2010 Scion xD - Styling Review

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The 2010 Scion xD is both smaller and less boxy than its deliberately bricklike brother xB. Its distinctive shape mixes rounded, wedgelike, and boxy forms. From outside, the 2010 Scion xD can seem slightly menacing. Some liken it to a bulldog-meets-Mack-truck look; others have compared it to blocky footwear. Such an upright profile provides lots of interior space, but the wind noise is notably higher than in sleeker hatchbacks. The standard 16-inch wheels sit inside flared wheel arches, with alloys ranging up to 18 inches offered as options. Inside, all Scions go to town. The gauge cluster of the 2010 xD resembles a clock face, and it's mounted on the steering column and moves as the wheel tilts.

Car and Driver believes "anyone who remembers the rounder version of the bean-and-box duo that launched Scion in the U.S. will be hard pressed to see the xD as anything but a replacement for the xA." Automobile Magazine approves, saying "sharper styling, a wider stance, and tighter wheel-to-fender clearance eliminate the jellybean comparisons that plagued the xA." The 2010 Scion xD "stands out in a good way from other cars in this segment," asserts MyRide.com. Edmunds calls the 2010 Scion xD "pugnacious and utilitarian," commenting it has the "Bulldog Look." Critics generally like the departure from the xA's rather generic duds, with adjectives such as "polarizing" (Car and Driver), "sharper," (Automobile Magazine), and "dramatically styled" (Road & Track).

Edmunds says the interior is "avant-garde" and "nothing if not distinctive." MyRide.com notes, "The center stack also has some contouring instead of just a flat front." The awkward center-mounted speedometer of the xA is gone, replaced by "a more traditional driver centered dash layout," though it does have a nontraditional arrangement of speedo and tach in the same circular housing, "with their respective needles fluttering independently," remarks Automobile Magazine. The "dash is simple and easy to navigate," according to Kelley Blue Book.