How Did You Buy Your '12 Yaris?

[TPA5]

I was just wondering how other people came to own their 2012 Yaris.

For me personally, I hadn't even heard about the 2012 redesign. I was going into my local Toyota dealership to look at a Corolla, because I owned one before it was totaled in an accident and I liked it so I figured I would just replace it. Well I walked in, and what greeted my sleep-deprived eyes? Just the sexiest little machine I had ever seen sitting their, doors open and beckoning me forward with a evil little smirk. Aggressive headlights, a bratty-looking grille, hard lines cut down the body, and sporty interior. What majestic 4-wheeled method of transportation was this? I looked at the sticker; a Yaris?! Those adorable little egg-shaped wonders now came in an aggressive, modern, and almost (dare I say) tough redesign? I was drooling on the floor and sold before the car even bought me dinner. The salesman came over (he's a friend of the family) and said, "Grhjs vjbd hhag asfj?". Apparently I was too busy admiring the lines of the car and fantasizing about taking the 5-speed out for a spin and didn't catch a single word of what he said. I tore myself away from the car for a moment, long enough for him to say again, "Let me guess; you want the Yaris?".

Turns out they had gotten 3 Yarii in the showroom over the past month, they were slowly trickling in from Japan. As we went over paperwork he grinned and said that they hadn't been able to keep a Yaris in the showroom more than 3 days before it was gone. Turns out I came in exactly on day 3 of that Yaris' existence on the floor. I bought it without so much as a test-drive (lunacy, I know). The next day all paperwork was done and the car sat outside in the crisp February air. I eased myself behind the seat and started the engine. Breathing deep the euphoric scent of new car, I put it into first and rolled out of the dealership. As I drove home I thought about all the wondrous things we would do together; for if we had each-other, I could tackle anything. Love at first sight.


....Err, anyway. That was longer than I intended. My bad. What about you guys?

[richard_rsp]

Lol, great story! Mine was not love at first sight, but more of a financial decision:

I am quite a car person. I have traded/owned MANY different cars in the past, and I LOVE to autocross. In February 2012, I traded my much loved Mazda2 in on a 2010 Miata MX-5 Touring. It was AWESOME: 6-speed, Suspension package (w/LSD), only 2,100 miles and certified pre-owned! It was truly the car I had been wanting.

At the beginning of May, I graduated with my Masters degree from Valdosta State. While I was happy to be done, it also signaled the start of having to pay back student loans (which have grown significantly during grad school). Upon realizing that the loan payment had increased (almost 3x what we had expected), my wife and I sat down to try to figure out what to do. Should I sell the Miata and get a "beater" car? Should I look for a used vehicle?? Can we make it on ONE vehicle???

My wife and I actually decided to go with a used car, around $150-$175 payment. This was a difficult solution because it required finding a car new enough to finance at a decent rate/term, and cheap enough to get into our payment range - Yarises seemed to fit the bill. (Plus I am a fan of B-spec cars).

We found a 2009 Yaris (base) at a BMW dealership in Augusta, and they were offering a good trade in value for my Miata... well, that fell through (and ended with a letter to the BBB and BMW - another story, another time) and left us searching some more. We found several more that would fit our needs, but after getting burned by the BMW dealer (and the LONG drive), we were not really wanting to travel for a car.

So on a whim, my wife and I decided to check out our local Toyota dealer to SEE if there was anything close they could do.They had no pre-owned Yarises, but did have two 2012 Yaris L's, a white auto and a silver 5-speed that had came in on dealer trade. I test drove the silver one and really liked it. It was solid, well equipped (for a base model) and had significantly more pep than I expected. I liked it, and they had $1000 in "graduation cash", but the best they could do was $235 a month. No thanks.

So after a week of looking some more, I called the local dealership back to see if they could get it to $200 a month ($25 over our original max). They worked on it, and after some hardball, came to $206.99 a month (WITH a free Honda lawnmower - a promotion they were running). After realizing that it included our oil changes/tire rotations for the first 25,000 miles, we were sold!

That has been a little over a week ago and so far I LOVE my Yaris. I added cruise control and have plans for wheels (when I can find some cheap enough), springs, and swaybars. :) My wife and I are both confident that we made a great decision and ended up with a BRAND NEW car for MUCH less than the Miata payment! Oh, and a new Honda push mower! :)

[Slasher]

lets see.. 100 mile commute down backroads... Drove Prius C, Rio, Accent, Elantra, civic LX; but there's something that just feels right about a Jap Made stick Toyota...

I knew the cD was really low... and the folks who have the stick models are dragging 40mpg on the highway...

I found a Absolutely Red stick L 3 door on the net as an internet special with 24 miles and I really liked it!!! Drove 60 miles saved $1,000 and it came with carpet mates and the deck lid... Net buying is great and NO BS!!!

Just picked it up yesterday... Now my wife is out running errands... I thought the stick shift would deter her... Oh well

But since I was a lil kid and we had a 1971 Toyota Corona mkII... then a 76 corolla sr5 (totalled)... a 78 Celica GT... I've had a 07 tacoma (traded) 11 TUNDRA, so I guess I came up in a yota family...

While it was short on features, it is really a very nice car for the price... I just enjoyed the lil car and except for the Honda CR-z... Nothing really appealled to me...

