Cars are rated one (forget it) to four ('bout as good as it gets) James Deans

 Specifications

• Style: station wagon whatchamacallit
• Engine: 1.8-liter four-cylinder
• Transmission: five-speed manual
• Drivetrain: front-wheel drive
• Horsepower: 130 hp @ 6,000 rpm
• Torque: 126 ft-lbs. @ 4,200 rpm
• EPA mileage: 29 city/36 highway
• Weight: 2,679 lb.
• Base price: $14,670
• Price as tested: $16,585.15

There's a new catch phrase rampant today, another way of saying "This was stupid."

The phrase is "What were they thinking?!" And in several ways it could apply to Toyota's new Gen Y special, the Matrix.

What were Toyota designers thinking when they chose red-on-black for the instrument display? Red becomes invisible to colorblind folks -- it becomes black --- and the contrast level is so low in the Matrix that the instruments simply cannot be read during bright light conditions.

What were they thinking when they decided to rim the instruments with chrome rings? These rings catch the overhead sunlight and direct glare back into a driver's eyes -- further diminishing any chance that information from the instruments might be useful.

What were they thinking when they didn't look at the windshield to see a constellation of glaring stars -- reflections from the chrome rings?

What were they thinking when they created armrests that a Munchkin wouldn't find comfortable, and combined those armrests with teeny little window sills -- meaning there is NO place to comfortably rest an arm when the windows are closed?

What were they thinking when they decided to offer three Matrix models, including one with a decent 180-horsepower engine, and decided to offer all-wheel-drive as an option -- on the ones without the extra horsepower?! Here's your sign...

But many elements of the Matrix show sound thinking. It's not a bad vehicle at all, and the faults seem easily correctable in future models. Indeed, give me some black electrical tape and I'll fix that glare problem right now! Won't be pretty, but it'll make driving a lot more comfortable...

As it happened, the week the Matrix arrived was the week of a family reunion to be held in mountains some 618 miles from my home. That meant this little wagon would get plenty of time under all conditions -- interstate cruising, travel through cities, and tours up and down mountain roads. Mostly, it did the job.

Not always happily.

The bottom line here is that the Matrix is essentially an around town vehicle. It doesn't like mountains. It has no standard cruise control for interstates. Its noisy little four-cylinder is easy on gas, hard on nerves. Face it, it's a city car.

There is nothing special about the base Matrix, in terms of safety.

Our tester did have side air bags, but they were a $250 option that no one should be without. Anti-lock brakes were not a part of the tester, being an option, as well. Again, do not buy a vehicle without them.

We'll have to await crash tests for a final conclusion on Matrix safety, but nothing here promises to help save your life. Two air bags, belts and head restraints. That's it on the "standard" list.

My hunch is that other auto writers will pan the base Matrix as underpowered. And I won't disagree. It's just that excessive horsepower is rarely needed and comes at the expense of fuel efficiency. The Matrix tilts to fuel efficiency.

And, as others might point out, it got the job done on even the steepest mountain road.

It's how it did the job that some might find troubling.

Undoubtedly, you're familiar with those road signs reading "Slower Vehicles Keep Right." That's you, Matrix driver. You are among the slowest vehicles on the road, only a tad faster than a logging truck. You will be passed by Cavaliers, for crying out loud! Not only are you slow, but there is no chance you can stay in a tall gear on an upgrade. Ha.

Hit that upgrade with pedal to the metal and you'll soon feel like you're going backwards (you won't know your speed loss because the instruments are unreadable). Downshift to fourth and leave that pedal to the metal and all manner of vehicle flies by you on the left. Ooops. Going backwards again. Shift to third and pray the crest of this slope is just ahead... hey, look, we're actually going to pass .. a bicyclist.

That's how it goes in the mountains.

And a deluxe stereo system, air conditioning and an outside temperature gauge (101 degrees F through south Georgia) are standard, but cruise control is not. That means leg cramps after hours of interstate cruising with no way to relieve the stress on the right leg. Interstate speed can only be guessed, since the instruments are unreadable. You simply try to stay with traffic.

Acceleration is barely acceptable under the best of conditions. Each horse in this engine must pull 20 pounds, and that's asking a lot. The engine revs past 6,000, but quickly becomes so noisy that the tendency is to shift early, especially since the tachometer is unreadable. I know this because I put my face right up to the instruments a few times and could make out "4,000" as my intuitive shift point.

On the plus side, the Matrix is a go-where-you-point-it car. The power steering doesn't seem overboosted and the car nicely tracks your intended line. The 32-foot turning radius is terrific, and parking is a breeze. The Matrix was downright fun on twisty (downhill) mountain roads. On the minus side, the tires that undoubtedly helped handling transmitted every bump, every tar strip, every pavement crack into the vehicle.

Sleeping comfortably as a passenger proved impossible. The Matrix bounced and jolted far too much (and the interstates are getting beaten up faster than workers leaning on shovels can fix them, right?).

The real beauty of this little four-cylinder can be appreciated in its fuel efficiency. In pure mountain travel, accelerator floored much of the time, the Matrix returned 34.5 miles per gallon through two tankfuls. On the interstate, it topped 40 mpg once. Regular gas ... $1.12 a gallon in Georgia .. 400 miles or so to a tankful.

