The grille is so poorly made!

[guiltyparty]

Hm... I used to own a 1997 Saturn (the yaris I am getting next week will be my first car since that - I've been car free for almost 10 years.) The exterior was made almost entirely, if not entirely, of plastic. There seemed to be 2 distinct kinds - a black, matte plastic on the front/rear bumpers, and a shiny plastic for the rest of the car body. It was a much more "bouncy," rubber-like plastic than what's on the Yaris. I bumped into a few things (not other cars!) and had a few cars bump into me, and the front and rear bumper plastic was always fine because it would "boing" back into shape like a Rubbermaid garbage can. In fact, my friends used to LOVE kicking the side of my car to watch it bounce right back and do no damage.

I do wonder why other plastic-body cars aren't made of a similarly flexible material to that Saturn. (I don't know if current Saturns are made of that, or if it was an older model thing.) The Yaris plastic felt way more brittle to me - believe me, I tried to give it a little push at the dealership just to see :)

[Yaris Hilton]

Originally Posted by guiltyparty

I do wonder why other plastic-body cars aren't made of a similarly flexible material to that Saturn. (I don't know if current Saturns are made of that, or if it was an older model thing.) The Yaris plastic felt way more brittle to me - believe me, I tried to give it a little push at the dealership just to see :)

My '98 Mercury Villager minivan got banged on a parking lot once. Looked like the plastic covered front bumper was a total mess. Next morning, it had sprung back into shape and the damage was relatively minor, mostly scraped paint.