2003 Toyota Matrix XR 5 Speed review from North America
"Japanese scrap with North American Quality.. not worth the $$$"
What things have gone wrong with the car?
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 edmonds.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.
General comments?
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?
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| Comfortable, reliable, and good on gas! |
|
| Reliable, but cheap car |
| Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? | No |
| Model year | 2003 |
| Year of manufacture | 2002 |
| First year of ownership | 2002 |
| Most recent year of ownership | 2007 |
| Engine and transmission | 1.8 Manual |
| Performance marks | 1 / 10 |
| Reliability marks | 1 / 10 |
| Comfort marks | 7 / 10 |
| Dealer Service marks | 1 / 10 |
| Running Costs (higher is cheaper) | 1 / 10 |
| Overall marks (average of all marks) | |
| Most recent distance | 140000 kilometres |
| Previous car | Mazda MX6 |
| Date of Entry | 16th November, 2007 |