Why (Not) the Toyota Yaris?
Buyers' reasons for buying--or not buying--a particular car
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TrueDelta's "Why (Not) This Car?" reviews of the Toyota Yaris, posted by owners, focus on the information most sought by many car buyers: the reasons to buy (or not buy) the Toyota Yaris compared to other car models.
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- Car buyer comparisons: Toyota Yaris preferred
- Car buyer comparisons: Toyota Yaris not preferred
- Single vehicle reviews: Toyota Yaris pros and cons
Comparisons: Toyota Yaris Preferred
2008 Toyota Yaris2-door Hatch | > | 2008 smart fortwo2-door Coupe |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Fuel economy: Averaging 40mpg w/ MIX of city/stop & go/hwy. |
Price or payments: Bought my 5-speed LOADED (side airbags, curtain airbags, ABS, Power Package, etc) ...$13,800 |
Front seat comfort: Have driven Tampa - Durham multiple times (11-12 hrs each way). Seat feels REAL nice to me. |
Exterior styling: C'mon! Looks cool :) |
Handling: Snappy little car. Great fun to drive. |
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| smart fortwo: Reasons not to buy |
|---|
Powertrain performance: Not available with TRUE manual transmission. The 'manual' mode was not very responsive. |
Materials & workmanship: Some of the inside seemed cheap ...even compared to the Yaris. ALSO I refuse to buy a car if I cannot rest my thumb on the horn button ...SERIOUSLY. I can do this with the Yaris, and so I see the Yaris as a safer car. |
Insurance & depreciation: Insurance is difficult to get for the ForTwo |
Handling: Not very responsive. |
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2007 Toyota Yaris4-door Sedan | > | 2006 Toyota Matrix4-door Wagon |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Dealership practices: Honest. Went the extra mile to find exactly the car I wanted. Exactly. |
Fuel economy: 38.8 average |
Reliability & durability: takes what I dish out....with aplomb. |
Front seat comfort: long distance comfort |
Materials & workmanship: close tolerance seams - paint and interior appointments. |
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2007 Toyota Yaris2-door Hatch | > | 2008 Honda Fit4-door Hatch |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Exterior styling: Smooth, aerodynamic design. Rounded edges. Small but wide. |
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2007 Toyota Yaris2-door Hatch | > | 2007 Honda Fit4-door Hatch |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Price or payments: Price was the lowest. |
Exterior styling: Sleek, aerodynamic, and sporty/ |
Reliability & durability: Toyota reliability has been very good. I've owned other Toyotas and they've always were very reliable. |
Audio & nav systems: Plays mp3 CDs and also has a aux in port. |
Fuel economy: Fuel economy is excellent. |
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| Honda Fit: Reasons not to buy |
|---|
Price or payments: Price was very high as compared to the Yaris when I test drove it. The low end model was not available at the time. |
Exterior styling: Looks like an economy car while the Yaris has the sporty look. |
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2007 Toyota Yaris2-door Hatch | > | 2008 Mazda MazdaSpeed34-door Hatch |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Exterior styling: roundness |
Fuel economy: saves money |
Reliability & durability: saves money |
Rear seat room & comfort: more leg room than a lot of larger cars |
Safety & braking: brakes are high quality |
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| Mazda MazdaSpeed3: Reasons not to buy |
|---|
Fuel economy: needs premium gas |
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Comparisons: Toyota Yaris Not Preferred
2009 Honda Fit4-door Hatch | > | 2009 Toyota Yaris4-door Sedan |
| Honda Fit: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Fuel economy: Comprehensive fuel economy gauge that is easy to read! It's easy to adapt driving to save $$$ |
Powertrain performance: A little more powerful than the Yaris |
Interior styling: Robust and clean |
Handling: Fun to drive and, in my opinion, takes curves much better than the Yaris |
Safety & braking: Front and lateral airbags + 4-wheels ABS on all models |
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| Toyota Yaris: Reasons not to buy |
|---|
Driving position & visibility: Not enough place for my head |
Audio & nav systems: Listen to the stock audio system, you'll understand! Barely usable! |
Dealership practices: Maybe juste this Toyota dealership but they put much pressure to sell you stuff you don't want and seem to avoid selling you stuff you want! |
