2003 Toyota Matrix Reviews

Battery died at 145k.

Changed timing belt at 150k.

Changed original brakes at 135k.

Changed rotors, and replaced brake pads with ceramic ones.

Rattling noise on the right side. I thought this was just me, but reading the reviews, it looks like a common problem.

Great gas mileage. Still runs smooth even at 193k Km.

I guess been lucky with my transmission (knock on wood); so far the 5 speed is still working fine. Lots of elbow room, and have been driving it out of town a lot with no issues so far.

I have a 16 inch winter tire set, as the all season just wouldn't cut it with a Canadian winter. Original all seasons lasted 5 years, which is the average, but got a winter tire set last year, and still using the all seasons in summer. Been rotating tires every 35k km.

All in all, it was a great buy for me.

Nothing has gone wrong. However, I have personally had 2 visibility issues:

1. The rear window does not come down as low as I'd like; It is hard to see how close the Matrix is to an obstacle behind.

2. With the odometers and temperature reading tucked deep into a hole they are difficult, under certain sun conditions, to read.

The vehicle is friendly and reliable. The seats sit up comfortably, and are easy to get in and out of. The remote door-lock is very convenient.

It would not need to be so tall. I sit rather tall and have much headroom to spare.

I like the under-clearance.

All manual 2003 and 2004 Matrix's have a bad bearing in the transmission. It will fail! Buyer beware. Do your research.

Toyota will ignore you! They will not help you to fix it.

Repair costs are from 2000-4000 to fix this problem.

I used to love this car... fuel economy was great and the car is great for transporting stuff with the seats down!

THIS CAR IS JUNK! DO NOT BUY THIS CAR.

The 5 speed transmissions are defective. There is a bad main bearing in them. Typically the transmissions will fail before you hit 120,000 km's. Check out edmunds.com to find out more about people that have had faulty transmissions in this car. The cost to repair it will be anywhere from 2000-5000 dollars.

My transmission went at 120,000 km's.

Ceased front right caliper at 130,000 km's.

Oh and if you are thinking about buying a high mileage Matrix, the odometers are defective and will not go higher than 299,000, so you may be buying a car that has much higher mileage, or a new odometer installed by the dealer with a sticker to say that it was replaced.

The gas mileage was great... after the rebuilt transmission I haven't been able to achieve the same gas mileage that I was getting before the tranny went.

The car has many rattles. I had to remove all of the panels on the car and put weather stripping to stop the rattles... I took the panels off the door and put in weather stripping to stop the rattling when you listen to music. It was so bad that even classical music with no bass made the car rattle.

This is definitely a cheap econo box... cheap cheap cheap... you get what you pay for... my recommendation is not to buy a cheap Toyota... perhaps their higher end cars are better, but they have definitely cut a lot of corners on this car. If you are buying this car, you will pay the typical Japanese premium, but get the standard American cars quality... in other words, you might as well buy a cheaper North American car.

The car is GUTLESS... that being said, the gas mileage is really good... best in class for gas consumption, but at what cost?