Toyota Yaris Forums - Ultimate Yaris Enthusiast Site
 

 


 
Go Back   Toyota Yaris Forums - Ultimate Yaris Enthusiast Site > Second Generation Toyota Yaris Main Rooms > New YARIS Purchase Forum
  The Tire Rack

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-11-2019, 01:29 AM   #1
charliegriefer
 
Drives: 2010 Yaris
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 12
New 2010 Yaris Owner

Hey Folks...

Just picked up a 2010 for my daughter. Her second car (licensed 6 months... first car was a beater that just finally gave up).

To be honest, was looking for inexpensive. Went to our local CarMax dealership with eyes on a Nissan Versa. They had issues with the Versa, so we looked at a Yaris.

Wasn't at all familiar with them. But I am a believer in the longevity of Toyotas. This thing is a 2010 with only 57k miles on her. It's a 3 door. Would have preferred a 5, but beggars and choosers and all.

Doing my best to get familiarized with it. Reading over the manual and perusing the forums.

Gotta say, while I picked it up because it was inexpensive, I'm digging it a lot. Reading some of the posts here makes me feel pretty confident that it'll be with us for a good, long time.

Anyway, just wanted to drop a quick note and say hi.

Hi :)

charliegriefer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-11-2019, 07:09 AM   #2
Kaotic Lazagna
 
Kaotic Lazagna's Avatar
 
Drives: '14 GT86, '08 Vitz
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Central Valley, CA
Posts: 9,873
Welcome! That's a rare color. I'm on my second Yaris (first one was a sedan I bought new back in 2007 or so, traded it in for my FR-S, and then picked up a used 3-door to accompany the FR-S). They're great cars. One thing that isn't that great is the water pump, so just keep an eye out for that.
Kaotic Lazagna is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-11-2019, 09:09 AM   #3
GrayYaris
 
Drives: Gray
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: NY
Posts: 68
Quote:
Originally Posted by charliegriefer View Post
Hey Folks...

Just picked up a 2010 for my daughter. Her second car (licensed 6 months... first car was a beater that just finally gave up).

To be honest, was looking for inexpensive. Went to our local CarMax dealership with eyes on a Nissan Versa. They had issues with the Versa, so we looked at a Yaris.

Wasn't at all familiar with them. But I am a believer in the longevity of Toyotas. This thing is a 2010 with only 57k miles on her. It's a 3 door. Would have preferred a 5, but beggars and choosers and all.

Doing my best to get familiarized with it. Reading over the manual and perusing the forums.

Gotta say, while I picked it up because it was inexpensive, I'm digging it a lot. Reading some of the posts here makes me feel pretty confident that it'll be with us for a good, long time.

Anyway, just wanted to drop a quick note and say hi.

Hi :)

Congrats to you and your daughter!

The Yaris is a great ride and in AZ it should last you a long time. Even when parts fail (which is rare) quality parts are very reasonably priced.

My Yaris has a case of the crusties, but with 185K on the odometer (I've owned it for the past 110K), I have about $1200 of parts into it (half of that cost was from a set of snow tires and a set of all seasons). Friends and family are shocked at what I haul around in the back (or on top, thanks to my Thule Traverse roof rack) of that Yaris and are surprised at its ability to sip fuel.

Aside from the practicality and economy of the Yaris, perhaps one of its best attributes is mechanical simplicity and elegance. If you ever run into a problem with the Yaris, this forum is one of the best forums around. I guarantee if you and/or your daughter have patience and are willing to learn, there isn't a problem on that car you can't fix yourself with the help of the members of this forum.

Going forward, I would recommend the following "mods" if they aren't already done:

Rear Anti-Sway bar and wider rear tires- See CTScott's and other's posts on this. It will greatly stiffen up and stabilize the ride, especially at highway speeds

Cruise control- CTScott has a great budget solution for this if you want to mess around with basic soldering/electronics. If you don't want to go that route, you can pick up an OEM/OEM style cruise stalk for around $200 installed.

Enjoy!
GrayYaris is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-11-2019, 10:16 AM   #4
Leegamer
 
Leegamer's Avatar
 
Drives: No longer own a yaris :(
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Ashland, VA
Posts: 680
I dig that color. It will make a good second car, very reliable, fuel efficient, easy and cheap to maintain and to me a very comfortable car for long distance drives.
__________________
I'm a hermit named Lee
Leegamer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-11-2019, 05:51 PM   #5
kevinj93
 
kevinj93's Avatar
 
Drives: 2013 NCP130
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 376
Welcome to Yaris World. Your daughter looks to be delighted with her new car. It certainly looks good in the photo.
__________________
Running on standard AU 14" steel wheels (14x5 rims, 175/70R14 tyres). Added reversing camera and touch screen radio, cruise control, 16" rear wiper blade, tow bar and dash cam.
kevinj93 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-11-2019, 05:59 PM   #6
Kaotic Lazagna
 
Kaotic Lazagna's Avatar
 
Drives: '14 GT86, '08 Vitz
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Central Valley, CA
Posts: 9,873
Quote:
Originally Posted by GrayYaris View Post

Going forward, I would recommend the following "mods" if they aren't already done:

Rear Anti-Sway bar and wider rear tires- See CTScott's and other's posts on this. It will greatly stiffen up and stabilize the ride, especially at highway speeds

Cruise control- CTScott has a great budget solution for this if you want to mess around with basic soldering/electronics. If you don't want to go that route, you can pick up an OEM/OEM style cruise stalk for around $200 installed.

