thinking of getting a matrix xrs

I'm considering a matrix XRS (mostly for the 6speed, but also the extra ponies). Toyota specifies premium fuel, but looking at the engine specs it seems like with cold air induction it would do just fine on 87. Anyone have any experience with this?

I just bought an XR 5-speed saturday. I love it, but i would have welcomed the extra kick roughly 40 more hp would have provided. I'd say it'd probably even out if you dropped the octane and added the cold air intake, but if it were me, i'd splurge on the premium fuel and bump the hp higher with the intake. Lemme know how it works. There's a cold air intake in my future too.

~Katie

I'm taking delivery on my '06 XRS this afternoon. I'll feed it 93 for the next couple weeks for break-in and to get a baseline. The dealer literature says horsepower and mileage will suffer with less than 91. We'll see.

Update: 33mpg highway so far on 93octane. The inlet air temp is running 5degrees above ambient, so it looks like a CAI won't do much.

First tank of 87 octane. Haven't filled up yet, but mileage should be in the 30's. If anything performance has improved. Hittting LIFT with no problem. Where it was chirping the tires on a hard launch, now it roasts them.

First tank of 87 octane. Haven't filled up yet, but mileage should be in the 30's. If anything performance has improved. Hittting LIFT with no problem. Where it was chirping the tires on a hard launch, now it roasts them.

The only way that octane will affect your mileage or performance is if you use an octane below what is recommended for your car. :nono: If your car experiences engine knock from too low octane, it will retard the timing until it goes away, and that will reduce power and mileage. If you persist in causing too much throttle with low octage, you very well may damage your engine big time.

On the other hand, if your car is designed to operate on, for example, 87 octane, putting 93 in it will not boost performance or mileage. There's no way for the timing to be advance further, or even if there were, it wouldn't make the engine make more power.

If there were cheap ways to increase power/mileage, the companies would have done it. The auto companies spend millions of dollars to get a quarter mile per gallon of real world gas mileage, as I was told just yesterday by a GM engineer who was talking about how the new GM SUVs were tested in the windtunnel.

since the torque on the xrs is ALMOST the same as the normal engine, the acceleration woul be pratically the same... dont get your hopes up coze it has 170 hp vs. 140 hp, the only thing that makes a car go forward is torque.

what makes the XRS faster in accelration is the 6 speed tranny, put this on the nroaml corolla and it would be almost the same... exept for top speed.. thats where HP counts.

Deadring

since the torque on the xrs is ALMOST the same as the normal engine, the acceleration woul be pratically the same... dont get your hopes up coze it has 170 hp vs. 140 hp, the only thing that makes a car go forward is torque.

what makes the XRS faster in accelration is the 6 speed tranny, put this on the nroaml corolla and it would be almost the same... exept for top speed.. thats where HP counts.

Deadring
I test drove a corolla xr (5speed) before deciding on the Matrix XRS. The Corrolla was pretty snappy but it was just getting going good when you had to shift. The Matrix is comparable to the corolla below 5K, but then you get another 3000 rpm in each gear. It starts off a little slow, at about 5000rpm there is a little surge of power, then when it hits 6500 you get a 40 horse kick in backside that you hold until 8500. I don't know about on the dragstrip, but being able to into 1st at 40mph sure improves the passing times.