager for a new toy
.
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