Enjoy!

Since it's for the daughter, I would NOT recommend the rear sway bar as she is an "inexperience" driver at this point having only 6 months of being licensed. I say this because to the average person, it's easier to manage understeer vs oversteer. A rear sway bar will push the handling characteristics towards oversteer, albeit no where near that of a rear wheel drive car or a midship car.

I also wouldn't get wider rear tires only. I would get a square set up of wider tires all around. While I did say understeer is easier to manage, having wider rear tires on a front wheel drive car that has understeer bias from the factory would just make understeering even more pronounced. Having a square wider set would retain the factory understeer bias, but will offer better grip and more side wind resistance. However, there's only so much you can fit on the factory steel wheels before it balloons out, which will result in even more side wall flex, and actually hurt handling.
Kaotic Lazagna is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-11-2019, 06:05 PM   #7
Kaotic Lazagna
 
Kaotic Lazagna's Avatar
 
Drives: '14 GT86, '08 Vitz
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Central Valley, CA
Posts: 9,873
The first "mods" that I would suggest would be to get these: https://www.vleds.com/shop-bulb-numb...ro-evo-h4.html. Stick with the 5000k color temp. They're as good as you can get short of a full blown projector retrofit. They will glare less than drop in HIDs, and so far I haven't been flashed at (I did re-aim my headlights) by on-coming traffic.

This will allow your daughter to see farther out and more clearly what is on the road during the night.
Kaotic Lazagna is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-11-2019, 10:49 PM   #8
charliegriefer
 
Drives: 2010 Yaris
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 12
Thanks for the replies, all!

I'll check out those Micro Evolution headlights. The only other mods I'm really looking to do quickly is:

1) LED mods on the speedometer. She and I both dislike the amber. A lot. I saw that CTScott offers that service (or, did?). If possible, would also like to upgrade the cluster to one with a tach.

2) CarPlay stereo. We're in an Apple ecosystem here. I had a CarPlay stereo in a previous vehicle, and I loved it. Great having maps up on the screen. Ability to take calls, tell Siri to play certain songs, etc. Saw one at crutchfield that was $350 with all of the necessary hardware.

I'm sure there will be more in the weeks to come. But for right now, itching to get those two done :)
charliegriefer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2019, 12:56 AM   #9
Kaotic Lazagna
 
Kaotic Lazagna's Avatar
 
Drives: '14 GT86, '08 Vitz
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Central Valley, CA
Posts: 9,873
Replacing the HU on the Yaris is really easy to do since the trim pieces come right out.

The color that bothered me more was the "old" green look of the HVAC controls. I replaced them with white LEDs.




My '08 doesn't have the amber colored tach/speedometer tho. If it did, I probably would have gone with amber LEDs for the HVAC to better match it.
Kaotic Lazagna is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2019, 02:14 AM   #10
Dodge Aries K
My Yaris is a "racecar"
 
Drives: 2007 Yaris hatchback
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Machesney Park, IL
Posts: 545
Man, I wish my first car was that nice. I had a 1986 Dodge Aries that I bought from my friend's girlfriend for $600. Crap vinyl bench seat, a horrid audio system, and not even a passenger side mirror (that was an option back then hahaha) but it did it's job.

If she takes care of it, that car will last a long long time.
__________________
-Karl the Uber/Lyft Driver
Dodge Aries K is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2019, 09:18 PM   #11
charliegriefer
 
Drives: 2010 Yaris
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 12
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaotic Lazagna View Post
The color that bothered me more was the "old" green look of the HVAC controls. I replaced them with white LEDs.
Ooh I dig the white on the HVAC controls. I might have to look into doing that as well :)


Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge Aries K View Post
Man, I wish my first car was that nice. I had a 1986 Dodge Aries that I bought from my friend's girlfriend for $600. Crap vinyl bench seat, a horrid audio system, and not even a passenger side mirror (that was an option back then hahaha) but it did it's job.

If she takes care of it, that car will last a long long time.
To be fair, this is her 2nd car. The first was a 2005 Saab that I bought at auction for $500. And to her credit, she was grateful. Even when I mentioned that I might want to get rid of it and look for a car with a low monthly payment, she sighed and said, "But I love my car".

