Hitting the highway in the tC you'll notice noise right away. Sure there's the standard road noise that is expected in any non-luxury car these days, but what surprised me was the unusual amount of wind noise for such an aerodynamic looking vehicle. The wind howled during a morning drive on the tollway and the sun roof did continue to rattle when closed. I shut the sunroof covers, one of the few flimsy touches to the car, to keep the noise out and that helped a bit.

Handling on the highway was very nice. Taking banks at high speed is a joy and at no time does the handling hesitate to sparkle. The tC continues to feel solid under foot and through the wheel while the suspension quiets bumps admirably. Out of the tollway gate I abused the clutch and the tires chirped going into second. I tried again later in the day on a suburban road but this time I wasn?t as harsh. I was rewarded with very pleasant acceleration to 60 mph. Scion did the performance part of the car right even if it isn?t mind numbingly fast. We?ll have to investigate what the available supercharger will do to the top speed.

The cargo room is also a real bonus (photo). While the hatch isn?t very deep, easy to flip down rear seats offer enough room for large objects, like the new desk chair I bought at the local office store. Unlike some readers, I still find the majority of the interior materials of very high quality and would rate them up there with Volkswagen.

An update on the creaky driver?s side door: I noticed the rubber around the bottom of the window was warped as shown in the picture below. I think either the car was in an accident, explaining the creaking, or the entire door itself was defective from the factory. I?d guess accident.

Read Day 2 and Day 1 of the Scion tC: In The Autoblog Garage.