[danmanx]

I was planning on getting a new car soon. I currently own a 1999 Honda Civic LX, but it's starting to show signs of age. I drive 66 miles per day minimum, so I need a cheap, but reliable point A to point B car.

I've looked into a Smart Car also, but they need higher quality gas and do not offer the same quality/safety as Toyota Yaris. Their MPG is almost dead on to the Yaris.

The new Yaris looks great and gets 29/36 city/hwy mileage. I'm not too crazy about the center console design, but the interior is snazzy. I've seen a few YouTube videos and I'm planning on test driving the car soon as well.

Any Yaris owners care to input?

[mattiemo]

smart cars are overrated and expensive for what you get, IMO. there are many cars such as a chev. Avao, kia rio.yaris etc. plus you are loosing a lot of space that you may need in the future. i would test drive all of them and see what you like. is as far as quality, all major brands are good quality, and weak points are found years later. the only reason I would pick the smart is if i lived in a place where parking is hard to come by.

another note: mathmaticaly wise the greater the mpg the less significant eace mpg becomes ex. at 20 mpg 1 more mpg is approx. 5% of the cost of gas, at 40 mpg, 1 more mpg its approx. 2.5% the cost of a gallon

[anguish]

All I know is I want a Mini, probably the same as my brother has, which is a Clubman. The reality is though that now that I have a family, I'm probably looking at a Ford Escape. A Mini (and other cars) would kill my knees...too bloody low to the ground for us tall people.

[holmes4]

The Chevy Aveo (a rebadged Daewoo) is one of the worst cars on the road, according to all of the reviews I have read. It is the Yugo of the 21st century.

The Yaris has not been reviewed well either, though maybe it's better now. The Honda Fit consistently wins raves, and the Nissan Versa is good though a bit bigger.

[dont]

Originally Posted by danmanx

I was planning on getting a new car soon. I currently own a 1999 Honda Civic LX, but it's starting to show signs of age. I drive 66 miles per day minimum, so I need a cheap, but reliable point A to point B car.

I've looked into a Smart Car also, but they need higher quality gas and do not offer the same quality/safety as Toyota Yaris. Their MPG is almost dead on to the Yaris.

The new Yaris looks great and gets 29/36 city/hwy mileage. I'm not too crazy about the center console design, but the interior is snazzy. I've seen a few YouTube videos and I'm planning on test driving the car soon as well.

Any Yaris owners care to input?

My wife drives an Echo which is the predecessor to the Yaris and was actually called a Yaris in Europe. We will probably replace it with a Yaris when (if ) the time comes to buy a new car.

She drives about 150(!) miles most days and it has over 160k miles on the clock. It is about 6 years old and has had no (zero) problems, only regular service work and wear items replaced.

It is surprisingly large in the front and quite comfortable. Gas consumption is great, acceleration is poor.

We looked at the Smart car when we bought this vehicle, but it was over-priced and was not made by Toyota.

The center console works fine for the driver.

[dhalbert]

I happened to get a Yaris sedan as a rental yesterday. My impressions:

1. Center console - no problem.
2. Driving position was a little weird. Steering wheel seemed low.
3. Visibility in the rear-view mirror and out the back was not great.
4. Interior kind of plasticy.

I did not have any issues with the driving, but I didn't go very far. Consumer Reports is ho-hum on it.

[danmanx]

Thank you guys for the helpful comments. I found them to be very insightful.

[RebelKangaroo]

Personally, I'd go with another Civic if you were looking for a new car. Otherwise keep the one you have and spend the money on some nice upgrades that are more than plentiful for Honda cars to give it a nice facelift. It will save you quite a bit of money.

Unless you need more room. In that case, I'd also recommend the Toyota Matrix. Bit bigger than the Yaris and slightly less mileage, but more room.

[oktaren]

I actually have owned a yaris since early 07, the hatchback (or liftback as they call it) version. I first bought it because i was driving over an hour each way to work and needed something gas friendly. It is a very nice car, especially for its size. Plus its a toyota which seemingly last forever. I have had it for almost 3 years and have put over 80,000 miles on it. I haven't really had any problems with it, other than the clutch needed to be replaced, but thats what you get for allowing people to learn how to drive a stickshift in it, as well as taking it on back roads in the mountains of west virginia. It is even good in snow, i have lived in both western new york (near buffalo) and now in the finger lakes region and it has had no problems in the winter.

It has alot more room on the inside than it looks. I regularly have been able to fit a full size mountain bike in the back by folding the back seats down.

I recommend the vehicle 100%!

My girlfriend had an Aveo. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS VEHICLE. for the cost, the yaris is a tremendous value compared. She slid on an icy day and hit a telephone pole at 20 miles an hour and the car was totalled. It literally fell apart at that speed. It is also not nearly as nice of a car. If you can find one really cheap, it may be worth it for you, but the yaris still gets the nod by a wide margin. It even gets much better gas mileage. When I am trying to drive nicely, with the manual transmission I have been able to regularly get 40+ miles per gallon.

[oktaren]

Originally Posted by dhalbert

I happened to get a Yaris sedan as a rental yesterday. My impressions:

1. Center console - no problem.
2. Driving position was a little weird. Steering wheel seemed low.
3. Visibility in the rear-view mirror and out the back was not great.
4. Interior kind of plasticy.

I did not have any issues with the driving, but I didn't go very far. Consumer Reports is ho-hum on it.

I disagree with all of these comments, other than the center console positioning, which I thought was actually a bit weird at first, but like it now. I actually find it rather easy to see out the back of the car. But then again, I have always had smaller cars and wouldnt compare it to a SUV or anything. The driving position is actually pretty high up, which is maybe why you thought the stearing wheel was low. I have noticed that when driving, the seat level is actually not that much lower than many minivans, which I actually like as it makes it easier to see when driving. The interior of the car isn't plactic-y at all, especially when comparing it to many other subcompact cars of today and in the past. It has a relatively nice interior with alot of the things that you would expect on a car much more expensive. You must remember, a yaris can be had for not much more than 10k.