FWIW, my first car (back in '86) was my uncle's car that he let me borrow, and ultimately gave to me. I don't even recall what it was anymore... but it probably wasn't any better than your Aries :)
charliegriefer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2019, 04:25 AM   #12
NYC-SE
 
NYC-SE's Avatar
 
Drives: 2014 Yaris SE
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,075
Welcome to the Yaris family. You've made a wise choice.
NYC-SE is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2019, 10:54 AM   #13
justanotherdrunk
 
justanotherdrunk's Avatar
 
Drives: 2016 SE
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Silicon Valley
Posts: 1,133
nice color and love the 2 door model!
justanotherdrunk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2019, 01:30 PM   #14
tmontague
 
tmontague's Avatar
 
Drives: '08 2zr swapped Vios M/T
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Caledonia Ont.
Posts: 2,938
Smart choice, darn reliable cars with plenty of parts at good prices, plus they still use the same engine so finding parts from a recycler really cheap is easy.

The engines are designed for low rpm torque from factory so they make a really fun and peppy grocery getter. After building my car for high rpm hp at the loss of low rpm torque, I couldn't believe how peppy the stock yaris' are when I hopped in my sister in laws '07 hb

Hope she enjoys it!
__________________
No one ever wants to give a Yaris the point by...
tmontague is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2019, 06:53 PM   #15
chriswf
 
Drives: Scion tC and Saturn SL1
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Plano, Texas
Posts: 36
I haven't had any real issues with my Yaris, and it has 250,000 miles.
I did replace the bearings a few times, but to be fair I was breaking the new Timken bearings - that's how hard I drove my Yaris. And I drove it for long hours on end, ~340 miles a day. Lots of city miles. Never had a CEL come on.

Once I thought about selling it, just to see how much it's worth... and 3 people asked me if I replaced the water pump. I said no, never heard from them again. So I took the ad down.
It still has ZERO problems but it's only a backup car now...

I owned an Infiniti for a while (tons of problems), but eventually straight traded it for a 1st gen scion xB. The xB also has the 1nzfe engine in it, and every day that I go outside, I know my xB will start without any problems as well... such a nice feeling.

They really are great cars, and cheap cars. Cheap parts. Feels good.
chriswf is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2019, 08:20 PM   #16
GrayYaris
 
Drives: Gray
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: NY
Posts: 68
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaotic Lazagna View Post
Since it's for the daughter, I would NOT recommend the rear sway bar as she is an "inexperience" driver at this point having only 6 months of being licensed. I say this because to the average person, it's easier to manage understeer vs oversteer. A rear sway bar will push the handling characteristics towards oversteer, albeit no where near that of a rear wheel drive car or a midship car.

I also wouldn't get wider rear tires only. I would get a square set up of wider tires all around. While I did say understeer is easier to manage, having wider rear tires on a front wheel drive car that has understeer bias from the factory would just make understeering even more pronounced. Having a square wider set would retain the factory understeer bias, but will offer better grip and more side wind resistance. However, there's only so much you can fit on the factory steel wheels before it balloons out, which will result in even more side wall flex, and actually hurt handling.
Kaotic Lazagna- I think you're greatly exaggerating the risks of a rear sway bar. Have you driven a stock HB Yaris at highway speeds during a mild storm? It is absolutely fatiguing and probably a bit dangerous depending on road conditions. I would argue that the only reason the Yaris doesn't have a rear anti-sway bar like many other passenger cars is because the Yaris is a stripped-down car designed for economy, not drivability. Toyota found a way to save a few bucks and built the car without the rear anti-sway bar.
GrayYaris is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2019, 10:44 PM   #17
tmontague
 
tmontague's Avatar
 
Drives: '08 2zr swapped Vios M/T
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Caledonia Ont.
Posts: 2,938
Quote:
Originally Posted by GrayYaris View Post
Kaotic Lazagna- I think you're greatly exaggerating the risks of a rear sway bar. Have you driven a stock HB Yaris at highway speeds during a mild storm? It is absolutely fatiguing and probably a bit dangerous depending on road conditions. I would argue that the only reason the Yaris doesn't have a rear anti-sway bar like many other passenger cars is because the Yaris is a stripped-down car designed for economy, not drivability. Toyota found a way to save a few bucks and built the car without the rear anti-sway bar.
In normal conditions I would agree with you. New driver+rain on a high treadwear tire=bad new bears. New drivers miscalculate cornering speeds until they have a feel for the roads, better safe than sorry
__________________
No one ever wants to give a Yaris the point by...
tmontague is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-17-2019, 12:31 PM   #18
ern-diz
 
ern-diz's Avatar
 
Drives: 2007 Liftback
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: CA all day
Posts: 3,794
Welcome! Beautiful Yaris example, congrats!
__________________
On Instagram

On Wheelwell
ern-diz is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
NEWS: TOYOTA REVEALS ALL-NEW YARIS SEDAN AT 2006 LOS ANGELES AUTO SHOW VitzBoy General Yaris / Vitz Discussion 7 09-20-2023 07:50 AM
Going on a road trip in my 2010 Yaris! ZeldaFeb General Yaris / Vitz Discussion 11 06-13-2022 08:30 PM
January 2010 Yaris Sales Thirty-Nine General Yaris / Vitz Discussion 8 02-03-2010 12:50 PM
New Yaris Owner Kiteless General Yaris / Vitz Discussion 8 08-02-2006 11:48 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:22 AM.




YarisWorld
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.