great little car and mileage - yaris

Beowoulf, if you don't like small cars/hydrids then don't buy them, its as easy as that. No ones forcing you to, nor could they even think about doing so until years after they have the larger vehicles in alt fuel sources. You sound like the black helicopters are on their way. lol

I'll be sticking with my '01 F150 until theres a better alternative -- and a Prius ain't it. It gets decent gas mileage and its 100% paid for. I'll probably drive it til it dies or I win the lottery

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didn't mean to have everyone "fussing so". just was trying to give
a heads up to a car were really happy with. In our case, it was a free
trade so it was worth it for us.

DD and her dh got a Yaris when they were in San Antonio and love the gas milage. Took it with them to Guam and there, where the speed limit doesn't exceed 40mph anywhere on the island, it does great. But the big problem is that the back seat can hold two car seats with barely any extra space. When I was there I had no elbow room and couldn't shift my butt at all.

my wife and I bought a Yaris 4 months ago, before gas was over $4 per gallon

they had a couple dozen on the lot to choose from.

now they don't have a single one to sell and said they are backordered.

oddly, the car has probably gone UP in price since we bought it. I've seen used ones for more than we paid for ours new!

We love our Yaris sedan

We have a Nissan Versa hatchback that we love. The back seat is huge. We can put in two carseats and an older child in the middle. Lots of leg room also. With the back seat folded down, we've hauled loads of lumbar and feed. We get about 35 mpg on the back roads and 40ish highway. I'm not sure what the mpg is in town because we rarely go there long enough to figure it out. We've driven it on ice, snow, mud, and gravel with no problem at all. We also have a pickup but if we can fit it in the Versa we prefer to drive it.

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My daughter and SIL just traded in their Volkswagon Passat for a Yaris. SIL drives an hour or more (depending on rush hour traffic) to work. He absolutely loves the Yaris and highly recommends it.

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WY White Wolf, I think you hit the nail on the head. I am a happy Prius owner and I can tell to the WEEK when the winter blend goes into the pumps. I lose 4-5 MPG, but still am tickled with the performance and mileage. Since I am nearing 100k on my '04, I was talking to the service shop about replacing the battery as I wanted to prepare the budget. His response was music to my ears. He said they have been selling them since 2000 and have only replaced 1 battery!

How can a vehicle with such a low emission rate be at the bottom of the line regarding strain on the earth?

An interesting thing to consisder is the payback period of the higher mileage. You probably get more car with the Prius, but it costs $10k more than the Yarris. At $4 per gallon, that means you have to drive 260k miles to recover the $10k difference.

Like I said, you probably get more car, so its not a fair comparison. Every $1k of difference in price takes 26k miles. As gas prices increase, it'll take less miles to cover the increased cost.

As far as "they" denying you the ability to buy and drive a truck, I don't think its going to happen. The federal government will not even raise the mandated average milage for vehicles to something decent, like 35mpg.

When gas hits $10/gal you'll still be able to drive what you want, but will you? If I'm not mistaken the European Ford Ranger get 40-50mpg. If they offered it here in the states, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Michael

Another thing to consider when buying that new super car is how it is in crosswinds. I drove a Prius from Madison, WI to the black hills in SD....interstate, east to west, with winds out of the SW to South. At first I thought there was a flat tire. Then I realized it was the the wind. Darn prius is built almost straight up and down on the sides...and it goes almost to the ground from front to back.

It was like driving a big box van. Had to lock my arm in position pointing the tires slightly left. When we got passed by a truck, because of the break in wind, we'd almost drive right INTO the truck. After the first couple of near misses, I learned to compensate...but CRIMINY ....

The Yaris seems to be a nice little car. Since it's not been around for a decade we don't know how it's going to hold up, but if we were in the market for a new car, we'd certainly look at it.

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A friend at work just bought a chevy HHR. Ugly little thing, but it is growing on me. She says she's been getting around 32-35 mpg in it, and it looks like it has a bit of room.

I'm going to keep my little corolla another five years before I consider getting another car, and if I do it might just be another used corolla.

Speaking of gas prices, I hauled the tractor into town yesterday for a little job, and filled up both tanks on the truck for the first time in quite awhile. That was only $180 in diesel.

