Yaris sales hit new low...

[Flipper_1938]

Yep. The whole reason I bought a Yaris is that I had an ECHO. That car was the most functional CAR that I have ever been around. Great mileage, great reliability, incredibly durable interior (still cleaned up and looked new after 318,000 miles), great value...overall an amazing car for $12,000 roll up windows and all.

I'm hoping the Yaris will treat me the same although my carpet at 100,000 miles shows more wear than the ECHO did at 318,000

[yougojay]

I read things now and then at the Mini, Fiat 500, Fiesta, Spark, etc. forums out there. Some real horror stories. No thanks.
I would imaging you can get new carpet, pieces or a 'Kit' to replace. I did it once, in my '72 Chevelle Convt. - it was totally easy, and completely transformed the way the interior looked (really made a difference)

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by JudgeM

when the competitor offer much better spec'd car for similar price.

My friend gave me a ride to the airport on Tuesday morning (starting before 5 am) for a 7 am flight...Houston to Charlotte to Tampa to pick up my new Yaris. My friend has a PT Cruiser with just over 155,000 miles on it. She drives that car harder than I have ever seen any woman drive any car. When I arrived in Tampa, Enterprise gave me a Fiesta as my one way rental to get to the dealership (they have a location about 4 miles from the dealership). The Fiesta had about 35,000 miles on it. OMG, what a POS. That thing sounded as if it would fall apart any minute. Comparing it to my friend's PT Cruiser, one would think the PT Cruiser had the 35,000 miles, and the Fiesta had not just 155,000 + miles, but 500,000 + miles.

[yougojay]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

My friend gave me a ride to the airport on Tuesday morning (starting before 5 am) for a 7 am flight...Houston to Charlotte to Tampa to pick up my new Yaris. My friend has a PT Cruiser with just over 155,000 miles on it. She drives that car harder than I have ever seen any woman drive any car. When I arrived in Tampa, Enterprise gave me a Fiesta as my one way rental to get to the dealership (they have a location about 4 miles from the dealership). The Fiesta had about 35,000 miles on it. OMG, what a POS. That thing sounded as if it would fall apart any minute. Comparing it to my friend's PT Cruiser, one would think the PT Cruiser had the 35,000 miles, and the Fiesta had not just 155,000 + miles, but 500,000 + miles.

Anyone jump in the wheel well of your plane while you were in Charlotte?
Granted, the Fiesta was a rental car. People do not take care of their own cars, let alone a rental car. Many people make it a POINT to beat on rental cars! Looked at a Fiesta briefly at a local dealer. Sure, it was OK, brand new, but never seriously considered one. After all these years, I have become so disappointed in the old "Big 3"
Decades of Toyota, Toyota, Toyota reliability, runs, no problems, etc. OK, I give UP, I WANNA TRY ONE! That's how I got here.
I am really easy on cars. Sure, there's a good chance I could have purchased a Fiesta or Fiat 500 or Spark & had good luck with it, but told myself, nope, not doing it. Had Fords, many GM products, gotta try a Toyota.
I know I made the right decision - I guarantee I will have this car until I croak, or some idiot totals it, or some idiot totals it with me in it and I croak Any of the above!

Forums are a good place to read what people are saying about cars.
I did some pretty extensive reading at some of these forums. Reading about Yaris (& Echo) lots of praise & LACK of issues. I understand, more volume sold, more people crabbing about problems.

I absolutely LOVE the looks of the Fiat 500 - there is an owner of one who works at the CVS by my house. It is a light-ish green opaque, Just wonderful looking. Have never been all over, hands on with one, maybe I should check one out sometime. It is so cute & good looking to me, the color choices are awesome.
Dang, I want to hug it and take it home and sleep in the garage with it on the concrete floor and offer it a Cookout 1/2 pound cheeseburger & fries, and kiss it all over. It's all that a small, fun to drive car should look like...It looks GREAT!
But you know what? It's a F I A T - Not getting sucked into that.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by yougojay

Anyone jump in the wheel well of your plane while you were in Charlotte?
Granted, the Fiesta was a rental car. People do not take care of their own cars, let alone a rental car. Many people make it a POINT to beat on rental cars! Looked at a Fiesta briefly at a local dealer. Sure, it was OK, brand new, but never seriously considered one. After all these years, I have become so disappointed in the old "Big 3"
Decades of Toyota, Toyota, Toyota reliability, runs, no problems, etc. OK, I give UP, I WANNA TRY ONE! That's how I got here.
I am really easy on cars. Sure, there's a good chance I could have purchased a Fiesta or Fiat 500 or Spark & had good luck with it, but told myself, nope, not doing it. Had Fords, many GM products, gotta try a Toyota.
I know I made the right decision - I guarantee I will have this car until I croak, or some idiot totals it, or some idiot totals it with me in it and I croak Any of the above!

