Faults:

Alternator (400k).

O2 Sensor 380k).

General Comments:

This car has been superbly reliable (as expected from any Toyota), and that's usually all I care about. But... for this particular car, several minor aspects make it less than satisfactory.

The most significant issue is comfort. What initially feel like supportive, racing-style seats are terrible for daily commuting. If you spend any reasonable amount of time in this car (over an hour per day) and are reasonably tall (close to 6 feet), do not buy this car. It will cripple your back. The seating position and leg support is terrible. Scion advertises it as having lots of head and leg room, but this is false. The standard seating position is almost right along the floor and close to the wheel. In this position there's loads of headroom, but to get a decent amount of leg room/support, you have to crank up the seat (it raises), and when you've finally achieved decent leg clearance your head will be practically through the sunroof. You'll be slouching significantly just to see through the windshield. It took me ages to figure out exactly why I was having such terrible back problems. I only figured it out when I met another guy about my build (6'-0", 180 lbs) in a parking lot with the same car who asked if it gave me back trouble too. Started using my truck as a daily driver and within a couple of weeks my back was healed. As soon as I go back to driving this car for any length of time now, my back problems return. Making a conscious effort to sit upright and properly doesn't help; this car is terrible for your spine no matter what you do.

The accelerator is quite a pain with a manual transmission. Toyota went to an electric, fly-by-wire throttle. There's a tiny lag to it, so when you have to get going from a stop you can't throttle up as you let off the clutch - at least not in the same way as you do with any other car. You have to be a bit preemptive on the throttle. It's fine once you get used to it, but if you've been driving another car awhile and go back to this one it will be quite irksome until you get the hang of it again.

Other smaller issues are the doors and roof. Scion wanted to make it easy to access the back seat in a two door car, which they did quite effectively. Unfortunately to do this the doors have to be about a mile long; you practically need an empty parking spot beside you if you have to open them fully. OK for me as I'm quite thin, but if you're larger in the belly you'll need to have several feet of room to open the door enough to get out.

The fully glass roof is neat, but it necessitates the rear pillar being incredibly thick; the result being uncommonly large blind spots - especially irksome when driving in the city. The small mirrors don't make it easy to see into the blind spots either. Part of the driver's side blind spot can only really be checked by craning your neck to a really awkward position and trying to peer through a tiny gap between the headrest and massively thick door pillar, through the tiny sliver of rear window that you can barely see. This window is tinted so dark that in the evening or at night it's easy to miss something. I've gotten used to it, but everyone who borrows this car hates it for this reason.

I'd never usually comment on something as trivial as the sound system, but I will for this car. All the reviews advertise it as being great, but I'd have to disagree. The stock sound system and speakers are meant for those who want to create a scene with thumping loud music, but don't actually listen. The sound is just not clear - not sure how else to describe it. It sounds like it was designed by a kid in high school with no concept of acoustics - the kind of guy who slams way too many mismatched, bargain-basement speakers in his old beater car just to make a scene in the parking lot. My 2003 Matrix with its stock GM sound system was infinitely better.