Test Drive: 2009 Toyota Matrix XR

Favorite Save article | View favourites

February 24, 2009

2009 Toyota Matrix XR. Click image to enlarge

Manufacturer’s web site
Toyota Canada

Join the official Autos Facebook group

Review and photos by Chris Chase

Find this vehicle in Autos’s Classified Ads

Photo Gallery:
2009 Toyota Matrix

Ottawa, Ontario – In an age of rampant outsourcing, it’s nice when you find that a product you want is built right here at home.

Toyota has had a manufacturing presence in the southern Ontario city of Cambridge since the late Eighties. While the cars the company builds there – one of them the Matrix – aren’t designed in Canada, the company should be credited for hiring local workers to build vehicles that are very popular in this country.

Indeed, compact hatchbacks like the Matrix are big in Canada, where we generally-frugal Canucks like the model’s flexible interior, low fuel consumption and Toyota’s reputation for good quality.

The Corolla-based Matrix is into its second generation, having been redesigned last year for the 2009 model year. You’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between new and old, though, so little did Toyota stray from the formula they followed to create the original.

This is especially true inside. The design is new, but without comparing side-by-side, it’s tough to pick out the differences. But that’s okay: the layout is simple, which is just what you want in a basic runabout.

Pages: 1 2 3 4