My answer to the "mileage vs. hauling space" issue has always been to have a hatchback. Currently I have a 2003 Hyundai Elantra, which isn't the absolute greatest on mileage (32 MPG) but it isn't bad. We've hauled all sorts of stuff in it, including loads of lumber when we remodeled a bathroom-- with some creative arrangement, we can fit 10 2x6x8's in it with the hatch shut!

However, there are times when even a hatchback won't do... so a few months ago, we had a hitch installed on the Elantra and purchased a small 4x6 trailer. Problem solved! I've lost count of how many times we've used it so far... The other day we hauled an ATV and garden cart home on it, was a 200-mile drive up and down mountains from northern PA-- and we got 30 MPG for the trip. Woohoo!

Total cost outlay for the hitch, trailer, and registration was probably around $600-- much better than trying to buy a pickup truck to just use on occasion.

Really glad to hear this Bluesky! We've been driving a Yaris for the past couple of years, but since we're moving out to our homestead in a few weeks, we're going to buy something with some cargo space. We're looking at both the Toyota Matrix and the Nissan Versa, since they seem to be comprable on gas, cargo space, and price (the Nissan is about $1K cheaper where we are). We'll see which dealership is willing to cut us a better deal.

I'm sorry I wasn't trying to make this a General forum topic.
I seriously hope you enjoy your new vehicle and I hope it is everything you expect it to be..

Mike

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no problem - the car isn't mine anyway it's hubby's and it's a stick- haven't drove one for about 12 years. I have the "beast" Rav4 v-6, i don't go out alot or for long drives, but when i go to sams for my business and us i need a BIG vehicle. It gets o.k. mileage, but if we are going to make trips into the city or go for a "drive" or something we go in hubby's. I also need a larger vehicle because of deliveries for my business - they take up lots of room. And, for where we are having one 4 wheel drive vehicle is pretty important.

Hubby's been "working on" his new car by putting in a sway bar, new lower springs, large air intake thing. He says it's helped with handling on these crazy curvy roads here and the intake helps slightly with mileage, I don't think he hasn't done something to any car he has ever owned, luckily though he does it all himself. Must be a "guy" thing.

doesn't anyone remember when honda was making cars in the 70's that routinely got 60 mpg? i must be old or something. like they all of a sudden forgot how to build them?

carter warned us of the oil shortage 30 years ago but somehow it disappeared once reagan and his little buddy bush sr. went into office. nary a mention since until lately. go figure.

thanks for the thread. i'm not really in the market for a new car but an inexpensive gas sipper might get me out there looking.

You really need to compare apples to apples. The Prius is a great family car and the Yaris is a great couple/small family/commuter car. We have a Prius - it replaced our family minivan. So, we've gone from 18mpg to 50mpg. You cannot put 2 adults and 3 kids in a Yaris. I almost bought one to commute to work in - I loved it and was going to buy it, but I got a great deal on a used Civic which gets 50mpg highway.

If you need to replace a family car like a Camry, Accord, SUV (not a hauling vehicle), minivan, etc - then the Prius makes a lot of sense. The high gas goes, the quicker the payoff. And we do not live in the city. Or in town. We live on a mountain and drive a lot of steep, winding, back roads. And we still are averaging around 50mpg. Waaaaaay better than our minivan or Camry got. Plus with the hatchback, we can haul feed, supplies and the occasional sheep. In the winter there is a slight drop in mpg. But I get the same, tho smaller, drop in my Civic. As for the Hummer/Prius comparison for environmental impact - that was a site created by an angry Hummer owner and has been debunked repeatedly over the years. Batteries are lasting well over 100,000 miles. There are Prius cabs with 200,000 - 300,000 miles that have the original batteries in them. Battery replacement for wear and tear is very rare. The car has been around since 1997.

It's not a car for everyone. It won't replace a truck. Its silly to buy one just for a single person to drive in, the Yaris is a much better choice for that. If you're looking to replace a family car, the Prius is an excellent choice.

