Yaris v Fit

[SpaceShot]

I looked at the FIT at the auto shows, and I just didn't like the driver's seat height compared to the Yaris. I am fairly short, and both the Honda and Ford small cars made me feel like I was sitting on the floor pan.
Also, in my immediate area the Toyota dealers out number Honda, and are much more likely to work with you on price.

[Captain Slow]

I don't think it's the mileage on that Mazda 2 you drove as much as the year. If it was used then it obviously wasn't a 2012 model. I test drove one when they first came out and wasn't impressed, it was jarring, felt cheap, and had little pickup.

My wife's Mazda 2 is a 2012 though and it has the "SkyActiv" thing. Basically they removed as much weight as possible and retuned the engines for better performance and gas mileage. Her's is an automatic, so I'd definitely say it's slower than my Yaris, but I think with a manual transmission it'd be a match. Quality wise her 2012 is way better then the earlier one I had driven.

Comparing ride quality on her car and mine is difficult, but I'll try:

Yaris - Feels light, you ride high. Feels more "simple" like it's going to fly apart when driving hard (but it's a Toyota so I know it won't). I like the raw simplicity of the thing. When I go over railroad tracks at high speed or take a super hard corner it feels like I really shouldn't be doing it in that car, but it's also exciting. The Yaris feels like an oversized go-kart, just like my Miatas did and that's what I like so much. I definitely notice the smaller bumps in my Yaris as compared to her Mazda 2, but again it feels light so it's not that bad.

Mazda 2 - You sit lower and it feels much more like a "car" as opposed to the Yaris' "go-kart" feeling. The seats have better bolstering and the driving position is more comfortable/natural. Her chassis definitely feels stiffer and I believe in a very tight course where power is not an issue the M2 would likely handle a little better than a Yaris. Of course the M2 also comes with factory Yokohamas. For most things I'd say the Mazda 2 rides better. It's certainly a little quieter on the highway and you barely notice small bumps (in this it reminds me of my BMW 3 series) BUT, and it's a BIG BUT, when you finally do feel a bump it feels like a crash. Where my little Yaris translates every little bump into your but big or small but keeps going the Mazda 2 makes travel more civilized until you finally hit that big hole and it feels like an impact.

So what we typically do is for running around in town we take the Yaris, it's more zippy and better suited to town. For highway cruising we take the Mazda 2 since it's a little quieter and has an automatic transmission.

One more thing of note with the Mazda 2, even though it's a 4-door car it has way less interior room than my Yaris.

[chocolab]

Thanks for your opinion, CS... Great to talk to someone who actually owns both cars.

That's interesting, though. Yes, the M2 I drove was a 2011, so maybe the earlier tuning is why the car I drove felt so rough. Because I would have thought the exact opposite of what you said -- I remember thinking I'd prefer the M2 in town, but the Yaris on the highway. I mainly want the Yaris (or M2) for road trips, so I made a point of driving both at 70 mph on the highway, and the M2 felt like a series of those mini-crashes you speak of even on a nice interstate highway. In contrast, I remember being pleasantly surprised and impressed with the Yaris in the same situation. (That was the first Yaris I'd driven and I really didn't know what to expect.)

Funny you mention the BMW, because that's what I drive, and when I got back into my 12-year-old, 179k mile 3-series after driving the M2, I remember thinking that my old car with no suspension work ever wasn't nearly as rough as the M2. So maybe I did just get a bad car and should look at a newer one.

One thing the M2 has standard is keyless entry, and that's something that I'd really want on a Yaris but have had problems finding on the used ones. I don't care much about power windows, but the keyless on my BMW is to the point that it fails all the time and that drives me crazy. Seems like my hands are always full getting into or leaving the car and I hate having to set it all down to put the key in the door!

[junorico24]

The FIT trumps the Yaris in interior space and cargo room. So if you have family or will have one. The choice is easy the fit wins hands down.If you're single and just want a car to go from here to fro then the Yaris is a keeper.Both have advantages and disadvantages.

[Captain Slow]

agreed, sheer space is the one thing the Fit is king of in small hatchbacks.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by chocolab

I don't like the look of the Fit at all. The shrunken minivan just doesn't do it for me. And Hondas have gotten so overpriced... The Fits I see cost a fortune even for used ones. In fact, Civics do, too. Hondas in general seem to have become very bland for the money lately, unlike years ago when they were reasonably priced and fun to drive.

Captain Slow, I agree with you on liking the Mazda2. I'm still a prospective buyer, but the M2 is about the only other competition for the Yaris for me. I finally was able to test drive a used one that only had 25k miles on it, and was pretty disappointed. I've always liked firm rides, coming from German cars that are biased to handling, and like you I favor tossability over a ride that's too soft. But the M2 was *extremely* rough and uncomfortable, especially on the highway. The Yaris I test drove was four years older and had 110k miles on it, and wasn't like that at all -- it rode just great on the highway and was still pretty fun to drive around town. Was your Mazda2 jarring like that? I wonder if I could've gotten one that had been abused or something -- it was a rental, after all. But I don't see how it could have been ruined after only 25k miles, either, no matter how it was treated.

