Female 05 XB owner buys 08 XB.....

I first saw the box when it first came out in 2004. I was not impressed with the physical appearance and didnt give it another thought until my 2001 Chrysler Sebring Coupe died about a year later. With a little prodding from my boyfriend I test drove an 05 and it was love at first drive. I got over the appearance quickly. I was a little bummed out about the lack of power though as I live in the mountains of Virginia. However, I still bought the car and had it up until about 2 weeks ago.

Home sick from work and watching TV, I saw the new 2008 XB on a Scion commercial. I decided to 'go see one' that afternoon. The next day I traded in my 05 took it home.

Dont get me wrong I loved my green 2005 xB but we had our moments. Again, I live in a very hilly area and the low power was super annoying, I had to turn off the AC to go up a hill if there were 1 or more passengers in the car. Another flaw in the old xB design was the massive almost vertical windshield. They literally were not going to pass my inspection this year because of the cracks. The flat windshield picked up rocks like crazy and I had 5 rock breaks in my lower left corner all from seperate incidents. So that was annoying. We also felt kind of 'exposed' in the old model. The windows were so big and the dash was so low that you could almost see what pants we were wearing while we drove it. The seats were rock hard and the gas pedal was up too high off the floor board. With no cruise control offered, long trips were hell on the heels.

Once I drove the 08 I had to have it. I chose this time the gorgeous Nautical Blue in an automatic with sequential shifting. The difference in power and torque was just unbelievable. It also seats more comfortably and feels like a much more expensive model car than it is. I was worried about the decrease in headroom but my 6'4 boyfriend couldnt tell the difference. The old model just had way too much as it turns out.

Anyway, the only thing I do not like about the car so far is the shifter. It is in a very high traffic spot in the car, and as anyone reaches for the radio it is just tooooo easy to bump it into neutral (im praying it never goes up into reverse!!) there is no shifting button to depress before shifting, so it just goes at will. Not a good idea considering the positioning of the shifter in this car. I have also bumped it over into standard shifting and really got a jolt. I worry im going to loose my tranny over this.

But all in all, im glad I 'traded up' from the 05. For the most part they fixed all the annoyances of the old model and the curves they added to the asthetics of the car is a plus too. I spent way too much time defending the looks of my xB before now. I give the 2008 an A-