Be honest, if you could go back in time and do it again.....

[broody]

I don't have a yaris but I recommended to my mom to buy a fit (which she did) over a yaris 1.5 year ago, and since then I drove both cars a lot (we have a fleet of Yaris at my delivery place), and I would now recommend the Yaris over the fit, although they both have defaults and the fit my mom got was still a good deal. The fit had a 2500$ reduction (brand new 2009, bought in 2010) and with the different prices and packages in Canada, it was cheaper than a 5 door Yaris 2010 (there were no more 2009) with AC.

The fit feels a bit more sporty at first, but it the end, it's annoying. The suspension is too stiff to be really comfortable but the car still takes some roll in the curves, the steering is a bit sharper, but the turning radius is much bigger (about 3 feets maybe, but I drove both mostly in town and you feel the difference a lot when doing u turns and such for delivery), and it's a bit over assisted, at highway speeds the fit steering is over reactive and you have to be careful. And the fit MT has really close gears, it's cool for spirited driving or around town, but on the highway the engine noise is annoying and the MPG sucks.

So, the yaris with it's longer gearbox is a bit less quick around town but the vvti still makes a good job, and it's a bit more quiet on the freeway (and you get better mpg), the electric steering on the hatchback is really nice. On the downside, the gearbox is more slushy and the cargo room is obviously much smaller. And despite it's minivan look, the fit is the same height as the yaris hatchback and you sit a bit lower.

Otherwise, road noise (not engine noise) and seat comfort seem to be about the same but I haven't really driven the yaris on the highway for extended periods since we only drive around town for work. Actually I dislike the seats in both cars (I'm tall and there not enough leg room), but the ones in the yaris seem to be a bit better for a long drive. Also, they both have a crappy drive by wire system, when I take the remaning echo hatchback at work (with a throttle cable and no power steering), it's a blast to drive compared to the yaris, but it's noisy and less comfy. But in the end, the yaris isn't great anywhere, but not bad anywhere either (except for cargo room), while the fit's qualities (more fun to drive) are also it's biggest defaults, it's less homogen.

I'm waiting the yaris 3 with impatience, hopefully we will replace some of the older yaris at work for one (which also means that they will ditch the echo hatchback 2005, sadly).
Otherwise, I never drove a Yaris sedan, it seems to be fine but I believe that it's a bit less responsive than the hatchback, then I would simply get a Corolla instead (they are now only 600$ extra in Canada).

But the seats are really important to me, and it's personnal taste. I have driven 25 000 miles in my ex Geo Metro 1.0 (mixed city and highway) in a year and a half, with some trips, and I never had any back pain. After 1.5 hour in the fit, I start to have some pain.

Originally Posted by SilverBack

I never got around to testing the limits on my rental, but I can tell you the Yaris is just more tall-friendly. As for the other two cars, ..well:

I'm 6 feet 3 and they all miss leg room to be comfortable, which is a non sense in the fit and the versa since there is still so much leg room in the back. For front room, I don't see any clear winner or loser in the category. The best small car is by far the mini (you can slide the seats rearward untill they touch the rear seats), but it's 10k$ more...
I wish we had some european sub compacts (renault clio, VW polo and such), I'm pretty sure they have more leg room.

Leg room is the only reason why I bought my geo metro and then my Civic '99 instead of a Tercel/echo/yaris/corolla. The Prius 3 finally has significantly more leg room than the previous one, I hope that the next gen Corolla and Yaris will be the same way. Otherwise, tall people need to get a Camry to be comfortable (which my father did 13 yars ago, since the corolla wasn't big enough).

Originally Posted by Bluevitz-rs

That's what my only complaint was about the Echo, until I put the 6 speed in .

Do I really see a Civic shuttle 84-87 in your avatar? It's your? I had one (87 4wd) for a while, I sold it because it was rubbish and not so reliable, but it's a blast in a snow storm (I've done some ice lapping too) and the interior room is better than in the fit despite the lack of magic seats and the awd system. I measured both cars in every ways and the Civic was better everywhere (by almost a foot from the dash to the trunk lid) but in height (exact same), I measured so I can bring my motorcycle home (2x700km drive), the bike fitted in the car simply with the front passenger seat removed. I wonder how Honda made so many great civic (from the 4wd shuttle to the Type R) and now they make crap. Newer Civic are not fun to drive anymore, have nothing innovative and the materials quality is really lower than before. And they still have rusty rear fenders (for the 01-05 at least).