The car.
They say first impressions are everything. That’s not always the case. I really liked the car on the test drive, but the longer I owned it, the less I liked it.The Subaru had a leak in the fuel tank, and I wasn’t interested in fixing it. I didn’t feel like selling it outright, so I decided to trade it against something. I’d looked at a few options – an Elantra GT, and a hatchback Accent, but wasn’t thrilled with either. I wanted something wagon-y, and the Toyota dealer had a Matrix. I liked the look of it, and the seats were comfortable enough. The price was reasonable, and I bought it.
The sort-of factory stereo.
It was a TRD model, which was a Canada-only model. If memory serves, it was strictly a trim-and-appearance model. The TRD came with 17 inch aluminum rims, a lovely large fart tip with TRD on it, power windows, AC, and a really awful Panasonic CD deck. The 1.8 litre engine was coarse but not overly powerful, but the 4-speed automatic transmission shifted nicely. Combined with the boxy shape, it only delivered around 26 MPG at the best of times. It was worse than the CR-V!
The car was in good condition.
It was an OK car to drive. It had comfortable seats, sitting upright. Visibility was good all around too. Once winter rolled around, I got a set of 15-inch rims and snow tires for it. It proved to be not good at all in the snow. It’s almost as if the front of the car was too light. The best policy was to just take it slow.
Once summer rolled around, I wasn’t happy at all with the car. I just didn’t like it. My wife had an Escape at the time, and I liked it. I’d looked at one, and my wife – being eminently more sensible than I – said why don’t you get rid of the Matrix and Yukon, and get a truck? So I did.
Looking at tractors on a road trip. Dad would end up buying this one.
There are only 4 more vehicles left in my history. Perhaps I can write something about the tractors we’ve had over the years as well.
Hi Marc, I am driving an ’05 Pontiac Vibe, the sister model to your Toyota Matrix. I can see why you were underwhelmed. These cars really fool some people into thinking they are gasmizers because they are small and have that aero look about them. The fact is they use a lot of fuel on warm up and the high but short body punches a big hole into the air. For the time I kept a ledger I got 28.5 miles per US gal. If you got only 26 miles per US gal your Matrix was within normal range I guess. If you got only 26 per imperial gal you had a stinker.
I like to keep my cars for a long time because it is more cost effective than switching. I had to make a few modifications to my Vibe in order to make this possible for Vibe as well.
They are very practical and very reliable and long lasting buggers though.
Here is a link to my Vibe COAL: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-2005-pontiac-vibe-a-conditional-love/
Searching Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix brings up a bevvy of related reading.
I struggle to get excited about these because, at the end of the day, they’re just a Corolla. I guess Americans had fewer hatch/wagon offerings in this segment so the Matrix gets more attention than it would’ve here. I think I would’ve preferred a Mazda3 but then again, I’ve learned from my fellow Curbivores that they’re rusters…
I’m delighted to hear the new Corolla is actually fun-to-drive and it looks pretty good inside and out.
Your comment about the poor performance in the snow intrigues me. My dad had a Nissan Primera, and a few years ago, I found myself alternating between it and a Renault Clio.
Both were suffering from a Scottish disease called “summer tires when it’s -5c” but the Clio was night and day better than the Primera in snow – the Primera felt as bad as any RWD car.
The Nissan definitely had that feeling of “the front of the car was too light”. Can anyone offer an explanation to this dimwit? Just a matter of weight distribution?
It’s a combination of things. The weight over the drive wheels is a positive. Now the Matrix is a wagon and the rear hatch is heavier than the Corolla’s trunk. That moves a few pounds to the rear.
The bigger issue though has to do with the throttle response. These cars have a sensitive tip in. You barely touch the pedal and the engine revs up. That’s not good on a slick surface because it causes wheel spin.
The one thing that helps here are dedicated winter tires. I have a set of General Tire Altimax Arctic that make a world of a difference. They also improve grip on dry but cold pavement because of the softer compound. You may want to rethink your Scottish ways. Penny- wise, Pound- foolish?
Haha – they weren’t my cars. The last car I owned in Scotland had Michelin CrossClimates which were probably perfect – there is no use for summer tires in Scotland when you get about 5 weeks of temperatures above 22c in a good year
Winter tires are virtually unheard of in the UK – the problem is Scotland (which gets colder winter’s than England) gets what England gets, which to some extent gets what Europe gets – and also the temperature fluctuates so much you could end up changing wheels every couple of weeks.
I once was telling a German guy about the cold winter we had in 2010 and how there was no bread in the grocery stores. He said “Yes, I was working in Scotland that winter and people were saying ‘Winter tires? What are winter tires?'”. He wasn’t joking. Like I said, he was German 😉
Also, it wasn’t anything to do with throttle response on that Primera. The Clio felt much more planted in any conditions but in snow and ice the Nissan steered like a boat.
