Monday, August 17, 2009

Yaris review

Yaris review! A friend asked for a review, so I thought I'd make it a post as well :)

Positives:

I love my Yaris. It was inexpensive to buy, and is inexpensive to run. It has never needed anything done to it other than the services. I am not a 'car person' and I hate any event that causes me to lift the bonnet of my car. In three years of owing the car, I have only opened the bonnet once, and that was out of curiosity, to have a look.

I have the 1.3 litre two door hatch. I can fit four people easily, and five if the three in the back are average size. I am 190 cm and 130 kg (i.e. pretty damn big) and fit in the car comfortably, even with another guy my size in the passenger seat. I "fold flat" the back and have a HUGE carry capacity. I checked - I have more carrying capacity in my car that a Ford Falcon or Commodore. Example - six sets of golf clubs and buggies.

The vast majority of my traveling is a daily commute of 15 km, and occasional big interstate drives for medieval stuff/ camping. It does both very well.

The mp3 reading cd player is great - 200 songs per disc is excellent. Also, you will love the way Toyota did the storage containers. They are everywhere, and large, and useful. The big digital instrument display is awesome - once you get back in a normal car normal instruments will seem tiny and awful.

Negatives:
Acceleration - If you want a hoon car, this is not it. I mean, it can get up to speed in a very short amount of time, and it corners very well due to being broad and low, but it is only a 1.3 litre. However, if you are a lead foot, once you get to 130 km, It will cruise on that speed happily.

If I was buying again - I MIGHT spend the money to have a big enough engine to get cruise control. When I was shopping in 2006, it was $17k to get my car. To get cruise, I needed to get a 4 door sedan and the 1.6 litre engine, which would have meant $24 k. $7,000 was not worth cruise control to me at the time.

3 comments:

Michael barnes said...

Perhaps in a year or two.

I liked the Echo and this seems to be the one that repalced it.

Ysambart said...

After owning a Starlet, I part of the Toyota small car lovers team. I thought the Echo was ugly. So did most of the world, so Toyota moved their design team to Paris and made the Yaris :)

Nautilus said...

Toyota make good little cars. I have sent my wife down the Corolla path twice now with no regrets.

I was working at a Toyota dealership when the Starlet came out. A woman brought hers back complaining of a lack of power. The advisor drove it then came back and said "you brought a 1.2lt auto with air and power steering, how much power did you think it was going to have?"