i am starting to believe that municipalities should be responsible for damages from road work negligence.
Isn't that crazy?
also, is it 'just' a basic lancer..?

still nice.

Hello everyone, I'm a car newbie posting here because I just recently bought a car, a 2003 Toyota Matrix XRS, a 6-speed manual. 94k miles.

It sat on the dealer's lot for almost a year, and I think I got a great deal on it for around $7000. It went through Maryland's stringent inspection process and got a clean bill of health. What I'm now learning is that I didn't research the 2003 Matrix models thoroughly enough and I did not intend to buy the "top of the line" sports tuned engine. I intended to buy an extremely fuel efficient family car for my wife to drive around town.

What I know about the car is the engine is a 1.8L 2zzge with VVTL-i, although I'm a little unclear what that means.

It has 180 hp and 130 lb-ft of torque at 6800 rpm, and the redline is at 8k-9k, so it's tuned for very high revving. Neither my wife or I will be taking advantage of that, since we're only interested in driving between 1k-3.5k RPM. I'm not terribly impressed with the acceleration at lower speeds, but then again this is my first time owning a manual, so maybe it's just me. Like I said, I'm not looking for a sports car.

So my question to the forum is this: What are my best options? I started doing some of my own car maintenance a few months ago, and I'm open to trying some basic mods. Any suggestions on how I can maximize fuel efficiency and/or improve low-end performance would be welcome. Should I think about finding someone to trade for a different model? Or should I simply stop trying to mess with a good thing?

Secondarily: The thing is super-sensitive to stalling at the get-go. Can this be helped? The clutch is also very squeaky,  can that be helped? 1st and 2nd gear were hard to get into, I lubed the shifter linkage and it is somewhat better.

The transmission finds the gear fine, it's just a little uncomfortable moving the stick. I've read complaints from other Matrix drivers saying it's "notchy". Now that I put some grease on the linkage, it's not as bad. I don't have to yank so hard to put it in 2nd. This issue combined with the fact that I have probably less than 24 hours of experience driving a manual has caused me to rev the engine in nuetral a few times when I thought it was in 2nd, and I just wasn't pulling hard enough.

I just remembered the other question. I found out after buying it that the XRS specifies premium gasoline. I don't want to put premium gas in it. What are the consequences of using regular or mid-grade? This may be a deciding factor on whether I keep the car.

The car will not run as well on regular, hoses could corrode due to 'dirtier' gasoline after time, and you might hear occaisonal knocking and clinks from the engine.

Lower octane isn't "dirtier" than premium and won't affect hoses, etc., it just has less knock resistance.

That said, yeah, running 87 in an engine made for 91 is a good way to make your engine unhappy and maybe end up with a hole in a piston from all that knocking.  Some engines are able to retard their ignition to compensate for low-octane fuel, but it'll result in less power and I doubt the matrix has that capability anyway: my understanding is it's mostly a thing for engines made to handle crap third-world gas.

summary without irrelevant crap: using lower-then-recommended octane gas is an awful way to save money.  Maybe someone makes lower-rolling-resistance tires for that car, though, or you can just throw a few extra PSI in the tires you have.  Just a few, though, don't overdo it.

Oh, and as for the stalling:
It's a low torque 4-cylinder FWD. The hydraulics in the clutch are preventing you from feeling the amount of contact force applied to the disc material.
Just ease it out and get used to it. The focus I had was very similar, and it was 2.0l.
Aluminum constructed engines have far less rotational mass, thereby reducing inertia, making it easier to stall the engine by over engaging the clutch.