If you want to save on the cost of gas, here is my suggestion...... slow down to 55 mph. Maximize the speed versus aerodynamic drag, which has been shown over and over to be 55 mph (actually, 45 is usually better, but way to dangerous on the highway). Stop accelerating hard, gassing it up hills, driving aggressively. You will see a huge difference in gas consumption.

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The Toyota Yaris is the replacement for the Toyota Echo - but I don't think you folks in the U.S. even had the opportunity to purchase an Echo - which was available here in Canada since the late 90s.

some great points caberjim -
hubby bought his because he had an expensive gas hog that had very high maintenance costs and took only super and had things going wrong - and he used it only to commute 60 miles a day for work and because it was just "sitting" on the weekends as it was a two seater, hubby decided a very simple not fancy car (something he could fix himself), could take regular gas and can fit 4 adults comfortably (we got a four door), wouldn't need fancy tires every year. And, he got a full trade for $0 for a new one.

It's definitely a different choice/reason for everyone. My friends prius looks nice, i just look at all the fancy switches, etc., and complexity of the car and for us simpler is better. So, having a commuter car/errand car to city that would cost 1/2 as much as a prius and getting 43-44 miles per gallon was a
no brainer vs. buying a fancier car, owing $$ on it and not being able to work on it as much/easily.

So, anyhow, i hope you all enjoy your vehicles and if your in the market you might consider the yaris if it's what works for your needs.

Congrats on the Yaris, great deal! Sounds like hubby really caught them at the right time, good for him!

I'd love to have a Prius, a Yaris, or any of the great mileage vehicles around, but my budget doesn't stretch to a new (or even close to new) car. My solution was to find an older car that gets decent, though not amazing, mileage. I ended up with a '98 Suzuki Esteem wagon. It gets somewhere between 34 and 38 MPG, and it's a stick, so it's got plenty of get up and go, even with a 1.6 L engine. Big enough to be comfortable, and I can haul all kinds of stuff in it, being a wagon. The car I was driving is a '92 Ford Escort hatchback, which my DH is still driving now. His car died, (another Escort, but one that had been previously abused by our daughter...I mean really abused) so we needed another set of wheels. The Escort hatchback gets around 36 MPG, a little more on the highway. I don't drive as much as DH, so he's got the hatch, I've got the wagon.

We have a F250 FWD, but we'd love to sell it, if we can find a buyer. We've kept it because we have to haul water where we live, but we have a roof-catchment now, for household/garden/animal use, and now just get drinking water in a 30 gal. tank, DH does that with the hatchback. Between the fuel and the insurance, it's cheaper now to have water delivered if we have to.

Some day, higher-range (I mean something that can go more than 60 miles on a charge) plug in electrics will be available, (at a decent price, not those absurd $100,000 ones that some idiots put forth as a viable alternative, who the heck can afford that?) and the are compressed air cars in other countries, I keep waiting for those, too. That's my dream, I hope someday to have one of those. I'll figure out a way to afford one!

For folks who live nearer to town, or have less than a 30 mile commute, some of the current plug-in electrics would work fine, if you can find one. I've been looking, and the prices, even on older ones, are really up there. Beyond my wallet. Converting a car is still pretty pricey, too, and I'm not sure why that is. A lot of S-10's get converted to electric, but it costs. I think they pay for themselves, eventually, but having the cash up front is a problem for most of us.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution, people have different needs and circumstances, but there are a lot of alternatives existing now, (WVO, bio-diesel, EV's, hybrids, better-mileage older small cars) and more will become available in the future. As more people become aware of what's really out there, especially in other countries, and start refusing to buy inferior crap, the auto makers will have to change their ways and start producing the more efficient vehicles. There won't be a large enough market for the guzzlers anymore.

I'm 12 miles from pavement or 30, depending upon where I'm headed. Our roads are of a similar quality. And I''ve had a similar observation with my 10 yr old Metro. So long as I have clearance, it goes everywhere our PowerStroke does. Sometimes even better.
Front wheel drive is not something to take lightly.

We've been beating ours up for four years on these roads. I think it takes it better than the pickup does because the suspension is overkill for such a small, light car.

BTW: I was just admiring a Yaris this morning. I didn't know what it was just some little car from Toyota, until I opened this thread.

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