"My family purchased our first Scion xB in the summer as a replacement vehicle. My two teenage sons, one over 6'5, no longer fit in our Suzuki Vitara. Our criteria were, in order, 1) Had to fit the boys comfortably in the back seat and 2) better than average gas mileage.

The 2004 xB we found fit the bill. With more than 5" of space above the tallest son's head, the back seat was perfect. We consistently get over 30 MPG city and highway.

As a Toyota product, we had often wondered (hypothetically) how one of these "boxes" would survive a crash or flip accident. On 11/20 I found out.

Crossing an intersection with a green light, I was struck in the front passenger door by a small truck whose brakes failed. In an instant I was going backward down the same road, hanging from my seatbelt sliding along on the TOP of the xB.

With nothing to do but listen to the paint scrape off and hope no one was coming the other way, I rode it out. As soon as the scraping had stopped I was able to unfasten my seatbelt and drop to the ceiling and start looking for the door to get out. When helped from the car and able to look, I found that 1) I was totally unhurt and 2) the top of the xB had not folded or crumpled AT ALL. (After it was righted, I found that the top was almost entirely devoid of paint, but no structural collapse had occurred!).

We were so impressed with the car's survivability (the center of the impact, the door and center post on the passenger side had been pushed in about 10 inches) that we immediately started a search for a replacement xB. We now have an '05 xB and again are very pleased with comfort, fit and mileage. Great car, highly recommended for the busy, cost-conscious family."