CONSUMER REPORTS : MARCH issue reviews '09 YARIS .

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by ddongbap

Screw you all. I'm getting a Smart car.

Go for it! Report back when you buy your first parts... we'll recognize you. You'll be the person with their pants pockets turned inside out because the Parts Person at the Smart dealer had some henchmen grab you by your ankles, hold you upside down and empty your pockets out.

IMO, if a thing has anything at all to do with BMW or Mercedes Benz you will pay out the nose for parts.

Gene

[ddongbap]

Originally Posted by GeneW

Go for it! Report back when you buy your first parts... we'll recognize you. You'll be the person with their pants pockets turned inside out because the Parts Person at the Smart dealer had some henchmen grab you by your ankles, hold you upside down and empty your pockets out.

IMO, if a thing has anything at all to do with BMW or Mercedes Benz you will pay out the nose for parts.

Gene

God. All you ever complain about is parts. Not everybody keeps their car till it breaks down. I've been through a few cars where I replaced them under warranty. So please, cry a little bit more.

And you assume I'm poor or something.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by ddongbap

God. All you ever complain about is parts.

Buying a car with a limited logistical train, in other words, few places where you can get parts or service is not wise I lived through the Yugo and Belarus experience and understand these things.

I've also had to fix cars. Maybe you do not do such quotidian things?

Originally Posted by ddongbap

Not everybody keeps their car till it breaks down. I've been through a few cars where I replaced them under warranty. So please, cry a little bit more.

You like to give money to banks. You should be the one who is crying, not me.

Originally Posted by ddongbap

And you assume I'm poor or something.

So if you're not poor why did you buy an economy car?

Gene

[auxmike]

As a Smart car owner, I can tell you the're real easy to work on.
BUT, I get no respect in it.
My last road rage incident pictured......

[thebarber]

Originally Posted by PK198105

i just have one question how safe would you really feel in a Smart? each time i see a Smart on the road i have my cell set to 911 just press SEND

my wife and i drove a smart w/ a diesel before driving the yaris (actually like 30min before)

i found the ergonomics kind of weird, and the car being a 2 seater just made it seem kind of useless. i also hated the quasi-auto transmission too. AND it was wicked slow.

oh, and theres no mercedes dealer in fredericton - - the closest is in saint john which is just over an hour away in good weather. and its not like you can get the oil changed anywhere w/ the diesel smart too (im not sure how it is for the newer gas engine) but they actually have to pump the oil out as there isnt a drain in the pan....so you HAVE to get it done at a mercedes dealer (though from what i read on the smart forum, there is a roaming truck that will come to your city to change the oil)

so ya...we own a yaris (which seemed like a speed demon after driving the smart car!)

lol @ auxmike

[rningonfumes]

lmao at the pics.

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by PK198105

i just have one question how safe would you really feel in a Smart? each time i see a Smart on the road i have my cell set to 911 just press SEND

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s

As you can see, even at a brutal 70 mph crash head on into a cement barrier, the Smart's passenger compartment stays intact. It's a pretty safe car. Too many people are stuck on the old belief that a small car is a death trap.

[Kal-El]

Yeah, the test in the this video is an extreme example and you'd probably get killed in a Hummer going 70 mph into a solid barrier. The cause of death in this situation is the sudden and violent whiplash of your internal organs never mind the broken neck and the seatbelt crushing your ribs.

[eht13]

Originally Posted by GeneW

So if you're not poor why did you buy an economy car?

I have agreed with some of your other points in this thread, but for this one I just wanted to point out something I said earlier in the thread... I would say that some people may have a decent amount of money but don't want to spend more of it than they need to on cars (either upfront or down the road in terms of cost of ownership and reliability).

[ddongbap]

Originally Posted by GeneW

Buying a car with a limited logistical train, in other words, few places where you can get parts or service is not wise I lived through the Yugo and Belarus experience and understand these things.

I've also had to fix cars. Maybe you do not do such quotidian things?

I fix cars.

You like to give money to banks. You should be the one who is crying, not me.

You're assuming I like to give money to banks. I don't. I don't really care either.

And I probably should be crying. But I'm not. Because I don't care.

Either way, you're still crying.

So if you're not poor why did you buy an economy car?

Gene

To mod it.

[ddongbap]

Originally Posted by auxmike

As a Smart car owner, I can tell you the're real easy to work on.
BUT, I get no respect in it.
My last road rage incident pictured......

