Building A Better Subcompact CarIt was a cold, wet September morning in Barrie, Ontario when I first
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| Yaris, meet Canada. Canada, meet Yaris. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
met the new
Toyota Yaris: a Bayou Blue metallic 5-door hatchback in LE trim, the exact model and trim level which would reflect the buying habits of the masses. It also happened to be a lot like the car that is the subject of this review. Despite the fact that it was humbly introduced in the yard of a local college, where the most scantily clad women on the premises were wearing sweat shirts and bubble vests, the opposite to the bronzed models at a glamorous international auto show, this didn't undermine that out of dozens and dozens of markets which Toyota would eventually sell the car, that it made it's first appearance, outside of Japan, not in Europe or the U.S., but here in Canada.
In
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| The Yaris is one of the finest inner-city automobiles you can drive. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
many ways the Yaris and Canada were made for each other. Compared to our neighbors south of the border, we're much more in tune with our European roots, which explains why there are so many compact cars running about on our streets. Here, compact and subcompact cars make up nearly half of all automobile sales, and it's a figure that's growing with each and every passing year. The bottom line is that cars are just more expensive to own and operate north of the forty-ninth, be it in terms of fuel or insurance, not to mention the simple reality that an average Canadian's expendableincome is a great deal less than an average American's due to highertaxes (especially high on fuels) and other issues. Such reasons might explain why we also received the first generation Yaris, the Echo Hatchback; something the states were deprived of.
Unlike most of the road test evaluations we conduct, which,
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| Once again the Yaris hatch is a bit of a specialty to our great nation. At least in five-door form. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
generally speaking, last about a week, the Yaris stayed with us for an extended period of time. For three weeks I lived with the most basic five-door hatchback model, the LE, painted in a cheeky, copper-orange colour. Out of the range that includes the standard palette of red, white, silver, black and blue, the orange delivers that bright, sunny burst of colour which matches the car's energetic personality. Initially from the time of its launch, the car was available in five and three-door hatchback designs, but, for 2007, a four-door notchback sedan was added. Interestingly, the five-door hatchback is an exclusive model to Canada; only the sedan and three-door will be sold in the United States, as to not encroach on Toyota's youthful U.S.-only Scion brand.
Whether you like it or not, the new Yaris is something you're gonna
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| The little details, such as these tail lamps, keep the Yaris looking trim and neat. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
have to get used to seeing. Its snubbed-nose face, with wide-eyed headlamps leaves a cheeky and somewhat more effeminate impression than the car it replaces. But beneath the new sheetmetal, it still looks like the old Echo at heart; it was designed by Toyota's European styling studio in Brussels, the same people that gave use the Echo hatch. The new Yaris also has a lot more flair to its body, with all sorts of different contorted surfaces in the form of ridges, creases and parabolic shapes, and clever accents, such as the honeycomb grille and fish-scale tail light bezels. It may be true that the Yaris' stature is more upright than previously, but it's tapered profile shows that there really aren't any box-like shapes in its design.
