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Originally Posted by strat61caster
I don't think you understand, the US 'Yaris' is a rebadged Mazda2, they'd have to do all the safety and emissions testing from scratch to get the actual Yaris onto showroom floors and they wouldn't sell any of them, nor would they expect to jacking up the price into a death spiral of even fewer people lining up to buy them. I'd bet they'd lose money on these things which means an even shittier dealership experience contributing further to the death spiral.
Or Toyota could prove me wrong, I'll put $36k on the line after a test drive.
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I hate morons that tell me what I don't understand. Toyota had Mazda build the new US Yaris because Mazda just finished a factory in Mexico and had extra capacity. Before that the US received Yaris made in France, which weren't the best. Only in the first few model years in the USA did we receive a Yaris built in Japan.
But you missed my point entirely. What we call a Yaris is two totally separate cars in the rest of the world. Only the hatch is called a Yaris in some parts of the world. The sedan is a totally different vehicle. Toyota does this a lot. So does other companies. The Nissan "Rogue Sport," has absolutely nothing to do with the Rogue and is called Qashqai in the rest of the world. That's typical and nothing to think would be a problem.
What is a problem and why England gets a lot of these cars no one else does is because Japan and England drive on the same side of the road. That will always be the biggest issue for the US to receive a ton of the awesome vehicles from Japan that we don't. And I bet if we got rid of the idiotic over litigious issues we have in the US that might change. But none of these companies want to get sued over selling a left hand drive car in the USA, because they know far too many people here are imbeciles. And creating a right hand drive version is too expensive in a car that won't sell very much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0
I think that came later. We have had the Echo here and Yaris for a while. When pictures of the Echo hatchback hit the US, interest led to Toyota bringing the compact hatch here under the Yaris badge. My ex had a red Yaris sedan back in 2008. It was a real POS in quality. It made the Corolla feel luxury.
I get the general interest in this version. It is essentially a light weight WRX or something built on a tin can chassis, so it is light, but having driven my ex’s Yaris, I am very skeptical about the quality.
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You weren't paying attention. The Yaris was never a POS in quality. It has always been one of the least expensive cars to own, and almost nothing ever goes wrong. The early versions might not have had the best interior, but that was literally the point. The first gen Yaris could be had for $9,999. Mine was $13,200 out the door in May of 2006, and I never had any issues at all, even with all the mods I made. It was a perfect car for the 13 years I owned it. With a cheap aftermarket suspension, the Yaris is a fun car to drive. There is a Yaris spec racing series in Japan that has been very popular since the Yaris came out, and the Yaris has done well in SCCA competition. It was basically a front wheel drive Miata.