test drive - comparing automatic L to manual SE

[cathycnm]

Today, I finally got to test drive a Yaris L automatic today. My car (an SE manual) is somewhere post-port-of-entry and the dealer. It will go (or has gone) to Denver via rail, then another 5-6 hours by truck to my dealer. Guessing our 100 year flood will delay the process. I like ultra rural compared to most here - and very far from the port. My dealer is great, but the tracking computer has been down for several days. Arrival is anyone's guess.:confused:

My question is on how to compare the test drive of the L automatic to my SE manual. More pep, yes. Other differences?

I liked the drive today! Trying to be patient, as Denver is flooding again tonight. :iono:

[yougojay]

Maybe someone who has driven both will chime in - I have a 2013 L Auto - Love the way it drives & shifts & I'm only at the gas station for gas every 2-3 weeks!
Please be safe - the flooding the news channels are showing is terrible. Please Be Safe :cry:

[cathycnm]

Thanks Jay! I'm across the continental divide, though it's rainey here, we have different geography. That said, the hardest hit area is a place where I lived a good deal of my life. My heart is heavy for those I know there. The Yaris is something positive to focus on.

I am interested in hearing from anyone who has driven both. I enjoyed the drive.

[Altitude]

I had the opportunity to drive an AT as a rental once while on business. I was very pleased with how smooth it was and how it didn't seem to suffer from any loss of pep/power compared to the manual.

That being said... Manual = More fun to drive!

P.S. Greetings from a fellow Colorado resident

[cathycnm]

Hi Altitude - Hope you are staying dry. I only drive manuals but was also favorably impressed. Thanks. I think on ice and passes, the manual will be better, too.

[nookandcrannycar]

I only drive manuals

:smile:. In my perfect world the standard Prius and the Prius V would both get the MPG the standard Prius does, and both (mechanically) would be designed like some Honda hybrids (I think the CR-Z is the only one left for the US market) to allow the customer to choose a manual transmission. One of my relatives in California has (since new) a 2005 manual transmission Hybrid (from the factory) Honda Civic sedan (the last year that transmission was available on that car). It would be very difficult to get him to give up that car.

[cathycnm]

No doubt. My dealer says people can't drive them anymore. Maybe obesity would be less if we all drove a stick. Seriously, on passes in the winter w a smaller car, makes a huge difference. The car sounds very cool.

[nookandcrannycar]

My dealer says people can't drive them anymore.

SMH, sad commentary.
Maybe obesity would be less if we all drove a stick.

YES! Or Walking! A few days ago (around sunset) I was waiting to turn (from Lake Woodlands Dr) into the Market Street shopping venue in The Woodlands. A man was riding his Segway down the sidewalk (with the headlight on). The person in front of me waiting to turn really needed to be watching this man (he would be turning into his path). The man on the Segway WASN'T LOOKING WHERE HE WAS GOING AT ALL....HE WAS LOOKING DOWN AT HIS SMARTPHONE :rolleyes:! Is his time that valuable, at that particular time, that he wouldn't have been better off walking! (stepping off soapbox...:biggrin:)

Seriously, on passes in the winter w a smaller car, makes a huge difference.

I agree.

[DebbyM46227]

No doubt. My dealer says people can't drive them anymore. Maybe obesity would be less if we all drove a stick. Seriously, on passes in the winter w a smaller car, makes a huge difference. The car sounds very cool.

:burnrubber: LOL! I've driven a manual transmission for MANY years and I haven't noticed any weight loss from that.

Edited to add: I was curious...so when I got home from work I got out a tape measure, measured my upper thighs, and my left leg is 1-1/2" smaller. It must be from pushing in the clutch.

[cathycnm]

Oh the weight loss - I guess it depends of repetitions. Sprained my knee badly once. Had to rent an automatic for a month! When I first started driving the clutch again, it felt like bench pressing a lot of weight. As for walking, yes, agree. I do that the 3 days/ wk that I don't have a 120 mile round trip. I get the best mileage w tennis shoes and no waiting 5 weeks for them to get here from LA! However, a lot of local drivers seem to not understand pedestrian laws. I pay attention! I don't have 9 air bags.

[nookandcrannycar]

Oh the weight loss - I guess it depends of repetitions. Sprained my knee badly once. Had to rent an automatic for a month! When I first started driving the clutch again, it felt like bench pressing a lot of weight. As for walking, yes, agree. I do that the 3 days/ wk that I don't have a 120 mile round trip. I get the best mileage w tennis shoes and no waiting 5 weeks for them to get here from LA! However, a lot of local drivers seem to not understand pedestrian laws. I pay attention! I don't have 9 air bags.