I don't like the looks of the Fit either, but it is better looking than the Insight sedan. I think the Insight sedan is trying to look like a 2nd generation Prius (the only full size Prius I like the looks of), but falls way short of the styling of the 2nd generation Prius. A few minutes ago I did the search 'does the european yaris hybrid 2012 have 1 front wiper or 2' on the duckduckgo.com search engine. I found two different articles from UK press outlets and one had a US Prius C equivalent picture (2 wipers), and the other article had a US Yaris SE equivalent picture (1 wiper)---unsure which is correct. What I found most interesting was another hit that was largely unrelated, namely "Prius C makes the Insight look extremely inferior? - Page 3 ...". The url for this hit is http://www.insightcentral.net/forums...nferior-3.html . The poster owns a 2010 Insight and a 2009 Yaris and a CR-V. He is defending the Yaris re an earlier post and he pulls in a link to Yarisworld and YouTube member Trini's YouTube page. I find the 'herd mentality posts' lining up against him kind of humorous......We Yarisworld members do the same thing, BUT I FEEL WE HAVE LOGIC ON OUR SIDE!

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by junorico24

The FIT trumps the Yaris in interior space and cargo room. So if you have family or will have one. The choice is easy the fit wins hands down.If you're single and just want a car to go from here to fro then the Yaris is a keeper.Both have advantages and disadvantages.

....also if you want to carry a bicycle INSIDE the car (rather than on a roof rack) and have room left over to neatly store other things, the Fit trumps the Yaris re the folding options for the rear seat. I once had roof rack disengage from my car at the time (not my Yaris) and fall onto I-80 only to be run over by a bus.

[why?]

Originally Posted by junorico24

The FIT trumps the Yaris in interior space and cargo room. So if you have family or will have one. The choice is easy the fit wins hands down.If you're single and just want a car to go from here to fro then the Yaris is a keeper.Both have advantages and disadvantages.

only if you feel spending the extra thousands it will cost to get into a fit. Besides, if you really want a cargo hauler you wouldn't be looking at a subcompact. oh did i mention i hate honda? so i am a tad bit partial.

[Hershey]

Got 40.6 m.p.g. with the '11 base model FIT w/ the 5 speed auto . Display was 40.2 . The '08 base sedan with the automatic has a slight lead over '11 Fit with gas mileage . Both have been getting 40+ for about a few months . Enjoy both cars .

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by why?

only if you feel spending the extra thousands it will cost to get into a fit. Besides, if you really want a cargo hauler you wouldn't be looking at a subcompact. oh did i mention i hate honda? so i am a tad bit partial.

LOL. My uncle (a Cal Berkeley undergrad and doctoral alum) used to say "No one ever recovers from going to Stanford". I realize some component of this view is emotional (my uncle 'BLEEDS Blue and Gold'), but he really does feel that the level of arrogance of many, many Stanford alums greatly exceeds what they actually accomplished academically. I kind of see some what he is illustrating re Stanford among Honda ("I'll only drive a Honda") loyalists on Honda owner sites, even when they have posted service records that don't illustrate what I see as real dependability. I don't feel a smugness (whether justified or not) on Toyota sites, except (sometimes) when it comes to the Prius. I inherited an Integra from a beloved family member who passed away and I kept it as an additional car for quite a bit of time. It was pretty reliable (not as reliable as my Yaris), but the A/C system (I felt) was poorly designed and not very effective.

[why?]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

LOL. My uncle (a Cal Berkeley undergrad and doctoral alum) used to say "No one ever recovers from going to Stanford". I realize some component of this view is emotional (my uncle 'BLEEDS Blue and Gold'), but he really does feel that the level of arrogance of many, many Stanford alums greatly exceeds what they actually accomplished academically. I kind of see some what he is illustrating re Stanford among Honda ("I'll only drive a Honda") loyalists on Honda owner sites, even when they have posted service records that don't illustrate what I see as real dependability. I don't feel a smugness (whether justified or not) on Toyota sites, except (sometimes) when it comes to the Prius. I inherited an Integra from a beloved family member who passed away and I kept it as an additional car for quite a bit of time. It was pretty reliable (not as reliable as my Yaris), but the A/C system (I felt) was poorly designed and not very effective.

lol. Even I will admit some of those Integra's and Civics back in the day were special. It is really amazing that honda created some of the best handling front wheel drive cars ever and yet chose to get away from that.

I just got burned out on magazine after magazine of all honda's. When it is all anyone is doing, I just need something different. Proud to say I've never owned a honda.