Forums are a good place to read what people are saying about cars.
I did some pretty extensive reading at some of these forums. Reading about Yaris (& Echo) lots of praise & LACK of issues. I understand, more volume sold, more people crabbing about problems.

I absolutely LOVE the looks of the Fiat 500 - there is an owner of one who works at the CVS by my house. It is a light-ish green opaque, Just wonderful looking. Have never been all over, hands on with one, maybe I should check one out sometime. It is so cute & good looking to me, the color choices are awesome.
Dang, I want to hug it and take it home and sleep in the garage with it on the concrete floor and offer it a Cookout 1/2 pound cheeseburger & fries, and kiss it all over. It's all that a small, fun to drive car should look like...It looks GREAT!
But you know what? It's a F I A T - Not getting sucked into that.

I'm keenly aware of how people treat rental cars and attitudes toward the vehicles used in that type of arrangement. One of my points was that my friend's driving = the same effect as a constant beat of renters on a rental car. Given that, the mileage is the significant difference, and the feeling of the condition of each car is so different that looking at it from a 'switching mileage perspective' (35,000 and 155,000 on the other car, not the car that mileage is on) isn't enough of a difference...that's why I made the point of 500,000 + miles, rather than 155,000. If a racecar driver beat that Fiesta for the 35,000 miles, it still shouldn't feel as bad as it did.....and I want to like the Fiesta (Ford is the only Big 3 manufacturer and or brand I would consider re how they approached their business during the financial crisis vs. the others). On principle, I'd never again buy a UAW made vehicle, so that limits the Fords as well (but not the Fiesta ). I can see planning to buy a car that doesn't have bulletproof reliability if you have at least one more vehicle than number of drivers in the house, and if at least one of those vehicles has bulletproof reliability. Considering my location and use, buying a Mini Countryman ALL4 would be a complete waste. However, I think it is a vehicle that inspires tremendous passion and, other than reliability, hits all the marks. If I was in CTScott's shoes (enough room in the garage, living in an area where the winter weather makes the thought of buying an AWD vehicle a very logical proposition, and the mechanical knowledge to prevent being taken to the cleaners on repairs/or to do them yourself, and a surplus vehicle (well, I am in those shoes)), I'd probably be motivated to buy one (as he has). IIRC from one of his posts in the tires/wheels/etc section, tomorrow is supposed to be the big day...the dealer told him his Mini should be ready for delivery on Moinday.

[yougojay]

I completely get what you were trying to say regarding the miles and the rental treatment & the way your friend drove those hard 155,000 miles. Yes, why does the Fiesta feel like that after 35,000 miles & the PT feels BETTER after 150,000+ miles? Gotta wonder.
Mini's are absolutely awesomely cool looking! I'll bet they are a blast to drive. I'll bet you I could go out tomorrow and find one, take it home from the dealer & in a few hours and be completely freakin' in LOVE WITH IT.
But, my gut feeling is that if I kept it for years it would become a money pit. I'll go with my gut
We can ALL justify a car purchase of any make or model! Believe me, I've done it myself & have been fortunate enough to have reliable service in those cars, whew!
I think certain people have a passion for cars & driving, it's a good thing.
Yes, Scott is getting a Mini, I read a post a few days ago him trying to sell the wheels & tires from the one he is trading in (I believe) Sell them to a willing buyer & get the buyers stock wheels and tires. Good idea. I'll have to go look for that post again. I hope he was successful - I think he was getting some AWD extended version, they make 5 or 6 models now.
He'll have a ball with it I'm sure - I gotta go check out the Mini website now, it's been awhile!

