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Yaris sedan - first impression

11K views 45 replies 22 participants last post by  eRic 
#1 · (Edited)
Phantom has a few days in the shop for repairs so I have a Toyota Yaris sedan rental car. Some first impressions:

Steering wheel/column:
Wheel is not as grippy-soft as the Fiesta and has no 10 and 2 bumps to guide hand placement. Tilt but no telescope function.

Seating:
Seats are not too bad but don't have solid side bolster support that Fiesta does. Drivers seat has the 6-way adjustment ... BUT all the way down feels like 2 notches short of all up in Fiesta.

The seat vertical alignment of all down and the full up tilt have my knees nearly touching the bottom of the steering wheel when seat is adjusted to proper pedal reach.

Dash controls:
Headlight controls are all imbedded on the turn signal stalk. Heat/fan/temp controls are within easy reach and set in a triangular pattern for easy usage. They are all the same size and with center push buttons for rear defrost and A/C.

Radio controls are not as easily accessible as on Fiesta and you really need to look as you scan for stations, etc.

Gauges, warning lights:
This one is a mite disconcerting. Imagine the center Fiesta message display stretched horizontally to about 3 times its width. In this area are the following:
Analog tach
Analog speedo
Temperature gauge
Warning lights
1x2 LCD display for fuel, odometer, tripmeter, clock.
Tranny gear position (P, R, N, D/3, 2, 1)
Yeah - all the stuff is packed into the center of the dash! Takes some getting used to. Tripmeter reset is a 1/2" tab-like button below the cluster - press & hold type. FYI: This is for ease of parts placement for either left or right-hand steering. Good idea, engineering-wise and a coworker tells me Saturn Ion (at least) was like this.

Wipers:
This is really strange. Pull the stalk for wash and the wipers operate like Fiesta - 3 full swipes, a pause and a last swipe. BUT ... for delay or low/high speed of the wipers, push the stalk down. Yeah, down. <shakes head>

Miscellaneous:
Drink holders are in the doors, as well as push to unlatch/latch holders for both driver and front passenger at the outside ends of the dash. Not a bad idea as the trapdoor for these is high enough to keep a small-to-medium cup from flipping into your lap under moderate acceleration.

Center console/armrest exists, however it is somewhat short and does not support even half of the forearm. There is a console under the lid, quite deep but positioning makes it somewhat difficult to reach if you are in the seat and buckled in.

Transmission - automatic - is the gated automatic with the trick slot for the shift. Using gears 1, 2 and 3 as a stick is pretty smooth operation and setting to D position only take a slight tap to the right when in 3rd gear position.

Comparing these with Fiesta:
Steering wheel - FIESTA +1 (telescoping)
Seating - Fiesta wins as Yaris cannot go lower to prevent a long-legged person from clipping the steering wheel. FIESTA +1
Dash controls - YARIS +1 (heat/fan/temp controls and placement)
Radio controls - FIESTA +1
Gauges/lights - FIESTA +1.5; YARIS +.5 (temp gauge)
Wipers - anything but Yaris = +1
Misc - drink holders - FIESTA +1 for quantity; YARIS +1 for the dash-mounted
Misc - console - YARIS +1 - it has one. period
Misc - transmission (automatic) - YARIS +1 - 1st and 2nd gears available as separate settings

Fiesta - 6.5
Yaris - 4.5

Driving - acceleration in Yaris is smooth and it's easy to hit 70 MPH. But it feels "heavy" compared to the Fiesta. Yaris is almost as quiet as Fiesta when all windows are up ... almost.

One thing I did leave off is radio antenna placement. It's vertically in the center of the rear window. While this takes the antenna and housing off the outside of the car and makes for somewhat smoother lines, it also puts a heavy vertical line in your inside rearview because of its placement.

More to come as I drive this thing some more miles. This is based on a 15 mile run through city and country roads to get to work.
 
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#2 ·
I owned a 2008 Yaris for two years before I bought my Fiesta. If you're willing to ignore some of it's more glaring faults, it's a good car. It is no where near the level of the Fiesta. For me, the Yaris had two problems I was unwilling to live with any longer:

1) Road noise; it was so loud that on road trips and on certain kinds of pavement, I would need to use earplugs. It was truly terrible. Judging from your comments, perhaps Toyota has fixed this.

