Getting used to driving small cars...

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by The little red pill

Even though the Yaris is a SMALL car, it seems to have a good seat height, which in turn makes it seem like you sit up higher than most other compacts. My roommate has a Stratus and it seems like I'm in a low-rider when I ride in it.

I know what you mean... now that I'm used to it, my 3dr Yaris is starting to feel too big. I really wish I could have purchased the IQ.

My kids accuse me of "showing off" when I drive the Yaris. Yesterday I pulled into a parking spot, then went diagonally between the car in front of me and the car to the left to get into the spot to the left of the car in front of me so that I wouldn't have to back out when I left.

      /  Y  /  X  /
     /  Y /   X  /
    /  ^ /   X  /
   --- ^ -----
  / X  / ^   /
 / X  /  ^  /
/ X  /  ^  /
        ^
        ^
         ^

(arrows, ^, show direction of motion, to Y which is where I parked)



Shortly after that I swung it around and parked in a spot about 210 degrees rotation from my starting position, and then had a good laugh. :-)

         || R ||
     ====|| O ||
    / Y /|| A ||
   / Y / || D ||
  /   /  || | ||
   ^        |
   +--------+

[tomato]

Originally Posted by twowheels

      /  Y  /  X  /
     /  Y /   X  /
    /  ^ /   X  /
   --- ^ -----
  / X  / ^   /
 / X  /  ^  /
/ X  /  ^  /
        ^
        ^
         ^

(arrows, ^, show direction of motion, to Y which is where I parked)



Shortly after that I swung it around and parked in a spot about 210 degrees rotation from my starting position, and then had a good laugh. :-)

         || R ||
     ====|| O ||
    / Y /|| A ||
   / Y / || D ||
  /   /  || | ||
   ^        |
   +--------+

How long did it take you to do that?!!! F'ing impressive!!

Oh, and by the way, welcome to the forum!

Do'nt worry, you'll get used to driving the Yaris. The poster who said you get used to driving anything is right! I drove large vehicles before, Jeep Cherokee's, domestic cars with V8 engines, and one day I switched to Japanese imports and found that these cars were best for me. I had a couple of Hondas which I absolutely adored, especially the CRX, and this is my first Toyota.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by tomato

How long did it take you to do that?!!! F'ing impressive!!

To do what? The parking, or the ASCII drawings? The ASCII drawings aren't that hard, especially if you've been online since the early days when that was the only way to communicate online. ;-) As for parking the Yaris, it was simple, that's what I love about the car! :-)

Oh, and by the way, welcome to the forum!

Uh... a bit belated, but thanks. :-)

Do'nt worry, you'll get used to driving the Yaris.

Huh? Are you responding to my 'impeding death' comment? If not, I'm confused as I said that it's starting to feel too big. If so, I doubt that I'll ever stop looking at the complete incompatibility of unnecessarily huge vehicles and the rest of society. There's just a fundamental incompatibility between jacked up trucks w/ their bumper at head height of car drivers and general safety. Such vehicles shouldn't be allowed to share the road w/ others -- notice that actual work vehicles, while large, have bumpers at a compatible height.