New 2010 Yaris Owner

[GrayYaris]

Originally Posted by charliegriefer

Hey Folks...

Just picked up a 2010 for my daughter. Her second car (licensed 6 months... first car was a beater that just finally gave up).

To be honest, was looking for inexpensive. Went to our local CarMax dealership with eyes on a Nissan Versa. They had issues with the Versa, so we looked at a Yaris.

Wasn't at all familiar with them. But I am a believer in the longevity of Toyotas. This thing is a 2010 with only 57k miles on her. It's a 3 door. Would have preferred a 5, but beggars and choosers and all.

Doing my best to get familiarized with it. Reading over the manual and perusing the forums.

Gotta say, while I picked it up because it was inexpensive, I'm digging it a lot. Reading some of the posts here makes me feel pretty confident that it'll be with us for a good, long time.

Anyway, just wanted to drop a quick note and say hi.

Hi :)

Congrats to you and your daughter!

The Yaris is a great ride and in AZ it should last you a long time. Even when parts fail (which is rare) quality parts are very reasonably priced.

My Yaris has a case of the crusties, but with 185K on the odometer (I've owned it for the past 110K), I have about $1200 of parts into it (half of that cost was from a set of snow tires and a set of all seasons). Friends and family are shocked at what I haul around in the back (or on top, thanks to my Thule Traverse roof rack) of that Yaris and are surprised at its ability to sip fuel.

Aside from the practicality and economy of the Yaris, perhaps one of its best attributes is mechanical simplicity and elegance. If you ever run into a problem with the Yaris, this forum is one of the best forums around. I guarantee if you and/or your daughter have patience and are willing to learn, there isn't a problem on that car you can't fix yourself with the help of the members of this forum.

Going forward, I would recommend the following "mods" if they aren't already done:

Rear Anti-Sway bar and wider rear tires- See CTScott's and other's posts on this. It will greatly stiffen up and stabilize the ride, especially at highway speeds

Cruise control- CTScott has a great budget solution for this if you want to mess around with basic soldering/electronics. If you don't want to go that route, you can pick up an OEM/OEM style cruise stalk for around $200 installed.

Enjoy!