Friend just bought a new Yaris

[Aetre]

The Yaris is pretty clearly a "price leader," from a business standpoint. It's the same role filled by the Tercel and Echo in previous years. Basically, its existence serves two purposes:

1. Get people in the dealership so that you can convince them to buy a Corolla instead (my dealer tried this a number of times before he finally gave up when I wouldn't even test drive one).

2. Build brand loyalty for younger drivers. The idea here is that a 22-year-old buys the Yaris, but later when they have kids and need a larger car, they'll think, "My Toyota's a great car; maybe I should look at their Sienna, or Matrix, or an SUV..."

So basically, because of #2, Toyota has every incentive to make the car as reliable and accommodating as possible, but because of #1, they have incentive to limit options (interior fabric, for example) and not advertise.

I still love that if you go to Toyota's website, every car has a slogan... The Camry's is, "Fueled by fun." The Corolla says, "Smart, from every perspective." Matrix? "Pack. Escape. Live."

The Yaris? "It's a car!"

[edit: wrote "Odyssey" by mistake.]