2) Seating position: I found it to be impossible to get comfortable, and I'm only 5'6". If I got the seat positioned far enough back so that my knees weren't sticking up in the air, then I could hardly reach the steering wheel. I ended up driving around stiff armed, with my knees splayed out. My girlfriend loves the seating position, but she had very short legs.
 
#3 ·
Yeah - my comment on seating is essentially your #2. I think if the driver seat was 1/2-1" lower to begin with things might be a bit better. It's just too bloody high for me to be comfy with.

As for road noise, the best speed I might get while renting is about 60. But the short stretch this morning told me it's not a quiet car.
 
#4 ·
3-day update

Okay - some added little things.

Hood/Fuel cover releases are in a small panel on the floor at the left-front of the drivers seat. This is fine but seating position - especially height - makes it darned difficult to activate them when in the seat.

Yaris has "Jesus handles"! Both sides of the front have these little buggers. Imagine my surprise.

Beeps, Bells, Chimes: Setting radio stations is like Fiesta but the buttons on Yaris are smaller so fat fingers could be a problem. Press and hold until the chime sounds.

Headlight and key chime ... OMG what an obnoxious sound! I just want to slap the crud out of the person who put that noise in the car! Not only that but th key must be completely out of the ignition to shut that off ... no sliding it part way out to stop it.

Fit & Finish: While overall design is not too bad, the parts of the dash do look rather cheap as compared to Fiesta (at least). I have noted some difference in gaps on mounted items where one would expect them to be the same - like off-center mounting of a surround.

Power & cornering: The Toyota site only has a Yaris HB model,, but my keyring plainly states 2012 Toyota Yaris sedan. So going by HB specs, Yaris HP & torque are somewhat less than Fiesta, however acceleration is really pretty good - especially when the AC is on.

Cornering thru a nasty 30 MPH right-angle curve I like as a test, Yaris had to be under 45 MPH in order to feel like it was stable. I can take the same corner with Fiesta at 55 fairly easily.

NON-SCORED ITEM: Yaris has 2 trip meters (A and B). While I've seen that setup before, I have never understood the reasoning behind this. <shrug>

Scorecard from prior note:
Fiesta - 6.5
Yaris - 4.5

Hood/fuel release - Fiesta +1 (ease of access to hood)
Bells/chimes - Fiesta +1 (annoying but not as bad as Yaris)
Fit/finish - Fiesta +1 (hands down)
Power/cornering - Yaris +1 (power), Fiesta +1 (cornering)
General - Yaris +1 (Jesus handles!!!)

Updated scores
Fiesta - 6.5 + 4 = 10.5
Yaris - 4.5 + 2 = 6.5
 
#38 · (Edited)
The Toyota site only has a Yaris HB model,, but my keyring plainly states 2012 Toyota Yaris sedan.
Isn't the Yaris sedan the older design currently for sale only to fleets?

I had a Yaris sedan as a rental last year. It was an ok car (nothing sold new in the US these days is truly awful for the type of car it is), but there was very little about it that would make me want one as my own car. Ride and interior room were good, but it seemed rather unwilling to go around corners, and there was a fair amount of noise inside.
 
#6 ·
Bring on ThomYorke!

I'm not a sedan fan, but pictures make the choice clear:

FIESTA :cool: (image ala Telero)
Image uploading. Refresh page to view


YARIS :confused:


You don't even need that rigamarole about this and that being good, bad, or tolerable. It looks bad, it seems bad. It's bad.
 
#7 ·
rental while Phantom gets repaired. seeing as how Yaris is somewhat of a competitior, another voice besides biased CR and crew should be heard. As Norm pointed out in another thread, Fiesta owners are biased. However I tried to be as objective as I could in my observations.
 
#8 ·
yeah .. Yaris was so far behind in my scoring I figured another point lost to design wouldn't make any difference. Fiesta wins by a mile.

