Since we are "seniors" and were perfectly happy with our 2009 xB we had no intention of buying a new car now or probably ever.

When we pulled into the KFC/Pizza Hut parking lot it was lucky that I was opening my door as the doors shut and were impossible to open and we could have been burned to death.

To top off this trauma our insurance company gave us only 4 days in which to replace it ... ya think we were under a little stress. Also they were not capable of giving us a dollar amount that they would cover to replace our car at the time and unfortunately we were unaware of the various services on the internet where we could find a replacement xB for what the insurance company ultimately insinuated they would pay us so we went to a Toyota dealer and found a 2015 xB, leased it since we had no money to buy one with and proceeded to contact Toyota corporate since we thought they were responsible for paying the $10,000 shortfall we were facing.

Now here's the real insult, after our 2009 xB sat at our insurance company's lot for weeks Toyota's "forensic investigator" claims our car "might have" burned up due to a "rodent's nest" on the "hot engine". We plan on pursuing this outrageous, bogus report from Toyota.

On December 10, 2015, my Scion XB caught fire and burned to the ground. It had 70,000 miles.

I lent the car to my brother to drive to school and back on his final day. On his way to drop my car off, he heard and felt a snap. Then smoke started to pour from under the hood. He pulled over to the side of the freeway. As soon as he did, smoke started to pour from the heat vents. A good samaritan ran up to him and told him to get out of the car because the axle was on fire.

As soon as he did, the engine erupted into flames. My brother snagged his personal possessions from the car and bolted. He watched as the car burned to the ground.

I bought this car certified pre-owned from Toyota Scion of Puyallup. It had 20,000 miles on it when I bought it. I used only the recommended synthetic oil. I changed oil every 3,000 miles as suggested by Toyota. I never saw any engine lights or other warnings. Aside from regular maintenance, the only work I had done to the car was I had the front brakes changed during the summer of 2013.

I'm shocked. I had JUST purchased a new family van for my growing family. Until this month, I used this car for everything--including moving my family around with two children and two car seats. We did a 2-week road trip in this car this last summer. What if this fire had broken out while I was driving with my family? What if I had to escape from the fire and also unbuckle my two kids from their car seats? This could have killed my children.

Thankfully, I had already paid off the car and I was fully insured. I had to haggle with Geico, but in the end, I got a decent amount out of it--nowhere near what I paid for the car, of course, but decent. However I'm now stuck with having to buy a used car for about $5k less than what I paid for my Scion. I'm finding slim pickings.

I'm very frustrated by this occurrence and I will never buy a Toyota again. I'm actually surprised to see so few complaints here on carcomplaints.com about this car. I found many horror stories of car fires in the 2009 Toyota Scion on Google. Yet none here. Until now.

Sve yourselves and your families. Do not buy this car.