2009 Toyota Matrix Review

Cars.com experts walk you through the 2009 Toyota Matrix and its important new features.

2009 Toyota Matrix Review Hi! I’m Kelsey Mays for Cars.com and this is the redesigned 2009 Toyota Matrix. The this car, the Prius Hybrid and the FG Cruiser are probably about as adventurous as you’re going to see Toyota get with styling, at least without calling the car Scion. Definitely, this car like the previous Matrix has a roofline, sort of a sense to point somewhere over the front seats. It kind of descends towards the rear. The flared fenders, the spread wide, the headlights and the giant lower air dam aren’t for your uncle who drives a Camry unless he buys the utility of the whole package. So let’s start there. Now, open the hatch and you’ll notice that the cargo floor has a sort of hardened plastic surface along with rubberized strips to give your cargos some traction. The second row seats fold down pretty easily and there’s a real flat continuous load floor. Total cargo volume in here is on par with box in your hatchbacks like the Chrysler PT Cruiser and the Chevy HHR. Now, the Matrix also has a full flat front passenger seat. Here, it’s got a hard plastic backing and as you could see, it really allows you to put in longer items. Now on the front seats, the utility start to continue. You’ve got a two pronged household outlet. This area here with the cup holders actually has removable partitions. If you take them out, there’s kind of a trap. You can store some stuff in. The glove compartment has a pretty large lower area. There’s also this upper cubby here which just happens to be big enough for the manual. Overall, the interior quality is okay. It’s not exceptional. You’ll notice that the dashboard has a very good fit and finish. The close out is for where the glove compartment closes and steering wheel hub meets the rim. Those are pretty tight. You don’t notice any gaps there but all the plastics even along the doors are pretty hard to detach and some of these center controls here feel a little bit clunky. One other thing that you’ll want to know also is the blind spot. The rear pillar there is really large and the rear window isn’t that large itself. So changing lanes can be a little bit dicey. At the very least, the center seatbelt in the back is anchored in the seat and not on the ceiling so it won't dangle on your rearview mirror. Now despite the sunroof, it’s actually pretty easy to get in. You don’t have to duck your head down at all. I got plenty of headroom, plenty of leg room and there is no big center hump here to crowd your foot space. Amenities are a little bit sparse. A Mazda 3 Hatchback for example has a center arm rest that comes down here. In this car, you’re going to have to bring a few phone books. Now, the Matrix has a lot of things going forth but there is one car that could really throw a wrench in the spokes and that is Toyota’s own Scion XP. It’s got a lot more cargo room, a lot more standard features, and it starts about the same prices to completely strip down Matrix. Now, the XP doesn’t have hardcore utility like this plastic floor and some people think it looks like driving a toaster on wheels. So if you’re looking for more mainstream styling and at some areas for your driving experience, you might still go with the Matrix. But make no mistake, this time around the Matrix faces more home grown competition than before.