Scion Tc (2014)

Pros
It’s a cheap, little economy car, that’s a lot more fun to drive than most. It grows on you.
The Tc has plenty of power, and a peppy engine. It’s just a 4- cylinder, but Scion manages to get 179 horsepower out of it, and the car feels quick and lively.
Cornering is quite good. Improved suspension and handling over previous version of the Tc. Feels tight and fun to zip around in.
Shape reminds us of the old two-door Saab 900. There’s a nice, big useful hatchback area that has plenty of storage.
The six-speed automatic transmission has an auto-manual feature that works pretty well, and allows you to change gears up and down manually and pretend you’re driving a sporty car.
A manual transmission is an usual option on this car for Toyota/Scion, and is available for those who don’t want to pretend.
Gas mileage is decent, among the landscape of all cars—EPA says about 26 mpg overall. But compared to other small cars, it’s not that impressive.
It handled reasonably well in the snow.

Cons
Two-door design makes this car a challenge for anyone over age 35.
Ride can be choppy, especially with the optional, enormous 19 inch wheels.
Interior is fairly cheap looking and feeling. But this is a $19,000 car, not a $29,000 car. They seem to have put the money into handling and sportiness rather than the interior.
The headlights don’t go off when you turn off the ignition. C’mon Scion! It’s 2014. We have the history of all of civilization’s knowledge in tiny phones in our pockets these days, and Scion can’t make sure that we don’t drain our car’s battery when we turn off the ignition? How much did Scion save by eliminating this feature—three bucks?
There is noticeable engine noise. It was probably intentional, to give the car more of an aura of sportiness. But if you like your driving quiet, this isn’t your car.
The Pioneer infotainment system is pretty outdated. It’s verrry slow. It takes forever to boot up and change functions, and it can’t do two things at once. It’s crummy, and could really use an upgrade.
No heated seats, no backup camera—and neither is available as an option, either. A backup camera, in particular, would be very useful.
The Tc doesn’t have a dual clutch, sequential manual transmission— it’s just an automatic transmission with a faux-manual shift option. That’s about what we’d expect for this price point, and it works well. But Scions use of the term “sequential” is misleading at best.