[tooter]

My wife's car was a 19 year old Hyundai Excel so we were ready to replace it. We had tried to get a new Hyundai Accent with a 6 speed stick...

...but unfortunately it didn't come without 4 doors and a bunch of other totally useless crap we didn't want.

The Yaris got moved up to first choice since it still came in a 2 door hatchback manual transmission with hand crank roll up windows and with a regular key for entry. There were only three 2 door 5 speed hatches in the state at the time, and one of them was in Los Angeles. I bought it for $16,600 cash out the door. And even though my wife's old Hyundai was a '93, it was well cared for and good mechanical condition. It sold in only one day for $1,700 which brought down the cost of the new Yaris to only $14,900.

[CPALK719]

me and my family ended up buying our 2012 yaris, when our 98 tercel with 122,XXX miles was basically not daily driver friendly anymore. the power steering went out, A/C died out, suspension was shot. so we sold it for $1200 bucks it was still running, we just decided it was time for a new toyota.

[treelowa]

Here in the UK, they offer the Yaris on 0% finance....
Mine to is a financial decision, as I have started working for myself and the RX8 is just not practical for every day use. I will be sad to see it go as I have a real love / loath relationship with the RX8... I love driving it, but loath filling it up all the time... paying road tax, etc etc.

.. however, a great trade-in offered on the Rx8 coupled with excellent MPG figures for the Yaris and of course the 0% deal made it a no-brainer.
Still waiting to take delivery of it, and each day seems longer while I wait.

I was pleasantly surprised by how nippy the 1.33 engine actually is, obviously nothing like a fuel sapping, fire breathing Mazda RX8, but something I can definitely live with.

cmon now... I wan't this car... think I will phone/push the dealer tomorrow for an update.. its been a week already :)

Happy motoring everyone :)
T

[matti]

I really enjoyed reading the other stories!

I grew up in a Toyota family (my parents owned the following (all manual transmissions): 1987 pickup, 2003 Tacoma, 1991 Corolla, 1998 Corolla, 2003 Corolla, and a 2011 Corolla). Since I was young, I've been a Toyota guy. I've personally owned a 1992 Tercel (manual), 2005 Corolla (automatic...yuck), and 2007 Corolla (manual).

My 2007 Corolla had 114,xxx miles on it and I've had my eye out for a new, efficient car since I'm starting grad school again this fall and will be putting on more miles. I looked at the new 2012 Corollas but they seemed too "fancy" for me and too big. My wife has a 2009 Honda Fit Sport, but I'm not a big fan of it. I was slightly familiar with the Yaris, but didn't know a lot about it. I did a bunch of research and decided it might be a good car for me.

My local dealer had a silver 2012 Yaris LE auto on the lot that I test drove. Seemed pretty nice and had just enough legroom for me (I'm 6'4"). It was certainly quite a bit smaller than my 2007 Corolla, but still pretty comfortable.

However, I knew I didn't want steering wheel electronic controls, power windows, etc., thus I wanted the base L model. Also, I LOVE Toyota's Super White color. So, I asked for a Super White Yaris L 2-door with 5-speed manual. The nearest one was near Chicago (about 450 miles away), but I would have to pay to get it shipped to me. I wasn't willing to do that. So, they "ordered" one from the factory in Japan. I knew I wanted the manual transmission, so I never even test drove it.

It took about 8 weeks to get it. I've had it for one week (as of today) and it now has about 130 miles on it. I like it a lot. It will be cheap, reliable transportation for years to come. Selling price was $14,815. They gave me $6,500 for the 2007 Corolla on trade (quite a bit more than I expected). With TTL, I was out the door for about $9,500 cash. No payments. Turns out it's only about $2 more per month to insure vs. my Corolla!

So far it's a fun little car. A tiny bit cramped, but not really a big deal. I hope to have it for many years!

[Rockstar]

Totaled my previous car in a road accident and in my depressed slumber did some research on cheap, small and (fun?) car. I found the Toyota yaris was a perfect choice and bang for buck, well at least for me. At first I hated the design but now its grown on me and I can't think of any better looking car in this class.

I was actually going to buy a Toyota 86 if i could wait just one more year but totaling my previous car made me buy another car quickly.

I do miss my suspension setup on the old car as the setup on the yaris is super boat-like...

[Volcano]

Initially I had a 2012 3-cyl, drove it like 6 month (30 k kms). Generally I did like the car, especially the 3-cyl sound but it was lacking some power.

So I gave the Dealer a call. The only ones he had available where 1.33 Club (=SE) in black or white so I went for the white one :-)
He suggested to wait for the HSD, but I told him I don't like to ride in a vacuum cleaner..........

Currently I am considering to swap it in favour of a Truck or Panel van for hauling and camping purposes.

[mirapatec]

While researching an economical two-door car with a hatch for over a year, it was down to the wire between a Yaris and a Fiat 500. While I liked the 500, I was unsure about the long-term reliability of a Fiat car.

I had some spare time one day and decided to drop by a local and convenient Toyota dealer. There was a Scion IQ and a Yaris sitting side by side. I sat in both. I could not fit comfortably in the IQ (my height), but I fit great in the Yaris. After a test drive, I decided I actually liked the Yaris, so I picked it up. Plus, since it was a 2012 model with 2013 in the showroom, I got a very nice discount. I cannot understand why someone had not snagged this 2012 model earlier. Go figure.