[Absolutely Red 12]

Originally Posted by yougojay

Anyone jump in the wheel well of your plane while you were in Charlotte?
Granted, the Fiesta was a rental car. People do not take care of their own cars, let alone a rental car. Many people make it a POINT to beat on rental cars! Looked at a Fiesta briefly at a local dealer. Sure, it was OK, brand new, but never seriously considered one. After all these years, I have become so disappointed in the old "Big 3"
Decades of Toyota, Toyota, Toyota reliability, runs, no problems, etc. OK, I give UP, I WANNA TRY ONE! That's how I got here.
I am really easy on cars. Sure, there's a good chance I could have purchased a Fiesta or Fiat 500 or Spark & had good luck with it, but told myself, nope, not doing it. Had Fords, many GM products, gotta try a Toyota.
I know I made the right decision - I guarantee I will have this car until I croak, or some idiot totals it, or some idiot totals it with me in it and I croak Any of the above!

Forums are a good place to read what people are saying about cars.
I did some pretty extensive reading at some of these forums. Reading about Yaris (& Echo) lots of praise & LACK of issues. I understand, more volume sold, more people crabbing about problems.

I absolutely LOVE the looks of the Fiat 500 - there is an owner of one who works at the CVS by my house. It is a light-ish green opaque, Just wonderful looking. Have never been all over, hands on with one, maybe I should check one out sometime. It is so cute & good looking to me, the color choices are awesome.
Dang, I want to hug it and take it home and sleep in the garage with it on the concrete floor and offer it a Cookout 1/2 pound cheeseburger & fries, and kiss it all over. It's all that a small, fun to drive car should look like...It looks GREAT!
But you know what? It's a F I A T - Not getting sucked into that.

Fix It Again Tony!!

[bentjazz]

With matti on this one, for sure.....

[kimona]

^^^

4. The Prius C has factory to customer incentives and decent dealer discounts, so it can be had for just dollars more than the Yaris LE.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by kimona

^^^

4. The Prius C has factory to customer incentives and decent dealer discounts, so it can be had for just dollars more than the Yaris LE.

Good point.

[vrait]

If the yaris had a 6-speed manual and a 5 speed auto I think it would sell more. The 4 speed almost made me not even consider it.

[kimona]

Originally Posted by vrait

If the yaris had a 6-speed manual and a 5 speed auto I think it would sell more. The 4 speed almost made me not even consider it.

My 4-speed automatic Yaris performs so much better than the 6-speed automatic in my Camry. IMHO, the 4-speed automatic is a brilliant piece of work!
Besides, a 5-speed automatic would probably have the same final drive ratio anyway.

[jack black]

Kimona, I finally cracked your avatar.

Senna Matsuda, LOL.

Speaking about Yaris, I was at a dealership today and they had only one Yaris, way in the back parking. $17k. For only $500 more you can buy xD. No wonder they don't sell.

[kimona]

Originally Posted by jack black

Kimona, I finally cracked your avatar.

Senna Matsuda, LOL.

Speaking about Yaris, I was at a dealership today and they had only one Yaris, way in the back parking. $17k. For only $500 more you can buy xD. No wonder they don't sell.

Yes, lovely Senna Matsuda!

BTW, all 2014 Scions have a $1500 discount off MSRP... so you can get an xD for much less than a Yaris LE automatic!

http://ads.ocregister.com/rop/web/oc...=0009959704-01

[why?]

awd is seriously overrated. And if you look nowadays, many awd cars are coming with summer tires on them, so they would be crap in the snow.

My favorite winter car was a 1999 Saab Viggen. It was like a tank in the snow, could go through drifts that were 1/4 of the way up the tires.

[Onwrdigo]

Kudos to the knowledge on here!

So I know how my '05 xB automatic does in really bad winter stuff (awesome). I have yet to try my '13 LE Yaris yet in the nasty. So does anyone in any region know how a Yaris Automatic (whether it be an LE or SE) does in the stuff with an experienced winter driver??