Handling: Just not as good as the fit |
Safety & braking: Have to pay more for extra safety |
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2009 Hyundai Elantra4-door Sedan | > | 2009 Toyota Yaris4-door Sedan |
| Hyundai Elantra: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Driving position & visibility: Good position. HUD is directly in front of the driver and not in the center of the dashboard. |
Discounts & incentives: Great manufacturer rebates. |
Front seat comfort: Comfortable ride position, good height and visibility. |
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| Toyota Yaris: Reasons not to buy |
|---|
Driving position & visibility: Ride position too low, visibility is not great. Dashboard HUD position is in the center of the dash and not directly in front of the driver. |
Price or payments: Less car for more money. |
Front seat comfort: Ride position too low. |
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2009 Hyundai Accent2-door Hatch | > | 2009 Toyota Yaris2-door Hatch |
| Hyundai Accent: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Exterior styling: innocuous |
Price or payments: cheapest car in Canada |
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| Toyota Yaris: Reasons not to buy |
|---|
Control design: center dash |
Price or payments: too expensive for what it is |
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2009 Honda Fit4-door Hatch | > | 2009 Toyota Yaris4-door Hatch |
| Honda Fit: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Exterior styling: The 2009 Honda Fit is significantly longer than previous models and offers a greater feeling of spaciousness while at the same time offering good visibility |
Materials & workmanship: The interior materials are high quality and do not feel cheap. The transmissions shift lever pops into gear very smoothly and the steering wheel feels very positive in the hands. |
Powertrain performance: The engine is very rev-happy and is up quite a bit to over 120hp as opposed to the pathetic 104hp of the previous model. V-Tec engages very positively and offers a noticeable improvement in acceleration. |
Fuel economy: Fuel economy is absolutely amazing. I am averaging 30+mpg in the city with "spirited" driving practices and well over 40mpg when commuting. |
Handling: I can toss the Fit into just about any corner and she handles it like a dream. Steering is firm and responsive with good feedback. Typical FWD under steer is still apparent but not terribly so. |
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| Toyota Yaris: Reasons not to buy |
|---|
Materials & workmanship: Interior felt very cheap and uncomfortable. The shift lever felt sloppy and sort of squished into gear. |
Dealership practices: The local Toyota dealership completely ruined my buying experience. Not only were they especially forceful but also tried to tried to insult Honda and other car companies. |
Exterior styling: It looked like it was grown on the ugly tree, fell off, and hit every branch on the way down. |
Powertrain performance: The engine felt labored and groaned up every freeway on ramp. Acceleration was pathetic and almost dangerously slow. |
Safety & braking: Brakes were much softer than I would like and it required significantly more force than expected to come to a stop. |
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2008 Nissan Versa4-door Hatch | > | 2008 Toyota Yaris4-door Sedan |
| Nissan Versa: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Audio & nav systems: The 6 change CD player. Wonderfull sound. The radio satelite, The 6 speakers and super bass, the controls in stearing, freandly use. |
Brand reputation & image: I have had nissan sentra for 6 years. It was a very good experience.I know people having differents kinds of nissans products and generaly they are satisfides. |
Fuel economy: Because of possibility to make less than 7 litres/100 km in the hayway. 7.5 litres/100km like average it's not too bad. |
Ride smoothness: Easy to drive in crowded trafic. It's not too big and very handle. |
Available features: Full equiped. It has everything and more. ABS, air bags, cruiscontrol, antithief, bluetood free hand phone, rears seats are roomys ... |
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| Toyota Yaris: Reasons not to buy |
|---|
Available features: most of basics features in others marcs are not standar in yaris; airbags, power glasses, cruiscontrol, ... |
Materials & workmanship: Inside isa very plastic look. The finishing seems cheap. It'looks like a toy. |
