There were a few here, doesn't help that they only made it for two model years and was a slow seller. I used to have the 2003 Matrix XRS - same engine and powertrain, before it got totalled out from being rear-ended.
There have been a few 2003 Matrix XRS that have topped 300K miles. Like bent mentioned, all in the maintenance. Along with that Yamaha massaged engine, IMHO, the 2ZZ-GE is also built "tougher" than your standard fare 1ZZ-FE engine. Many of the earlier issues have been worked out with the Celica GT-S and even the Matrix XRS that came before the 2005-2006 Corolla XRS. On 9thgencorolla forum - there are some Corolla XRS owners with over 100K miles - so far, no issues, but they also tend to maintain their cars better than your typical owner.
Stick with quality motor oils, given the high RPM nature, I would not run anything but synthetic in the engine. Oil change interval would depend on your driving conditions. If in doubt, every 5000 miles would be a good starting place.
Stick with GL-4 gear oil only, there have been a number of cases with damaged transaxles in the Corolla XRS. Lot of people have been grind gears and whatnot on their cars, bearing going out, teeth being chipped on the gears. There is no clear consensus on what is going on, but it does seem that the people running GL-4 only gear oil are having less problems than the ones running GL-5 gear oils.
I personally would not run anything other than Redline MT-90 in the gearbox. Change the oil every 30K miles.
Also I noticed that the engine tends to be hard on plugs - even the OEM one started to show wear around the 60K mark. Eventually stuck with NGK Iridium IX plugs every 30K miles, seemed to work well for me.
On a side note - on my Matrix - I hit "lift" every single time I wind that engine out. Before it was totalled, it had 120K miles and didn't skip a beat. Compared to my 2002 Corolla (185K miles and still running tip top), that 2003 Matrix was rock solid.
