April 2011 Yaris sales: Down

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by wufai

Since 2007, the Yaris is showing its age in the auto world. When Hyundai can introduce the new compact Elantra with better features, lower fuel comsumption and more hp than the Yaris it becomes harder to justify the benefits of the Yaris.

That's a good point.

Although the Elantra is not a competitor of the smaller Yaris, these latest compacts are certainly doing damage to sub-compact sales considering they match and even beat smaller sub-compacts in fuel economy.

Logic would suggest the smallest cars get the best fuel efficiency, but that is not always true.

The Yaris used to be the most fuel efficient non-hybrid car you could buy at 29/35-36 MPG during its first few years. Now, the considerably larger Elantra gets 30/40 MPG. The Cruze ECO gets 42 MPG hwy, the Focus FE gets 40 MPG hwy and the '12 Civic HF gets 41 MPG hwy.

The only argument left for buying a sub-compact is the lower purchase price, and even then, it's not much lower when compared to base prices for the above compacts (especially the $15K Elantra).

With that all said, the newest sub-compacts coming will also get 40 MPG. But that still doesn't beat the compacts.