Rear seat room & comfort: incofortable even for only two adults. The passanger in the center will be very inconfortable when tree passengers are in rear seat. |
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Single Vehicle Reviews: Toyota Yaris Pros and Cons
2009 Toyota Yaris4-door Sedan |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Brand reputation & image: Toyota is known to be reliable and maint-free. Yaris is another model that I like, from driven my friend here in the US and overseas. Seems like easy to work with should have have to do it myself too. |
Fuel economy: 40 MPG, what's not to like? |
Safety & braking: 2009 model comes with ABS and standard side-airbags, just in case. |
Color choices: I like my Bayou Blue color. |
Exterior styling: Euro/Asian style. Away from boring designs here in the US. |
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2009 Toyota Yaris4-door Sedan |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Color choices: The colour choices were basic but not overdone. The turquoise was just green enough without killing the effect. |
Fuel economy: Very economical gas consumption. |
Handling: Easy to handle with comfort. |
Rear seat room & comfort: Very roomy for a 'small car'. Seating in comfortable. |
Discounts & incentives: Got it on sale in my country for about US $3000.00 less. Included power options and RAV4 cd player. Paid US $80.00 to get iPod interface and installation. |
Control design: By having the gauges in the centre of the dash it forces me to shift eyes more, therefore helping to keep me awake after long hours on the road. It also helps to break the monotony during driving. |
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2009 Toyota Yaris2-door Hatch |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Reliability & durability: I have not had a single problem with the car in the first seven months of ownership. Put gas in, change the oil and it just goes. |
Fuel economy: I've been averaging 42 MPG for the last 4 tanks, and my driving is a 60/40 mix of Highway/City. And the engine isn't even broken in yet. |
Price or payments: I feel that I got a great price on the car thanks to factory incentives and a great dealership. Payment's are a nice low $200 a month. |
Discounts & incentives: The incentive at the time was great ($1000) and was a big reason why I purchased this car over a Honda Fit. |
Exterior styling: With the 'S' trim and 2 doors I find it very cool functional. |
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2009 Toyota Yaris2-door Hatch |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Fuel economy: First tank of fuel resulted in 35.44 mpg. Previous car was around 25 mpg. |
Brand reputation & image: It's a Toyota. Known for longevity. |
Ride smoothness: Comfortable ride. Looks small, but interior is roomy. |
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2009 Toyota Yaris2-door Hatch |
| Toyota Yaris: Reasons to buy |
|---|
Price or payments: The base was cheaper, but with standard features, it was about the same price as the Honda Fit. |
Fuel economy: It had the highest EPA estimates in the price range I was looking at. |
Discounts & incentives: There was $1000 off at the time I was looking. |
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| Toyota Yaris: Reasons not to buy |
|---|
Interior styling: It was cramped, didn't like the colors of the dashboard, center location of the speedometer, etc. Felt cheap. |
Dealership practices: Dealers wouldn't give me a straight price quote. All dealers plalyed the game, versus the Honda dealers who actually gave me a quote right from the start. |
Materials & workmanship: Felt cheap and cramped inside. Very small trunk. Backseat only useable for small children. Difficult to get into the backseat. |
Cargo capacity & towing: Very, very small trunk compared to the Fit. Fold down seats much more difficult to use compared to the Fit. |
Safety & braking: Didn't have as good of a safety rating as the Fit. |
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About TrueDelta's "Why (Not) This Car?"
Hundreds of websites include Toyota Yaris reviews. But with your typical Toyota Yaris review car buyers must dig to find the information they really want. And too often they still don't find it.
With "Why (Not) This Car?" TrueDelta is providing the information many car buyers considering the Toyota Yaris are looking for: the reasons to buy--or not buy--the Toyota Yaris. As reported by other car buyers.
The survey process is simple:
- Select two cars to compare
- Describe your time in each
- Select reasons for buying one and not buying the other
- Explain and provide additional detail for these reasons