The Yaris is lower to the ground (somewhat) than my xB which could be a determining factor depending on road conditions. But with my xB and Yaris having the same engine and transmission, they both have this 1st gear that is sort of a "creeper gear" when you let-off the brake (but have not touched the accelerator pedal) giving you some ever-so-slightly "pull-traction" as to not spin the wheels. Last winter in the xB when I was stopped waiting for traffic on a snow/ice covered hill trying to get home in a traffic jam, I had a Jeep Wrangler in front of me and a GMC Yukon in back of me while we watched cars slide down the hill coming in the opposite direction. Luckily, nobody hit us. When it was our turn to go "up" the hill, the Wrangler struggled for a second and then went on up slowly. I just let off of the brake and my xB just grabbed away and started to go up the hill ever so "slowly but surely" without touching the accelerator. The Yukon driver spun-out for about ten seconds and then finally grabbed-on and started following me up the hill. We all made it. (All this while we passed various cars..RWD,FWD, 4WD parked/abandoned on the side of the hill by their drivers. We actually had to go around cars/trucks abandoned in the middle of the road as well). I'll tell you, having been forced/taught in college on how to navigate this stuff also helped I am sure. Our professors all drove old 4WD Trucks and Subaru's (or pretty much anything with "chains") to campus and never canceled class and would dock you a point or two if you missed class due to weather....they were "tough".

I am curious as to how the Yaris will do with my experience in the stuff. I guess I will park the xB and drive the Yaris when it threatens to dump snow/ice next time while I am at work.

BTW, Toyota.com has "finally" put up the 2015 info officially on their website for the Yaris.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by Onwrdigo

Kudos to the knowledge on here!

So I know how my '05 xB automatic does in really bad winter stuff (awesome). I have yet to try my '13 LE Yaris yet in the nasty. So does anyone in any region know how a Yaris Automatic (whether it be an LE or SE) does in the stuff with an experienced winter driver??

The Yaris is lower to the ground (somewhat) than my xB which could be a determining factor depending on road conditions. But with my xB and Yaris having the same engine and transmission, they both have this 1st gear that is sort of a "creeper gear" when you let-off the brake (but have not touched the accelerator pedal) giving you some ever-so-slightly "pull-traction" as to not spin the wheels. Last winter in the xB when I was stopped waiting for traffic on a snow/ice covered hill trying to get home in a traffic jam, I had a Jeep Wrangler in front of me and a GMC Yukon in back of me while we watched cars slide down the hill coming in the opposite direction. Luckily, nobody hit us. When it was our turn to go "up" the hill, the Wrangler struggled for a second and then went on up slowly. I just let off of the brake and my xB just grabbed away and started to go up the hill ever so "slowly but surely" without touching the accelerator. The Yukon driver spun-out for about ten seconds and then finally grabbed-on and started following me up the hill. We all made it. (All this while we passed various cars..RWD,FWD, 4WD parked/abandoned on the side of the hill by their drivers. We actually had to go around cars/trucks abandoned in the middle of the road as well). I'll tell you, having been forced/taught in college on how to navigate this stuff also helped I am sure. Our professors all drove old 4WD Trucks and Subaru's (or pretty much anything with "chains") to campus and never canceled class and would dock you a point or two if you missed class due to weather....they were "tough".

I am curious as to how the Yaris will do with my experience in the stuff. I guess I will park the xB and drive the Yaris when it threatens to dump snow/ice next time while I am at work.

BTW, Toyota.com has "finally" put up the 2015 info officially on their website for the Yaris.

Sorry if this is slightly off topic, but what MPG numbers do you usually get with your xB ? I'm thinking about getting a late 1st Gen xB once my 07 Yaris needs more money to be sunk into it than makes sense. I had been thinking about a Tacoma as well, but it's been too long since Toyota has made their 'smallest engine in a pickup' (the one tooter has in his 2012 Tacoma...or an even smaller one) available with the longer bed. A guy on You Tube took out the back seat in a 1st Gen xB and created a camper (good for a night's sleep or two in a pinch). The only problem is that I'm too tall for the particular way he set things up (he left the front passenger seat in). If CTScott eventually develops one of his modules (for the xB) that keeps the airbag system working properly with the front passenger seat out...the remainder of the You Tube guy's set up would work for me. A 2nd Gen Prius might also fill the bill, but I'm thinking a 1st Gen xB might be better than a 2nd Gen Prius re mountain driving (ski trips).

[vrait]

My toyota now has three 2015s.. And one is a super white L with a manual transmissions.. I wish I bought that one instead of my auto. :p