I took you to mean ( with your previous post) that people who do for themselves rather than having it done for them (re shifting) might tend to extend that to other areas of life (like maintaining weight.....which is much easier in areas that don't have extreme summers or inclement winters...or both).

[cathycnm]

I did sort of mean that. And, yea, it is easier, but I walk all winter. Now there is am interesting thesis in wellbeing - is choice of transmission positively correlated with physical activity level? I like it.

[nookandcrannycar]

I did sort of mean that. And, yea, it is easier, but I walk all winter. Now there is am interesting thesis in wellbeing - is choice of transmission positively correlated with physical activity level? I like it.

One of my best friends from elementary school through the middle of high school had an older brother (9 years older) who had an old Porsche 911T (IIRC, it didn't have power anything). He felt (as a surprising number of people in our town did) that performance is the only thing that makes an expensive car worth the money. We played a lot of tennis, but he also had a speed bag (he talked his mother into letting him mount it on the ceiling of their downstairs family room), enrolled in martial arts, and is an expert skier (started when he was 4).

Many of the people in our town who weren't performance car enthusiasts, were on the other side of the spectrum.....driving big 'land yachts', floaty Lincolns, Cadillacs, and other similar cars that had power everything. My friend's next door neighbor was an Orthodontist who was an avid tennis player and drove a (faster than his brother's) 911 and bought his wife a BMW Alpina sedan. My friend looked at the landscape as black and white (metaphorically) -- that adults who owned cars like his neighbor's cars were in shape and the people who drove Lincolns, Cadillacs, and similar cars were not in shape...and that people were one or the other. I must admit, observation alone showed that there was more than a casual amount of truth to this (of course, mere memory is anecdotal :biggrin:). The only exception to this I can think of was my next door neighbor (he was a kind of pudgy Pharmacist who had a pristine 1963 Split Window Corvette Stingray Coupe). Whether our town was similar to others in this respect is anyone's guess. My friend would sometimes refer to the Lincolns and Cadillacs as 'pimpmobiles' (he was joking -- most owners = doctors, business owners, etc.).

[cathycnm]

That's interesting. I wonder which comes first, too. Some cars would be less comfortable for different body builds. There certainly is/was a culture of the rich not having to walk as much. I walk to work or around town, and folks stop to offer me a ride as if I'm not making a choice. They almost look hurt when I decline. I love your description of your home town! MY other Yaris is a Nike.

[nookandcrannycar]

That's interesting. I wonder which comes first, too. Some cars would be less comfortable for different body builds. There certainly is/was a culture of the rich not having to walk as much. I walk to work or around town, and folks stop to offer me a ride as if I'm not making a choice. They almost look hurt when I decline. I love your description of your home town! MY other Yaris is a Nike.

Thanks. That's wonderful that people in your area are sweet natured enough to stop, but kind of sad that some don't seem to realize that someone might be walking for pleasure/health and not out of necessity.

[nookandcrannycar]

MY other Yaris is a Nike.
:thumbsup: That sounds like something my cousin would say (except that she has an Escape, rather than a Yaris :biggrin:)!.....and she's setting a good example for my little cousin (her daughter).

[cathycnm]

:thumbsup: That sounds like something my cousin would say (except that she has an Escape, rather than a Yaris :biggrin:)!.....and she's setting a good example for my little cousin (her daughter).
Awesome! :cool:

[yarisgeo13]

I like my Automatic LE. Since I do a lot of physical work, it's nice get in the car and go!!

[ardvark2175]

I test drove both the manual and automatic in 2012. The manual was slightly more responsive on acceleration. It also had a stiffer suspension. I like the throttle response of the manual a lot, however much preferred the softer ride in the automatic. I've owned mostly manual transmission cars. I chose the automatic LE for one reason. I refused to carry the "Sport" brand on the car...as it is an excuse for insurance company's to jack up their rates. If Toyota would have offered the manual in the LE version I would have purchased it. That being said...I am extremely happy with the automatic I own. I just reached 10000 miles and am no getting 40mpg after going to full synthetic in engine and transmission. I waited for 1000 mile for the engine to break in.

[juicyjosh]

Hello forum,

I'm leasing a 2012 manual 5-door SE.

There are a few more significant differences.