My most negative part of Yaris is the drivers seat not being able to accomodate my 5-11 frame without a) arms straight out or b) legs nearly rubbing the wheel. It really is not comfortable at all.
 
#12 ·
And here I don't give 2 sh**ts what CR says. I just +/- where I think it's important. Huh. :D

As for bias, I was using a specific make/model as the control and am the owner of 2 of that make/model. sorta sets me up as biased, doesn't it?
 
#15 ·
I'm just trying to figure out why everyone seems to think CR is biased. I've never seen any evidence of it myself. People like to say that they only score Japanese cars high and yet, lately, CR is pissing all over Toyota and Honda because they have slipped compared to Subaru, Ford and others. I guess people will think what they want to think. Facts don't matter. Data doesn't matter. Statistics don't matter. That's the world we live in.

That's my .02 cents. Enough said by me. :)
 
#20 ·
I can definitely agree with you on that. C&D and Motortrend rate cars on factors that are not as important to me which makes sense since their reviews are mostly about 0-60 and high speed handling.
 
#17 ·
Consumer Reports got into trouble when the iPhone 4 was launched. They gave a praised review and recommendation just as the phone was coming to market. As consumers quickly learned there were glaring problems with the phone's reception due to a design flaw related to the AM/FM antenna. CR had to retract its initial recommendation and apologize for the misleading review. Essentially they were caught with there pants down, and everyone saw their "Apple Fanboy" panties. This is one example of favoritism outside of their automotive reviews, but it's not impossible to imagine (for me) that the same thing happens across other topics as well.
 
#22 ·
I understand Audrey's sentiments. It's difficult for a publication to give a true picture of a product that everybody can be satisfied with. For me the things Consumers Reports uses are not my standard of quality or usability. However, with absolutely no knowledge of a product, CR is a good starting point.
 
#24 ·
^ but... Jeremy Clarkson MADE me do it.... :D

My own idiocy aside:blush:, when I'm researching something I like to source as many different information points as possible. I do occasionally perform the old gut thing too, but making decisions based on single source strikes me as silly.
 
#25 ·
I tend to read multiple published reviews to get technical information and compare features and ignore most of the "opinion" based comments unless, for me, it's relevant. Then I follow up with online user reviews to find out what kind of issues seem to crop up with a product I'm researching. I usually check CR after all that to see if their conclusions are similar. Most of the time, my analysis matches theirs. To me, that says a lot.
 
#29 ·
<chuckle> I love it!

Actually, if it weren't for the uncomfortable seating and the fit/finish, Yaris is a good commuter but I would NOT under any circumstances take it for style nor would I do a long roadrun in it.
 
#31 ·
I am also driving a Yaris while my Fiesta is in the shop and I have concluded that it is the worst car on the market. The interior is made of the cheapest plastic possible, which I have concluded is regrind from scrap GM interior parts from 15 years ago. The placement of the gauge cluster is highly annoying and is hard to read. Steering wheel offers no feedback to the road and feels cheap. Going around corners, the car rolls and the tires make all sorts of racket. Lots of brake dive as well. Going around corners quickly is scary in comparison to the Fiesta. On my morning commute I have an off ramp that has a right right hander, elevation change leading into a left hander, leading to a decreasing radius right hand turn. My Mustang and Fiesta take the sequence of corners very nicely with little body roll. The Yaris feels completely disconnected around the corners and saps confidence.

Bottom line is that the Yaris is great for a person who hates driving and can't wait to get out of a car. It is unfit for anyone with a soul.
 
#34 ·
wow that is scary! I have not driven a Versa, but it is hard to think you could take much more out of the car to make it worse. The engineers and designers had to have gone out of their way to make the car as cheap as possible. They are bean counter dream machines.
 
#37 ·
I had a Yaris a couple of months ago as a rental. I found it disappointing. It seems as if the bean counters have have wrested control of Toyota away from the folks who know how to and wish to build good vehicles. In the early to mid 80's I had several Toyotas as rentals and found them to be better than I expected. I'm also the original owner of a 1991 Toyota pick up which has 325K on it and is still going strong. Yaris doesn't compare well to any other Toyota I've driven or ridden in.
 
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