Faults:

Tire pressure sensors stopped working some time ago.

General Comments:

When I went shopping for a new car I basically wanted something I could finance for less than $200/month. I checked out comparable cars from Honda, Hyundai, and Nissan and the price of the Yaris and the Toyota name won out. This is definitely a no-frills car. It has AC and an auxiliary jack for an mp3 player (which I now can't live without) and that's it. Manual locks and windows and nothing fancy, but that's fine by me, I don't need a nav system (I can read a map) or KITT from Knight Rider telling me what to do. This is basically a more sophisticated version of the VW Bug without the joy of adjusting valves or broken heaters.

That said it is surprisingly peppy for a car that puts out a massive 103hp. Like other Toyotas I've driven it is quick off the line, but lacks mid-range power. Climbing long distances requires many downshifts. I've gotten her up close to 100mph and my life did not flash before my eyes, nor did the car develop any cheap-car-racer shake. Handling is fine. It is no BMW, but is fun to take through a twisting downhill mountain drive. It is nimble enough for someone who drives like me to dodge comatose drivers on the freeway.

Mileage is excellent. Drive conservatively and you can easily average over 40 mpg (some claim to get over 50, but I don't have the discipline to drive that slowly over long distances). Average 70 or 80 on a long road trip (say, San Diego to Death Valley) and you drop to around the 27 - 30 mpg range. Still very, very good. I can easily get close to or over 400 miles on one tank of gas.

Sore points: the throttle and the brakes. The throttle is weird and inconsistent, sometimes a little bit of gas will make the car jump, other times it takes off normally. I've had the car for a year and still haven't totally gotten the hang of it. The brakes are surprisingly weak for such a small car. Sometimes it feels like I'm driving my old '68 VW Bug with four drums. Every Toyota I've driven has had excellent, powerful brakes (I even put some Tacoma brakes on a 300ZX I owned years ago). I guess this was a cost-cutting decision. I don't feel that the brakes or unsafe, but I will upgrade them to something more substantial (like four-wheel discs) in the future.

Overall I like this car. You need a sense of humor to drive one when you're use to sporty cars and trucks, and I do sometimes get weird looks from people (though these cars are becoming more popular now), but I dig tiny old Euro cars, so I'm at home here. If you want something new and relatively cheap this is one to check out, ignore the online reviews that bemoan the lack of features, these people can't live without every bell and whistle in the world on their $13,000 commuter.

Faults:

Nothing. It was a rental.

General Comments:

We rented this car for several days in North Carolina. Before making any judgement on it, it helps to set your standards low because it fits in the same class as the Chevy Cobalt, Ford Focus, and Kia Sephia. In other words, it's the cheapest of cheap econo-cars. Put into that context, it's actually a pretty decent all around car for the money.

First for the good. For such a small car, it actually has a decent amount of interior room. I'm kind of short, but my Wife is 6 feet tall. Yet she was comfortable and had plenty of leg room.

Secondly, it got fantastic fuel economy. I'm guessing it must have gotten close to 40MPG the whole trip because we only filled it up once just to top it off for the return at the rental place. It only held 9 gallons and we drove it for 2 days solid without having to fill it up.

Thirdly, despite having a tiny little engine, the performance was admirable. In fact, it was pretty peppy.

Lastly, despite being an econo-car, it had a lot of features I've seen on more expensive cars. The stereo was better than the one in our own car back home, and it even had a feature that automatically adjusted the volume for the road noise.

Now for the bad. My least favorite thing about it was the engine. When you start from a dead stop and even barely press the gas pedal, the engine revs extremely high, as if you're absolutely flooring the thing. I assume in order to compensate for the small engine, the drivetrain was designed to rev way up. It honestly sounded like the engine was going to blow itself up at every stop light. I take good care of my cars, so this to me was a bit disturbing. Additionally, the engine and everything else was loud. There seemed to be little sound dampening and when on the freeway, all you heard was the whining of the engine.

Secondly, the steering was a little too fidgety and strange. It felt like the steering did a lot of wandering. The steering wheel itself was made out of hard plastic and in my opinion was too small.

The interior materials were pretty cheap. I've driven a Cobalt, which also has a super-flimsy, cheap interior and the Yaris was almost as cheap, which is kind of disappointing considering this is a Toyota.

But all in all, I'd say that if you just want a car that'll get you around cheaply, or don't have the cash for a nicer car, this would be a good option. Probably perfect for college kids too. It wasn't a bad car at all. Just know that this is basically a re-incarnated version of the former Tercel with a few added whistles and bells.