new 2015

[nookandcrannycar]

Congrats. I have a silver 2014 L, and I'm not too far away (from a Texas perspective ) in Montgomery County. I'm assuming if you bought it locally, it is an automatic....for some reason (unfortunately...probably re demand) the distributor (Gulf States) doesn't believe in including the manual transmission Yaris among the product offerings.

[Kalispel]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Congrats. I have a silver 2014 L, and I'm not too far away (from a Texas perspective ) in Montgomery County. I'm assuming if you bought it locally, it is an automatic....for some reason (unfortunately...probably re demand) the distributor (Gulf States) doesn't believe in including the manual transmission Yaris among the product offerings.

Yeah, the Arizona Toyota dealerships told me that they don't order/stock the manuals because of low demand, low demand in general for the Yaris, low/non-existent profit margins on the Yaris, and because they are required by Toyota to stock parts for 20 years on all new cars that they sell. So, if I need any parts specific to a manual Yaris, I was told that I may have to wait longer for them to be ordered from outside their regional parts supply chain.

On a side note, I had some lady at Trader Joe's the other day ask me what type of car I was driving, because she had never seen it before. I assume she was referring to the 2015 model and its radically different face design, which is like spotting Bigfoot in Scottsdale, AZ at least). She thought it was a new Prius model or something. Yaris - the best kept secret of Toyota USA.
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[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by Kalispel

like spotting Bigfoot in Scottsdale, AZ at least). She thought it was a new Prius model or something. Yaris - the best kept secret of Toyota USA.
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Yeah, IF Scottsdale is high on a list of percentage of cars on the road being rentals (in Phoenix area cities), I doubt it's going to be because of a plethora of Yaris rentals .

Most of the 2015s I've seen, both here and in California, have been rentals.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by Kalispel

Yeah, the Arizona Toyota dealerships told me that they don't order/stock the manuals because of low demand, low demand in general for the Yaris, low/non-existent profit margins on the Yaris, and because they are required by Toyota to stock parts for 20 years on all new cars that they sell. So, if I need any parts specific to a manual Yaris, I was told that I may have to wait longer for them to be ordered from outside their regional parts supply chain.

On a side note, I had some lady at Trader Joe's the other day ask me what type of car I was driving, because she had never seen it before. I assume she was referring to the 2015 model and its radically different face design, which is like spotting Bigfoot in Scottsdale, AZ at least). She thought it was a new Prius model or something. Yaris - the best kept secret of Toyota USA.
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A year and a few days ago there were only 7 white or silver L trim level manuals in the entire USA ( 3 in FL, 1 in Knoxville, TN, 2 at he same dealership in Ohio, and one in a Chicago suburb). IIRC, there were a similar number of white and silver SEs in the whole country (the exact number would be on a past thread). I can't remember the city where the dealer is located, but two of those white 2014 manual SEs were at the same dealership in Arizona . What a difference a year makes. Perhaps it took 'forever' to sell those two 2014s .

[Kalispel]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

A year and a few days ago there were only 7 white or silver L trim level manuals in the entire USA ( 3 in FL, 1 in Knoxville, TN, 2 at he same dealership in Ohio, and one in a Chicago suburb). IIRC, there were a similar number of white and silver SEs in the whole country (the exact number would be on a past thread). I can't remember the city where the dealer is located, but two of those white 2014 manual SEs were at the same dealership in Arizona . What a difference a year makes. Perhaps it took 'forever' to sell those two 2014s .

I remember watching those white 2014 manual SE's here in Arizona back in the day. I wanted to buy one, but the timing wasn't right at that time. I really wish now that I had at least found the time to go test drive one, just to get a good comparison of the older clutch design (and more) versus the newer one put into the 2015/2016 and such. They did sit on the dealer lot for the entire year before finally being sold (probably at 2014 close-out discounts, sadly enough). Hell, the 2015 one that I bought from Colorado Springs sat there for over 6 months (and was all muddy in the dealer pics on their site, lol) - and the dealership accepted my first offer, so I got a nice deal on it. I did have to pay $450 extra to have it shipped from CO to AZ though - money WELL SPENT!

I'm really enjoying the 2015 SE manual Yaris clutch/shift dynamics, but not sure how it is different (if at all) versus the 2007-2011 or 2012-2014 manuals, since I have never driven one. I was expecting the worst, and was pleasantly surprised how much I actually liked it - once I mastered the feather-touch accelerator.

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[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by Kalispel

I remember watching those white 2014 manual SE's here in Arizona back in the day. I wanted to buy one, but the timing wasn't right at that time. I really wish now that I had at least found the time to go test drive one, just to get a good comparison of the older clutch design (and more) versus the newer one put into the 2015/2016 and such. They did sit on the dealer lot for the entire year before finally being sold (probably at 2014 close-out discounts, sadly enough). Hell, the 2015 one that I bought from Colorado Springs sat there for over 6 months (and was all muddy in the dealer pics on their site, lol) - and the dealership accepted my first offer, so I got a nice deal on it. I did have to pay $450 extra to have it shipped from CO to AZ though - money WELL SPENT!

I'm really enjoying the 2015 SE manual Yaris clutch/shift dynamics, but not sure how it is different (if at all) versus the 2007-2011 or 2012-2014 manuals, since I have never driven one. I was expecting the worst, and was pleasantly surprised how much I actually liked it - once I mastered the feather-touch accelerator.

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It didn't occur to me to check my '14s MFG date on the driver door jamb until a couple of months ago. The date is either January or February of 2014, so mine (purchased 8/12/14) sat around for around 6+ months as well (mine was heavily discounted by the dealer in their post to cars.com)......no widespread love for manuals .

Definitely would have been interesting for you to have the experience of the 2014 SE's clutch to compare to your new SE.