Hi All,
Some of you may have been following my recent journey to snag a second car for our household. The search was not defined enough at the beginning and I probably got way too far off track at times. My search started with a Kia Rondo and I still think this is one cool vehicle. It was just not in my budget at this time although I could see snagging one off of a lease in 3 years time with about 60000kms on the clock.
From there I went to off lease Corollas, Civics, new Fits and Yaris, used Yaris, slightly used Sonatas etc.
In the end my wife and I both loved the Fit and Yaris and felt that they were the perfect second car for us as we have our Civic for when we need a trunk or a bit more room. Why get a bigger car if you don't need it? When the Civic is ready to move on then maybe a Kia Rondo, Camry or some other larger vehicle.
We spent a lot of time discussing the merits of new versus used. A car is only new once and the first couple of dings on the Civic were downright painful. Frankly aftr a month or so the Civic was "just there". So, we made a conscious choice to try to buy a used car this time around with lower kms if possible.
Unfortunately our target vehicle -the Yaris- has not been around long enough to have off lease options out there and 90% plus of the examples are ex rental vehicles.
Well, I looked at literally dozens of Yaris hatches (and some Sedans) and while a nice blue example slipped through my fingers with just shy of 19000kms I did get the next lowest km hatch I could find with just over 30000kms (for a point of reference most of the ones I looked at had 44000kms or more and one had 80000kms!) and I got it for about $1000 less than the one with 19000kms and ours has more features and is the colour my wife wanted to boot!
When buying a used car I am a big believer in getting a trusted mechanic to give it the "once over". I now know that there is no overspray or frame damage anywhere, everything works well, and he found 2 tires with issues I would not have noticed. We now have 2 fresh tires on the front of the Yaris to start life with. $100 well spent!
Anyways here are some pics of our car. I have not waxed it yet, although the car was thoroughly shampooed and detailed before we picked it up.
Here are some random shots of the night we first saw the Yaris:
These cupholders in the dash are brilliant!
Now from a few nights ago when we picked up the car. Here it is ready to go to its new home:
I was driving behind my wife with our Civic and we got stuck for a good ten minutes at a railroad crossing waiting for a train to pass. Interestingly enough the train was packed with cars!
Here is my wife Michelle and Lucy our Pug enjoying the new Yaris. Lucy loves that she can see out of the Yaris easily. She sits too low in the Civic and misses out on the action...
See? I told you there was a train!
And... a few shots of the Yaris on the road from inside our Civic:
Not the world's greatest photo essay but better than nothing
It is a 5 door LE with the convenience package. So, ABS, keyless entry (yay!), power windows, power mirrors, power locks, CD player with 6 disc in dash + MP3. Oh, and a auto to appease my wife. It is orange which is a pretty cool colour actually.
Future plans for the car include adding cruise (which is a dealer installed option anyways), a used set of RS rims when I find a set for sale, and possibly a hood deflector to hopefully save the hood from a few rock dings.
I have not been able to pry the Yaris from my wife's hands as she really enjoys driving it. Although it is no rocket it is very peppy and responsive. It has a very tight turning radius and is fun to fling around.
The fuel economy so far has been stellar and the day I was taking it to my mechanic etc before we finalized the deal I ended up putting 150 kms on it in one day! It was very comfortable and the fuel gauge barely moved! With cruise I think this would be a great little car for a road trip. Very comfortable and great on gas. Wind gusts can move the car a bit on the 401 but not that much worse than the Civic in my opinion. It is a little "busy" at 120km/hr as it is turning around 3100 rpm. A 5 speed auto with a taller top gear would be nice to get the rpms down to 2700-2800.
All in all we are very happy so far and look forward to many years of motoring with our "new" Yaris.
Now to get both cars Krown treated in the fall.
