When the Scion xB subcompact made its debut in 2004 (along with Toyota's Scion brand itself), America got its first real taste of undiluted Japanese eccentricity. A barely altered version of the domestic-market Toyota bB, sold in Japan since 1999, the xB stood out on American roads like a Bento box in a Texas steakhouse. Tiny, austere, and so unabashedly square it was actually cute, the xB won a loyal following among young (and old) drivers who admired its purity of purpose and uniquely unstylish style. Toyota sold more than 47,000 xBs in 2004; by 2006, that figure jumped to more than 61,000 annually.

Yet like everything American, or Americanized, the xB wasn't destined to remain tiny. The second-gen model, unveiled for 2008, grew by 12 inches in length and roughly 600 pounds. At the same time, it lost the original's neo-architectural physique, instead wearing more conventional sheetmetal fashioned like a melting bar of Lifebuoy. It also lost, it seemed to us then, much of the first xB's charming Japaneseness. The xB had grown up, yes, but in the process it had become a safe, tepid California Roll compared with its predecessor's serving of deliciously horrific sashimi...Continued