Consumer Reports not too pleased with Yaris

[Pars]

Same here, I'm personally in favor with clean looking dash layout in the Yaris, but the Fit's dash looks rich. In fact, a friend of mine who drives a new Accord prefers the Fit's dash over her Accord.

One thing I totally dislike about the Yaris's in-dash system is No AUX port for an MP3 Player and paying over $300 for an iPod adapter is ridiculous when everyone else is offering it for free. It's not going to cost the manufacture that much more to offer a stereo system with AUX-in port. So why leave it out? My old Civic had an Alpine system with an iPod adapter and now with the New Yaris, the iPod is collecting dust on the dresser and I'm listening to AM/FM for my music. How primitive. But on the bright side, I'm working on getting a 2 din DVD player with iPod adapter which should also add some 'richness' to the centre dash's appearance.

[foxtrot685]

well... this is 2006 and ABS is standard on almost every other car in its class, including the scion cousins, even the Hyundai accent sedan has it... its becoming one of those features that is now expected on a car in this price category to be standard equipment. how dare they compare a yaris to an aveo... ewww! the difference between them is night and day. they should have had a separate category for the aveo... "super ultra crappy Korean-built car segment"

[graywolf_14]

Shoot for 17k you can get a yaris with every option they have and that is with the 18"s.

[foxtrot685]

thats close to a fit sport with automatic tranny and no upgrades (meaning the stock 15 inch alloys)

[eTiMaGo]

I just have my 2 cents to share

I have never driven a Fit, but I am back home now down in Phuket where my mother has a 3-year-old Honda City, which for all intents and purposes you could call a Fit Sedan. Similar styling, same motor and platform, very similar interior layout. More info can be obtained here:

http://www.honda.co.th/city/


I've been driving it quite a bit since a few days that I am back here, and can make some comparisons.

First of all, the manual shifter in the Honda is so much better than the Yaris. The throw is quite short, it moves from gear to gear easily and with a very positive feel, you can just flick it, basically, no need to really push the stick into gear. I'm sure when I install my TWM short shifter I'll have a similar experience in my Yaris, but this I consider a very big difference, if you are into manual cars, it's a joy to change gears.

The clutch is also very light, and much more intuitive than the Yaris. Driving slow and shifting smoothly is not a problem.

I can't really compare the engines since this City has the non-VTEC engine (rated at only 88hp!), but this motor has a lot of low end torque (peak at 2,700rpm!) so you don't need to be shifting around all so much, even going up hills. I'm sure the 110hp VTEC engine has a similar response to our engines, though.

The car's handling is difficult to compare as I have basically never driven a stock Yaris, nor have I driven a Yaris on a mountain road as I have driven this City. But, the ride is firm but comfortable, though on fast turns you do lose traction pretty easily. Which is fun in its own way, nothing like sliding that tail out The steering wheel (and the whole feel of the car) is light, but not twitchy as ours can be on rough roads or at high speed.

I really wish I could have taken my car down here and see how it behaves in the hills, that would have been so much fun Maybe I'll rent one, but it's pretty sure to be an automatic...

Interior wise, it is a lot more traditional than the Yaris, and the high center console does give it more of a big car feel. But, you can easily feel the difference in storage space, the main passenger side glove compartment is full of manuals and documents, and apart from that, there isn't a lot of space to keep stuff.

I'm not sure if the USDM Fits would come similarly equipped, but I am constantly pleasantly surprised at the stock sound system. This car came with a single-DIN Sony cassette player, but the stock speakers are more than adequate and can handle a pretty good amount of bass. All we did was to add a 10-disc changer in the trunk, but it could also do with a couple of tweeters to bring up the sharps.

All in all, from a driving experience point of view, if the USDM Fit can be compared to this City, it's really not that bad. Standard and optional equipment, pricing, safety features, and so on, I really cannot comment on as it would be very different between US and Thai spec cars.

[Havana]

When shopping, I compared the 09 Fit to the 09 Yaris. I know Honda and Toyota both make outstanding cars. The Fit was awesome and very fun to drive. It came with more standard features. It was also about $3000 more. Fits are in short supply in my area and manual tranny Fits are virtual blue diamonds. The Honda dealers were not very flexible at all on price. The Yaris is a more simple car but of equal quaility in my opinion. Six airbags and ABS are standard on 09's. There was also a $500 rebate at that time and the Toyota dealers seemed more interested in making a sale. In the end, I got a great car for several thousand less than a Fit. I'm happy with that.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Havana

When shopping, I compared the 09 Fit to the 09 Yaris. I know Honda and Toyota both make outstanding cars. The Fit was awesome and very fun to drive. It came with more standard features. It was also about $3000 more. Fits are in short supply in my area and manual tranny Fits are virtual blue diamonds. The Honda dealers were not very flexible at all on price. The Yaris is a more simple car but of equal quaility in my opinion. Six airbags and ABS are standard on 09's. There was also a $500 rebate at that time and the Toyota dealers seemed more interested in making a sale. In the end, I got a great car for several thousand less than a Fit. I'm happy with that.

