2012 Yaris to debut at Lollapalooza this weekend in Chicago!

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by TwoBearWisconsin

And yet somehow Hyundai, Kia, Ford, and just about everyone else manages to include 5 and 6 speed automatics and other "up level" features into their new small cars. Toyota is way behind the curve on this one...

Because those cars are built in low wage countries (Mexico, Korea). As long as the Yaris is built in Japan, they're going to have a hard time competing with models built elsewhere. Notice how the Honda Fit (the only other offering built in Japan) costs $18K in sport trim. If you want it under $16K, it looks stripped down. Toyota just wouldn't make money if they put the upper level stuff in America bound Yaris's. Notice also that no sub-compacts are built in America for the same reason. Although that finally changes with the 2012 Chevy Sonic. GM is going to extreme measures to make this possible though (article posted in Sonic thread).