I think you're using the wrong wookie for that mod.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by ddongbap

You're assuming I like to give money to banks. I don't. I don't really care either.

And I probably should be crying. But I'm not. Because I don't care.

Either way, you're still crying.

No, but if it pleases you to think that being fiscally prudent is "Crying" be my guest.

Originally Posted by ddongbap

To mod it.

*chuckle*

What are you going to do, put a fart muffler on it?

Seriously, the ECU on Yaris is very difficult to hack. Toyota made them that way. You're not going to mod it to evade all of the neat fuel saving stuff that makes the Yaris both environmentally friendly and fuel efficient, at least I don't think so. I don't know everything and am willing to accept experiment.

Fooling the sensors is not a smart idea, though I've heard of it done with simpler systems. A favorite trick is to introduce about eight feet of wire into an O2 sensor loop to fool the car into running more lean. Don't recommend it here.

NO is a possibility. If you could obtain a "performance" ECU from overseas that's also possible.

Gene

[ddongbap]

Originally Posted by GeneW

No, but if it pleases you to think that being fiscally prudent is "Crying" be my guest.



*chuckle*

What are you going to do, put a fart muffler on it?

Seriously, the ECU on Yaris is very difficult to hack. Toyota made them that way. You're not going to mod it to evade all of the neat fuel saving stuff that makes the Yaris both environmentally friendly and fuel efficient, at least I don't think so. I don't know everything and am willing to accept experiment.

Fooling the sensors is not a smart idea, though I've heard of it done with simpler systems. A favorite trick is to introduce about eight feet of wire into an O2 sensor loop to fool the car into running more lean. Don't recommend it here.

NO is a possibility. If you could obtain a "performance" ECU from overseas that's also possible.

Gene

That entire ECU deal was dumb.

I've never ran a muffler of any sort, except for the stock one.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again. Stop assuming stuff. Its very unsightly.

Anyways, lets end this. We both know, (atleast I hope you do too) know that we've been in these kind of arguments before, and they end up going no where. So I'm gonna stop. Lets see if you do too.

[Phaeton]

Some people who bought the Yaris aren't poor.
I bought one because I needed a car that would be dependable and get good gas mileage over a long period of time. I've put 40,000 miles on mine in 8 months. I would not do that to a nicer car.

[Kal-El]

Funny how "poor" is such a relative term. Technically, if you're poor you shouldn't have a car at all never mind a new car.

To say that by buying an economy car assumes a person is poor is ridculous.

If being able to buy a $15K car is poor, I hate to see what a guy living on a park bench is characterized as.

It's funny, I was listening to a news report describing what being "poor" is today. It's having 1-2 cars, flat screen TV, cell-phone, computer/internet, ect...

[Crandall]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

If being able to buy a $15K car is poor, I hate to see what a guy living on a park bench is characterized as.

I believe that's called being homeless

[thebarber]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

It's funny, I was listening to a news report describing what being "poor" is today. It's having 1-2 cars, flat screen TV, cell-phone, computer/internet, etc

oh crap...im lower than poor! i gotta get me a flatscreen and a cell phone w/ a camera in it!

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by ddongbap

That entire ECU deal was dumb.

The ECU controls almost all aspects of the car's function. Changing the ECU, or its parameters, changes the function of the car, how it operates, its ability to accelerate faster. Even the top speed, which is regulated to prevent the tires from failing at high speeds, is governed by the ECU.

My little exposition on the ECU was topical and brief but quite germane.

If all you do is add some pulleys, change the air filter or exhaust, or do other topical changes all you're doing is nibbling around the edges. It's cute and may even help but it's not the kind of radical change needed here.

Originally Posted by ddongbap

I've said it once, and I'll say it again. Stop assuming stuff. Its very unsightly.

What's a matter? Is the truth less glamorous than the confection? I work in a factory, what does that make me?

Nobody where I work buys "low end" cars. They buy SUVs, they buy family cars, one dude has a Dodge Viper. Two or three have Beemers. They are being crushed with debt too.

Originally Posted by ddongbap

Anyways, lets end this. We both know, (atleast I hope you do too) know that we've been in these kind of arguments before, and they end up going no where. So I'm gonna stop. Lets see if you do too.

In other words you're incapable of settling relatively friendly disputes?

Gene