My Review of 2011 Toyota Yaris (Loaner Car)

[danthedirt]

Review of 2011 Toyota Yaris

When I took my FR-S in to get a check engine light looked at, they gave me a 2011 Toyota Yaris as a loaner car.So I figured why not take this rare opportunity to give a review of this car, and see how it measures up to the FR-S.
What you see is what you get


Photo courtesy: thecarconnection.com

We first did a walk around of the car to make sure there weren't any cosmetic issues with the car. The first thing I noticed was that it had four-doors, minus a point. On top of that, the car is simply fugly. In case you don't know, thats a compound word for fucking-ugly, fugly. I've seen egg cartons with better lines then this car.


Photo courtesy: thecarconnection.com

When I got in the Yaris the first thing I noticed was that the dashboard instrument cluster was center mounted. Whats the point of putting it in the middle? Do the back seat drivers needs to see how many rpms the thing is doing? Maybe the passenger needs to know how much gas is in the tank? Makes no sense to me, minus another point. The seating position was uncomfortable as well, despite trying every position possible of seat height and steering wheel position I couldn't find any position where it didn't feel like I was driving a tractor.


Driving experience
My first stop was a local goccery store to get a paper bag. I then cut small eye holes in the paper bag and affixed it to my head. It was a minor inconvenience having to drive around with it on all the time, but it was well worth it because no one wants to be seen driving a Yaris.


Ready for a car ride

Once I got my bag situated, it was time to take this out on the freeway and see what it could do. Never been a fan of front wheel drive, so minus a point just for that. For such a little car, it didn't handle like a little car. In fact it handled more like a bus, a really, really short bus. The center of gravity was much higher then I expected for a compact car. I could feel a lot of body roll going into tight corners of freeway on and off ramps. On top of that the little four banger under the hood was extremely underwhelming.

Photo courtesy: thecarconnection.com
Keep it in third if you like driving

The car was almost undriveable if it wasn't for the fact that it had a sports-matic shifter and I could keep it in third gear. If I kept the car between 3-4k rpms it was some what drive-able.


Score - 2/10 WOULD NOT DRIVE
Pros
+ Decent Mileage
+ Compact
+ Somewhat drivable in Third gear

Cons
- Fugly on the outside and inside
- Vision impaired by paper bag
- No power or Torque
- No paddle Shifters
- Uncomfortable seats
- 4 doors
- High center of gravity for a compact car
- Handled like a bus


2/10 WOULD NOT DRIVE

[Shagaliscious]

You had me laughing so damn hard when I read "My first stop was a local goccery store to get a paper bag." Thanks for that

[jedibow]

I can relate to the paper bag, I'm cruising a corolla le and Toyota really shot this car with a suck gun....

[Laika]

HAH! Still laughing @ "vision impaired by paper bag".

This really has to make you think...what was wrong with having the speedo in front of me? When did this become a huge issue? It just looks like such a miserable little car that the stereo and automatic shifter look out of place because those seem like luxury items compared to the rest of it. On the other hand, I always had a soft spot for them because they're one of the few Japanese cars still made in Japan and they're dirt cheap....or so I thought till I googled them just now. $15k for a base model sounds like $3,000 too much to me. The best part of the Toyota's site is their selling point for the Yaris.....



It sure is Toyota. It sure is.


Those climate control dials look fairly familiar though

[Dkittrell]

Lmfao best review ever . You got a better car then me, when they did my tint they stuck me with a Prius , I looked at the service manager, " you gave me a Prius , did you see what car I brought in here . Talk about one extreme to Another . You must really think I'm gay don't ya " it was one of the most humiliating thing I have ever had to do

[jedibow]

They put the Speedo there so that the passenger will actually believe you are going that fast...lol

[coyote]

Originally Posted by danthedirt

Driving experience
My first stop was a local goccery store to get a paper bag. I then cut small eye holes in the paper bag and affixed it to my head. It was a minor inconvenience having to drive around with it on all the time, but it was well worth it because no one wants to be seen driving a Toyota.


Ready for a car ride

I feel the same way, but I'm not brave enough to be so honest on this forum.

[Ben_G]

So I've got a thing for small hatchbacks.....I actually have an Echo Hatchback.... and maybe it's because i'm Canadian, but I don't think the yaris looks THAT bad....

But as for power....you got loaned an auto...which sucks donkey balls...in fact, sucking donkey balls might be, no scratch that, IS more exciting...and desirable....

The centre mounted cluster is WEIRD...for the first month or so.....after that, it's actually pretty awesome....I switch back and forth between my Echo and a piece of shit Matrix and as counter-intuitive as it sounds, it's actually much easier to glance at the centre mounted gauge cluster than the traditionally mounted one in the matrix. You can focus on the centre mounted one much faster and when you look at the road again, your focus changes again just as quickly.

As for handling...yea.... it's not exactly the best esp since it's already a couple hundred pounds heavier than my Echo (2100 lbs).....

However, going from a BRZ/FR-S to a Yaris...just makes everything just that much worse..... =(

[caliboy15]

the new redesigned Yaris is not bad at all.

[danthedirt]

My review may of been a little biased after driving my FRS for 4 weeks.

[FrX]

I drove around a friend of mine's Yaris for a couple days a few months ago because I was fixing some issue or another on it.

It was not inspiring at all.

[SportInjected]

Thats so funny! My mom has the exact same car as your loaner (even the color), and I had to drive it for a month while waiting for my FR-S. Needless to say, I wish I knew about the paper bag trick earlier...

[mattles]

hahahahaha, I too have a loaner 2011 Yaris, mines a white sedan and its pretty much the worst car I have ever had the displeasure of driving.

[n2oinferno]

My wife and I had an 07 Yaris liftback for a little over a year. Wasn't a bad little car at all, but we needed something bigger when we were expecting so we had to trade it. And seriously, when I'd pick her up from college I got more attention from college girls than in anything I've ever driven. They raved about how cute it was. Holy crap it was a chick magnet, no lie.