As Shawn (civic_R-tist) and I were driving down Florida looking for CRXs a Matrix pulled out of the Toyota dealership. As I crap my pants I ask him to turn around so we can go drive one. They got them 5 days ago. There is one XRS (celica engine-powered) Matrix in florida and only a handful of other trims. The silver one that pulled out was the XRS so we had to wait for it to return. Heres what I thought of it:
First thing I noticed was the nicely-textured seats and dash-mounted shifter.
The shifter was a bit notchy but nothing unordinary for a cable shifter.
The clutch felt like that of a grandmas car with no definate engagement point prone to mild slipping.
You sit much higher up than any other compact cars which takes some getting used to.
The steering wheel is big and comfortable grips in the right places. Steering is very exact no play in the wheel at all.
While the engine revs freely and a little blip puts you at over 3000rpm with noticable intake noise the ride at WOT to 5500 rpm takes an eternity. Once you reach the 6000rpm cam changeover the car finally starts to move and has a nice sound to it. The needle quadrouples in speed as it instantly hits the 8000rpm redline.
Even with the 6spd shifting at 8000 drops you down below 5000rpm leaving you with 1000 torqueless rpm to overcome. Perhaps that could be compensated for with some sort of VVTI controller but simply wont do as-is.
The interior is big and functional LOTS of storage space.
The one I drove had a navigation system 17 wheels upgraded stereo with a sticker of 22 and change.

Looks: 8
Performance: 6
Fun: 8
Overall: 7

Expect to see more in dealerships over the summer.
Thanks to Shannon C. Smith at Precision Toyota for the test drive.