CleanMPG Previews the 2011 Toyota Yaris

While long in the tooth, the Yaris can still meet the needs of a younger first time buyer… Just not me.

Click here to read the entire review

Hi Yaris Hilton:

I waited for the last two years for you to write the review but it failed to materialize... Regarding the center pod, as mentioned, place that in the Camry and Camry's sales will no longer lead automobile sales in this country and it would probably bankrupt the company. Toyota did it for cost and the Yaris owner is the one who paid the price

Regarding the beach trip, we should have traded cars… My Accord would have offered you a far more comfortable ride and probably close to the same efficiency if not better! Fortunately, the Yaris does not cost much up front if the packages are left out and it is miserly... But so is everything else nowadays. There is a bit more than just a few nits that need to be fixed on the Yaris and we can only hope the US generation -II will see all of these nits cured. Right now, they are not.

Finally at 43 mpg, you were hypermiling as that is beating the EPA.

Wayne

The popularity of other Toyotas with instruments in the common position in front of the driver is immaterial to my point. Look at the dash of any Yaris or Echo and show me the panels that are symmetrical. They're not there. It's something the Toyota design teams (there were separate ones for the liftback and sedan, which are different car lines outside of North America) decided to do for another reason, whether it was for a functional purpose or just to be "different." I happen to like it. It's not the first automobile to have centered instruments, there are plenty of examples to be found in every generation back to the horseless carriage era. Anyway, you're not the first to get the reason for it wrong, your comment was an echo (ha, ha) of one in every writeup about these cars I've seen since the 2000 model came out.

Hi Yaris Hilton:

It was to bring the instrument bus in the same locations across Continents which saves money. Irrelevant? Not a chance as nobody including Toyota's more expensive and mainstream offerings place your primary instruments in the center of the dash.

Good Luck

Wayne

OK, that makes sense about standardizing the instrument bus layout, rather than the dash panels. So just say so.

Anyway, I like it there.

Hi Yaris Hilton:

While my daughter-in-law did not like them located in the center at first, she got used to it and it feels funny to her to drive a car with the instruments directly in front now!

Wayne

one word...FIT

Hi All:

Much of my negative "opinions" with regards to the 2011 Yaris have been fixed in the 2012 and it came just in time too! While I have not driven the 2012, the center mounted stack, the tighter suspension and edgier exterior body panels go a long ways to making the Yaris a main stream sub-compact competitor. How it will fare in the consumer marketplace is something we are watching closely with the monthly sales reports.

Wayne