While the Matrix has its share of design flaws, it certainly has much that is "right".

The exterior door handles are of the best bar design. The fuel filler lid is released from a floor switch left of the driver's seat, and refueling is done on the driver's side. The seats proved comfortable even after hours of steady interstate driving (we drove straight through going up, eating in the car as we drove). This is a major plus for Toyota, since many seats yield backache in an hour or less.

And it's a terrific looking little wagon. Frankly, I expected more notice than I got. During the week, only a few people stopped to look at it while we were parked in restaurant lots or shopping centers. No one commented to me.

But you just know the instruments will get their discussion here. And you're right. Now, I don't expect you to take my word for this without a photo, so study this one.

The larger image is a photograph that closely approximates what a driver with perfect vision will see. I say "approximate" because the human eye is capable of better color resolution than even the best camera/film/digital image combination. But this represents what I saw.

The smaller image below represents what a person with a common colorblind condition would see. To create this image, a special filter called Vischeck was applied to the main image. This wonderful filter for Adobe Photoshop can show three different kinds of colorblindness. It should be used by every automaker designing every instrument.

If Toyota had used it, this horrendous, worst ever, instrument display would never have gone into production.

Red is quite simply the single worst color to use for instruments. Red on black has insufficient contrast under the best of conditions (imagine a newspaper being delivered to you with red ink on a black surface!). If the red reflects onto window surfaces, it mimics traffic signals. It's also jarring. Red is unsettling, and every color design expert knows that fact. Red sunglasses mess up the brain. It's true. They increase hostility. Orange is used in fast-food restaurants because it makes you want to leave quickly! Fast turnover, more profit.

Two colors should never be used for vehicle instruments -- red and green. That pretty well hits a bunch of automakers, doesn't it? Yep, and they deserve the hit. Black on white in daylight or bathed in blue at night. That's the ticket.

There was one other aspect of the Matrix that fought relaxed interstate cruising -- the three-spoke steering wheel. No, I don't like them, even if they are "sporty". There is no place to rest a hand at the base of the wheel during long hours of boring, steady speed.

I did discover, however, that I could tilt the steering wheel down in a way that would block the glaring stars of sunlight coming off the instrument's unnecessary chrome rings. My wife doesn't like the steering wheel tilted that way, however, so we kept moving it up and down as we changed drivers ("Just don't look at the instruments." Awwwwk!). The driver's sunvisor had to be flipped down most of the time to block the blinding, glaring stars in the windshield from those same chrome rings.

Also awful are the width of the passenger armrest and window sill. Place a right elbow on either and the elbow slides off. The surfaces are too narrow for comfort.

The passenger seat does recline, but only a cross-country trucker could sleep in this vehicle. The noise and roughness transmitted from the pavement will jar most people awake quickly.

The gear shifter for the standard five-speed manual is located in a bubble protruding from the lower dash. Not on the floor. Not on the column. On this .. shelf. In use, it proved to be nicely located. Clutch action is easy and it doesn't take long to learn smooth takeoffs and upshifts in the Matrix.

Thankfully, there is a dead pedal to rest the left foot on.

There are two cupholders in the floor space between the front seats and the parking brake is nicely positioned to the right of the driver's seat. A cigarette lighter is to the driver's side, low on the dash. The air conditioner indeed kept the car cool in record Georgia heat (one town we passed through recorded 102 degrees at the time we passed through it).

There is much about the interior of the Matrix that says "low cost". But low cost doesn't always mean low quality, and that appears to be the case here. The car was free of squeaks and rattles (except for an improperly attached license tag) and interior pieces could not be pried up from finger pressure. Plastic abounds, but at least it's attached firmly.

The front passenger seat can fold flat and the split rear seats can likewise fold down to maximize cargo capacity. The rear cargo bay has hooks to tie down luggage, and two cargo nets. Liftover is relatively high, but I didn't feel a strain placing luggage back there. The liftgate opens high enough that a person can stand or walk under it without banging a head.

Entry and exit were easy, the seats being positioned at a proper height to slide onto them.

Cracking a window partly open produced considerable wind noise and turbulence inside the Matrix.

The instruments that were impossible to see in daylight were fine at night. Halogen headlights are standard and, while not approaching the quality of those in more expensive vehicles, did a good job of lighting up the night road. Reflections inside the car were not noted. Driver visibility is all directions is satisfactory, day or night.

Competition for these crossover whatchamacallit vehicles is heating up. Before long, every major automaker will have models like this, to offer practicality and good looks for young buyers with less than $20,000 to spend.

Already, Ford and Mazda have models to square off against the Matrix (and its Pontiac Vibe sibling).

The Matrix does not lead this pack.

But it does offer Toyota's reputation for quality. And that means a lot. Don't dismiss it, but do see if you can live with the flaws pointed out here.

Is this a sunrise or sunset? Sometimes, they look the same at quick glance, don't they. For Toyota, the sun is rising on the Matrix. Tweak it, fix it, evolve it and get it back to me in a year.

Because until then, the rising of the sun means only that I would face hours of glare and reflections in the worst instrument display I've seen in a tester yet.

'nuff said.

Home, James