1) The steering ratio is actually slower on the SE. Despite the much shorter wheelbase, the Yaris SE also has the turning circle of a Camry. The Yaris L and LE models have a turning circle of 30.8 feet, while the upgraded "Sport Calibrated Electric Power Steering" of the Yaris SE has a turning circle of 36.7. Driving both cars back-to-back or parallel parking, if you pay attention, you'd notice the difference. As such, the SE requires noticeably more steering angle to turn the car, and the SE's steering receives less power-assist (i.e. it's heavier) than that of the other models.

2) The SE has 10% stiffer front springs, which simply lifts the front of the car higher in the air, so the "sport" suspension actually contributes to the excessive body roll. :clap: Still no rear anti-roll bar.

3) Tires are "upgraded" to 195-50/16 Turanzas, which are the worst tires I've ever driven on. Pulling away from stoplights requires a feathered throttle and lots of clutch slipping to avoid the tires' chirping and making the Honda next you think that you were trying to race. Apparently the Yaris' massive torque at 1000-1500 rpm is much too extreme for the stock tires to handle without chirping. That gets old really quickly. The 16" wheels do look good, with a nice sparkly gunmetal finish, and they're reasonably lightweight.

4) You do get disk brakes in the rear, but there's so little weight back there, the main benefit is cosmetic.

5) Removal of the rear seat is as easy as lifting the seat upward and unsnapping it from its two re-snappable hinges. There's no rear seat scaffold support frame in the 2012 model.

6) The SE exterior gives you cosmetic "improvements," such as a small nearly functionless rear trunk spoiler coupled with an equally functionless lower diffuser that serves a counter-productive purpose as an air dam. The SE gives you do-nothing fog lights, the waffle-patterned grill, chrome trim pieces, and vertical rear reflectors. The SE interior is also trim different on the SE. You get a tachometer, instead of a large empty circle with the word "Yaris" on it, there in case you forget what car you're driving. The whole instrument cluster is lit in red, which does look good.

Yes, with a manual, you can downshift to try to get more power out of it, but the ecu will always give you soft throttle response. I would not call the car responsive.

Hope that helps!

[nookandcrannycar]

Hello forum,

I'm leasing a 2012 manual 5-door SE.

There are a few more significant differences.

1) The steering ratio is actually slower on the SE. Despite the much shorter wheelbase, the Yaris SE also has the turning circle of a Camry. The Yaris L and LE models have a turning circle of 30.8 feet, while the upgraded "Sport Calibrated Electric Power Steering" of the Yaris SE has a turning circle of 36.7. Driving both cars back-to-back or parallel parking, if you pay attention, you'd notice the difference. As such, the SE requires noticeably more steering angle to turn the car, and the SE's steering receives less power-assist (i.e. it's heavier) than that of the other models.

2) The SE has 10% stiffer front springs, which simply lifts the front of the car higher in the air, so the "sport" suspension actually contributes to the excessive body roll. :clap: Still no rear anti-roll bar.

3) Tires are "upgraded" to 195-50/16 Turanzas, which are the worst tires I've ever driven on. Pulling away from stoplights requires a feathered throttle and lots of clutch slipping to avoid the tires' chirping and making the Honda next you think that you were trying to race. Apparently the Yaris' massive torque at 1000-1500 rpm is much too extreme for the stock tires to handle without chirping. That gets old really quickly. The 16" wheels do look good, with a nice sparkly gunmetal finish, and they're reasonably lightweight.

4) You do get disk brakes in the rear, but there's so little weight back there, the main benefit is cosmetic.

5) Removal of the rear seat is as easy as lifting the seat upward and unsnapping it from its two re-snappable hinges. There's no rear seat scaffold support frame in the 2012 model.

6) The SE exterior gives you cosmetic "improvements," such as a small nearly functionless rear trunk spoiler coupled with an equally functionless lower diffuser that serves a counter-productive purpose as an air dam. The SE gives you do-nothing fog lights, the waffle-patterned grill, chrome trim pieces, and vertical rear reflectors. The SE interior is also trim different on the SE. You get a tachometer, instead of a large empty circle with the word "Yaris" on it, there in case you forget what car you're driving. The whole instrument cluster is lit in red, which does look good.

Yes, with a manual, you can downshift to try to get more power out of it, but the ecu will always give you soft throttle response. I would not call the car responsive.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for including reason #1. Members in the past have posted some great reviews re their own SEs, but I don't remember anyone in the past including this point. Might be reason enough (just me personally) to take the SE off my list. If I gave up the turning circle on the 'Base'/L for main daily driving purposes I'd want more than just really liking the driving experience as a trade off (an example: the fold UP rear seat on the Fit that allows one easy ingress and egress re transporting a bicycle).