Yaris sales hit new low...

[juicyjosh]

Guys and gals, we all realize the 2014 Yaris is a 2005 Yaris, which is a 2007 Daihatsu Charade..., right?

Would YOU buy a 2005 100-hp FWD car... TODAY IN 2014?

I know I wouldn't.

There's also a minimal commission payout to Toyota sales reps for selling the Yaris, so the sales reps aren't going to be pushing these cars to begin with. The point is significant: Salespeople aren't going to spend 4 hours to trying to convince someone to buy a cheaply-made car hoping to make $1xx.00 commission when they can much more easily sell a "nicer" Camry or Corolla and make $3xx.00.

But Toyota's milking the 2005 Yaris (a.k.a. 2007 Daihatsu Charade) for all it's worth. The 2012-on Yaris has an exterior and interior refresh, but it's only a facelift. Like everything else in life, what's inside is more important. In the case of the Yaris, the engine, drivetrain, suspension are all circa 2005. (So the 2012 SE has disks in the rear; There's so little weight back there that there's no significant performance benefit.) However for 2012, Toyota remapped the ecu for "softer" throttle response to get an extra 1 mpg City and Highway for the MT. Thanks Toyota for completing the initially only partially botched castration of what little cojones this car ever had to begin with.

I leased the car because of a unique situation I was in at the time where I needed something cheap with Toyota reliability, and I had no time to be working on cars. And I got a 5-speed fwiw. At least it was cheaper than the auto, and I'm averaging 29 mpg on 87 octane, which isn't bad, though could be better for a 2300-lb. car with a very optimistic 106-hp rating.

Hopefully this helps ppl to not lose any sleep over this car's demise.