Do you love your car?

[CanIHazYarisHatch?]

Do you love your new Yaris? I mean really, really love it?

If so, why?

If not, why?

What has been a pleasant surprise to you as you have started clocking on more miles?

What has been a disappointment the longer you have owned your 3rd Gen Yaris?

I will start.

I love my car. I really, really love my blazing blue pearl 3-door.

I love it's small footprint on the road and in tight parking spaces when I go downtown in Austin. It can fit almost everywhere.

I love it's basic, if spartan nature.

I love the fact even the base model has a USB port (hidden in the glove box, to deter thieves), which syncs up with my thumb drive MP3 player with no complaints. It is just a plug-and-play affair.

I love the fact it is so smooth and quiet for it's class. Once warmed-up, my engine idles at only 700-800RPM?! How is this possible in a non-diesel engine? I can't think of any gasser car engine that idles so low sold in 2012. Someone, please correct me if I'm wrong.

I love the subtle elegance in it's design, both interior and exterior. For the interior, the 3-spoke steering wheel, with no clutter of buttons to get in my way. Just a simple, honest, very comfortable steering wheel.

The interior feels so airy in this class. I think because there is so much glass surface area to look out of, it feels more "breathable" than many other B-segment cars sold in the U.S.

The dash design really pleases me. I prefer a symmetrical analog layout to my instrument cluster, such as on the new Yaris.

I love the fact the stock stereo on the base model isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It is in fact, pretty sweet for a base model car. I expected much worse.

For the exterior, I appreciate the more aggressive styling over the older car. I also love the way these lines, whether in darkness or the the bright sun, or in the rain, look with the blazing blue pearl paint. This is such a lovely color to my eye. It looks so "cool", yet not "cold", if any of you understand what I'm saying. I am proud to drive this car. It's my first new car, but she means a lot to me.

I love the fact the handling and gearbox are much-improved from the 2010 base 3-door I drove in 2010. Now, the car is less of a chore to drive, but more a simple pleasure. There really is a sort of zen-like quality to this car now, that only the Mazda 2 seems to better.

But I didn't chose the Mazda. I chose the Toyota, which is why I am here.

I love the fact the 1NZ-FE is proven, and lacks a timing belt, and few, if any mechanical vices. Yay timing chain! I'll take trusted and reliable over unreliable and cutting edge any day--especially when I am spending $16k on a car!

What do I not like?

I would have liked an option for a sunroof like in the EU. Preferably, a hand-cranked sunroof. At least a fixed-glass roof with a sunshade, would have been awesome.

I understand issues of time, money and R&D, but a 6th gear on the highway would have been fantastic. At 70mph, my car is dead-on at 3,000RPM. I can imagine Toyota could get the highway RPMs even lower, for even better MPG.

I would have also liked a lack of stupid tire pressure monitoring sensors. But after the trumped-up "unintended-acceleration" fiasco, Toyota wasn't going to take any chances on safety.

The fuel economy could be better than the 33MPG max in mixed driving I have gotten. But this is likely a function of the break-in (only 900 or so miles now) and the thick conventional oil they use for the first few thousand miles. hopefully, after break in, and the switch to full synthetic, this little car will edge closer to the 40MPG so many members of this forum consistently report.