I owned a Infiniti/Nissan G20/Primera and got stuck in a snowstorm once. I agree, probably not a great car in snow but mine was on All-season tires. I couldn’t go over 40 mph unless I wanted to get acquainted with a tow truck driver, and going up gentle hills the car slid sideways a few times.
But I am pretty sure 99% of my problem was due to driving with the wrong tires.
I actually liked the Pontiac version of these, though the 2nd generation? Not so much, it looked like the 1st generation but way over inflated. The Matrix? Looked like Toyota was trying too hard to disassociate the Matrix from the Corolla.
My dad’s was a 2003 “P12” Primera whereas I think the Infiniti was based on the P11 – I drove those when I worked for Avis and they felt tight, had direct steering, precise shift.
The P12 was a much more floaty barge. And looked flabbier too.
Interesting observations about your Primera. I had a P10 (1995) Infiniti G20, purchased at over 200k mi in 2008 or so. It came with good condition but inexpensive Mastercraft (Cooper) all season tires. It was a very tail-happy car on wet roads, especially for a FWD, but I found it to be exceptional in snow. We had a 2-foot snowfall in 2009 that I managed to get around very well in. I have and always will have a very favorable impression of both that car and those tires for snow traction.
Unfortunately, mine was a 4 speed automatic base model. It was rather rusty, too. But it was built like a tank and served its purpose rather well for a couple of years.
For what it’s worth, the P12 wasn’t really a Nissan, so much as a Nissan-tweaked Laguna. So, very little in the platform related to the Nissan-designed P10 and P11.
I drove Lagunas too, but never in snow. They felt like more of a “driver’s car” than the P12, but nowhere near as sharp as the P11.
This is one car I tend to forget I’ve owned, so I share the feeling. Ours was a Vibe GT even, with the vvti and 6 speed. It was fun and capable, flat out quick even, especially on two lane highway road trips, but it was also unrefined and tin can like. It had to be worked hard to keep it up on it’s second set of cam profiles. It was a Jekyll and Hyde type car, with no middle. It was my first experience with a Toyota product, and i haven’t sought out another. I’ve tended to prefer Honda’s for cars before and since.
Odd that they lack traction on snow a friend of mine has a 07 Corolla fielder and the road to her house is very steep and very loose shingle surface her car scoots up that just fine, I would have thought they’d be ok on snow, I guess not oh well you live and learn.
It is a terrible thing when a car guy, for whatever reason, ends up in a car that he just doesn’t like. This is often not so much about the car but about the owner and what he does or does not value. For myself I have come close to this dreaded situation, but fortunately was able to find enough to like that I could make the man-car relationship work.
You provide a counterpoint to CCs Jim Grey who had a mostly happy relationship with two different Matrices.
It was a shame. I liked the shape and form factor, just not the package. I bought a Soul last January – I like it a lot better.
I liked the look of these and their Vibe cousins when they were new, but have always heard they weren’t very powerful and not great on gas.
Glad I passed.
Fortunately I was underwhelmed by the Toyota Matrix and its clone, the Pontiac Vibe, on dealer test drives. Other choices beckoned such as the Ford Focus, a much better vehicle. Finally the choice went to the Chrysler PT Cruiser with turbocharged engine. It was comfortable, felt more solid than the Toyota, was far better trimmed inside, was a better handler with a strong engine. By then, PTs weren’t selling at over MSRP as in their early years.
And the PT has a good radio. A lot of Japanese-brand cars have poor ones, like the Panasonic in the featured car.
It has held up well since then.
I think the Panasonic in Marc’s Matrix was an after market installation. That said many are not satisfied with the standard radio. Even the Moon and Tunes set up with 7 speakers is not enough for audiophiles. It has more to do with the lack of sound insulation of the body than the radio and speakers.
I forgot how noisy it was. Also, have a look at this – the TRD was Toyota Canada’s attempt to dress up a base car.
http://www.technofile.com/cars/toyota_matrix_trd.html
O.k. The Panasonic was part of the TRD package. Any radio will sound better -in the sense of clearer- if the door skins get some sound deadener such as dynamat or rubber roofing membrane (peel and seal). Clearly this TRD package was all about show and zilch about go.
I’m always up for a Fieldside Classic! I’ve covered my Ford 8N, NH Boomer 8N and Hesston 6400 (/6 powered, FTW!) in these pages. Taking a wild guess based on the color, you got either a Kubota or a Case, 50-75hp?
Close, it’s a 40 HP Kioti!
Nice! What do you do with it (and all your other tractors)? 40hp is a bit big for mowing lawns… (c:
We’re on a small farm, so mine see year-round duty.