Interesting reviving an old dead thread... :-)

I also compared the 09 Fit to the 09 Yaris. A few years ago (07) we were looking at cars but decided to wait put another 50k on the Camry first. At the time I drove a Yaris but wasn't impressed, mostly because of the lack of safety features. I had completely removed it from consideration. I had settled on the Fit and for two years kept saying I'd buy a Fit when the time came. The thing is, both the 07 and the 09 Fit felt 'off' to me. Not sure why, but they did. The handling wasn't anywhere near as impressive as I'd heard. This year I put the Yaris back in consideration due to the standard safety features and as you can probably guess we bought the Yaris.

During the test drive I did feel that the Fit had a slightly more comfortable driver's seat, though my kids said that the back seat was better in the Yaris. The Fit seemed to bounce MORE on big bumps than the Yaris did and though might have been slightly quieter the noise that it did make was more annoying to me. I actually felt like the Yaris was quieter. The lack of cruise on the base Fit meant that I'd have to upgrade to a Fit sport which dropped the MPG rating and raised the price quite a bit. Overall the Yaris ended up being significantly cheaper (about $4000) with the options that we wanted and the rebate from Toyota. We're very happy with it and I *LOVE* how tightly it can turn -- I can't get over how easy it is to park and do U-turns! :-)

[PaidTimeOff]

Yup, if there's one thing that all reviewers can agree on (whether they like the car or not), it's that the Yaris' turning radius can't be beat.

[rningonfumes]

I got a chance to browse April's Buyer guide from CR.... even with the new safety features, the Yaris does not have a "Recommended" check mark. It listed the last test rive as the 07 model.

Better than average reliability.

[Havana]

It's funny. I don't think I've read a single overall positive review by any professional automotive tester/critic. Yet, actual Yaris owners seem to universally love and recommend the car.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by Havana

It's funny. I don't think I've read a single overall positive review by any professional automotive tester/critic. Yet, actual Yaris owners seem to universally love and recommend the car.

Y'know, when I was doing my research on the car I was hard-pressed to find a good review on it; but I read 130+ owner's reviews and they were universally positive of it. I learned a long time ago that professional auto critics are a snobby bunch with little connection to the real world.

Cheers! M2

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by PaidTimeOff

Yup, if there's one thing that all reviewers can agree on (whether they like the car or not), it's that the Yaris' turning radius can't be beat.

After buying the car and noting how tightly it turns I did some research using edmunds.com's car compare feature. The only car that I found that could beat the Yaris on turning diameter was the Smart ForTwo, and by only two feet!

[ddongbap]

Dude, I pull 360s in two parking spots.

[gid]

Originally Posted by Havana

It's funny. I don't think I've read a single overall positive review by any professional automotive tester/critic. Yet, actual Yaris owners seem to universally love and recommend the car.

here's a few positive reviews for the YARIS . http://newcartestdrive.com/review-in...&ReviewID=3270 and http://newcartestdrive.com/review-in...&ReviewID=4335 . Hoping they'll be doing new test drive of 2009 4 door Liftback soon .

[gid]

Originally Posted by rningonfumes

I got a chance to browse April's Buyer guide from CR.... even with the new safety features, the Yaris does not have a "Recommended" check mark. It listed the last test rive as the 07 model.

Better than average reliability.

we should be getting the new monthly issue for C.R. that reviews the '09 by the end of next week . Let yeh know the results soon as it gets here . Patience my . The waiting is killin' us both .

[JetfireK]

Originally Posted by Befuddled

Just got the new Consumer Reports. They were assessing budget cars this month. In the auto transmission category the Yaris came in 6th out of 9 and in the HB, manual category it came in next to last, just ahead of the Aveo. In the manual category the Honda Fit came in first with overall score of 75 (Yaris was 36)

Everything I read mostly...does not credit Yaris with good anything...but then...We have to make ourselves happy and when they tout chrysler that tells me I made the right choice....Never driven a Honda...and don't intend to. Remember Toyota is number 1....so why settle for anything less?

[fnkngrv]

wow...way to dust off an old thread. Consumer Reports is corrupt and the people that work there have bad crusties around their mouths from all of the reviewing of the constituent's areas a few inches below their belt line rather than truly checkin out the vehicles.

[ChilliwackGuy]

I gotta admit that the one car I am always checking is the Honda Fit - not sure why - but it just looks cool.

Yet - I'm positive my Yaris is way cheaper on gas and more reliable.

Also, I subscribe to Consumer Reports Canada Magazine - and they are not slamming Toyota - instead they are suggesting that they will not recommend the company - simple because of the numerous recalls.