Faults:

Nothing so far.

General Comments:

A phenomenal vehicle for a reasonable person.

Just drove 1700 km (4000 km round trip) from Charlottetown PEI to Mississauga ON. Took me 16.5 hours with 3 stops for coffee and fill ups.

I would never think of including seats in a review. Having owned numerous econoboxes (Japanese mostly), such as a Toyota Echo (excellent car BTW), Chrysler Neon to Subaru Outback, Volvo V40, I've never felt comfortable (back pain), after a few hours of driving. I always thought that comfort comes with premium makes for a premium price. I'm 52, 6' tall, and yes my eyes were tired at the end of the trip, but I completely forgot about my back.

As I said, I never planned on writing a review on my wife's Matrix (I own 2, the 2nd one is 2005 XR, like it less BTW), because everything seems to be SO average about it. Looking at each and every single aspect (power, space, comfort, fuel consumption...) nothing stands out, so so, adequate at best. They definitely complement each other (somehow) on a long trip.

There were 3 of us (wife and 14 year old daughter) in the car, and though some were a little weary at the end, that was mostly because of boredom, not physical fatigue.

I have nothing to say regarding mechanical behaviour of the car, just because there is nothing to say.

Come on, a Toyota powertrain with only 210000 (now 214000) km on it.

I spent $87 CAD for 1000km in gas and not a drop of engine oil to add.

Faults:

Brakes have been noisy ever since I changed the front pads at 85,000kms.

General Comments:

This Matrix has been great to me, I bought it off an older man who had just purchased an Avalon in 2007; he had put only 38,000kms on it and gave me a heck of a deal on it ($11,500) and it still had extended warranty left! (at the time it had 3 years or 60,000kms left, warranty runs out in about 3.5 months)

This car has been super reliable for me, no repair bill yet! It is an AWD Matrix and I find that the AWD system is good for most situations, except excessively deep snow (over 2ft); it just gets high centered and doesn't have a hope of getting out (no locking center diff, although I'm told it does from the dealership, I have yet to see 2 wheels spinning when I'm stuck :P)

The 1.8L 4 cyl is pretty much your average small Toyota 4 cyl; it starts in any weather, is crazy reliable, but has no power beyond 140km/h with OD off. If you have OD on, good luck trying to get to 120km/h, it is IMPORTANT you turn OD off when passing, otherwise you risk a head on collision.

Gas mileage is just alright; because the Matrix is a full time AWD, it only gets around 26-28MPG highway (that's imperial MPG by the way). It gets 1-2MPG better in the summer with less aggressive tread tires, go aggressive tread and you're going to see about 22-24MPG highway, Toyota should have put a bigger 4cyl in here (2.4L would have been perfect) or a small 6 cyl since it gets the gas mileage of one! Fill up is about average too, $40 on a bad day ($1/L for gas) and $30 on good days (95Cents/L on gas).

The inside of the Matrix is nice, the gauge cluster/dash is nice and gives you the feeling you're driving something much more sportier than a Matrix (The XR does add some sportiness appearance, but the engine quickly reminds you your in a little 4pot). I wish Toyota would have made the XRS/TRD edition in AWD, it looks much more nicer than just a regular XR and gives you the much more powerful and mod friendly 2ZZ-FE over the 1ZZ-FE (XR only adds side skirts, XRS adds that + front/rear lip and a spoiler, TRD adds that+TRD exhaust, wheels, and intake, and stabilizer bars XRS/TRD editions both have the 2ZZ-FE engine :D)

The storage capacity is very similar to a 1st gen Rav4. The only difference is the height limitation. Back seats are comfortable for almost anyone.

Only complaint I have with the interior (all my other comments are pet peeves rather than put downs/complaints on the car, I love my Matrix) is the cheap GM stereo Toyota went with (yes GM/Toyota both make these cars, old news GM=Vibe (will not be around much longer due to the fall of Pontiac) and Toyota=Matrix) it just sounds like it came straight out of a Cavalier. I'm planning to upgrade my system with something much more powerful once my warranty expires (less than 4 months left, but I'm 1000kms away from hitting the 'or' 100,000kms haha).

Overall, if you're looking for a good car, this is it. If you want something more sportier, the XRS/TRD Matrix is perfect, it's almost like driving a different car (and looks much better too!)

All in all, it's safe to say that this Matrix, is your run of the mill middle class 'average Joe' car. Everything about it is just average (seriously, this car is not meant to stand out :P)