No wonder a small Toyota underwhelmed you, you’ve got a GMT400 in your fleet! 😉
Ah, the last NUMMI cars. I think they build Teslas in the factory now. I’m a little puzzled at the lack of respect for the Matrix/Vibe. I mean, c’mon, it’s just a Corolla wagon. What do you expect? A solid, but boring, car. It’s just a point-A to point-B mobile. So long as it’s not one of the 5-speed versions, it’s another one of those cockroach-of-the-road cars that refuse to die, no matter how badly they’re treated.
I miss the NUMMI cars. You could get a GM-branded Toyota at GM-level pricing and were one of the best, modern, most bang-for-your-buck automotive bargains in recent memory.
I still see lots of these around, despite the salt. They were built well for sure.
Every jar has it’s lid. I got rid of my S10 to keep the Matrix when my wife got a new Mazda3 a few years ago. I’m so much happier to get behind the wheel of this car. It’s comfortable, reliable, useful, and my fuel economy is a minimum of 30mpg. I can see out of it, and get in and out without ever banging my head. Yes, the powertrain is crude, but I prefer driving it to the much newer Mazda. We’re all different.
BTW, the common belief is the Matrix was manufactured in Fremont (NUMMI) alongside the Vibe, but in reality, the Matrix was manufactured at Toyota’s plant in Cambridge, Ontario.
I’ve had a 5-speed 06 Matrix for a year now and love it. It absolutely eats up logging roads here in Oregon, grips like gorilla glue on blacktop, and I averaged almost 34 mpg doing 75-85 on my recent trip to Colorado and back. Hours of rather high speed for a 4 pot and at elevations from 500 or so feet to over 10,000.
Whilst in Colorado I drove around 1,300 miles in dad’s 08 auto Camry on a three day Rockies trip and very similar dynamics. 34mpg over pass after pass; easy to overtake even on rather short passing zones, and zipped around corners without a hitch (other than dad asking me to slow down due to him being a bit scared.)
In conclusion, I’ve long felt that there are very few truly “boring, vanilla appliance-like” cars, but there is no shortage of “boring, vanilla appliance-like” drivers. Buckle up, put your foot down, and freakin’ drive!
/end rant
I think I would have liked it a lot more with a 5-speed. There wasn’t much go with the automatic.
That might have depended on how long you kept it. Some Toyota forum comments say the Matrix/Vibe 5-speed doesn’t last all that much past 100k miles (although some long-term owners may have a better experience).
Someone with better info can correct but I think it was something about having a poorly engineered tailshaft.
Not the shaft. The bearing of the shaft crapped out.
Our ‘93 Corolla wagon was pretty inept in the snow. Chains gave it adequate forward traction, but ground clearance was poor and steering was very sensitive to traction variation and ruts. Braking (no ABS) wasn’t great either.
My wife&I continue to use as our daily driver a ’06 base Vibe with its M5 now at something a little less than 450K total miles. [The odometer quit @299,999 miles(it’s a design error), but have used the 10K trip meter to keep some track of the mileage since that occurred.] Absolutely no problems with the transmission&clutch to date. Only repair: Alternator failed&was replaced somewhere around 300K miles. Initially ran at 30MPG, haven’t recalculated that stat in a decade, but there’s been no apparent change. Unit operates well @80+MPH, only–of course–do not cruise at that speed, but–sometimes–in the urban traffic around Minneapolis/St.Paul that’s how fast the traffic is going, and it is just safer to drive at the same speed as the rest of the traffic. This Vibe is not over-powered, but 3rd gear@4000RPM=60MPH which keeps up with the semi-trucks in the slow lane when climbing an actual pass–like Snoqualmie headed east from Seattle. After eighteen+ years of ownership there is no obvious rust damage, but here in ND winter road chemicals are not used that extensively since it usually is too cold for their chemical action to work. Plus we ND people are thrifty–even cheap. LOL
Yes, it is a Corolla station wagon. For what it is worth, I’ve seen illustrations of a proposed new Corolla station wagon–which from that example–did not look that different from the Matrix/Vibe of now a decade back.
Have daily-driven two exceptional cars over the last half-century+: ’68 Pontiac Firebird OHC6 Sprint and ’89 Ford SHO. This ’06 Vibe is almost as much fun to drive as either of those two earlier rides, and its general carrying ability is much better.
Have written RE this Vibe before–maybe two years ago. Still driving it, and it remains a very good daily driver/ride.
…”I’ve seen illustrations of a proposed new Corolla station wagon”…
It’s ready, here’s the new Corolla TS (Touring Sports). It will be introduced – as in on sale- on the Euro-market in about 4 months.
Hi Marc. I’m enjoying your stories and I’d love to read about your tractors too. Thanks a lot.