Topic: Day-by-Day Review: 2012 Toyota Yaris three-door; Day 1

[tpl]

More out of curiosity then to be nit-picking, but as a non-native English speaker it confused me. Well, a little..
Okay, I admit, I love to pick a good nit.

Designed by M.C. Escher ? One of your countrymen IIRC.

I wouldn't buy an Escherian car, Dutch people are famous for a lot of things. Making cars, except semi-trucks, is not one of them. And Escher.. well.. I love his work but I wouldn't buy a car he made.

P.S. I just looked up 'nitpicking' and it seems I don't love to pick a good nit as I wrote earlier.

[/quote]

Being dutch myself, you forgot about the DAF!! Greatest car ever  I remember as a kid in Holland they used to have a race where they drove the DAF's backwards - with their CVT they could go just as fast backwards as they could forward
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Back in 1967 I worked with a guy who did some testing for DAF. Involved towing a small camper around from the UK to Spain and back.   He said it was a slow process crossing the Pyrenees in that car.

[JohnM]

7.0 on the highway?

I typically get well under 6 on the 400 series but never over even when "pushing it".

I would have thought the Echo (manual) would be a step back here as it is 8 years old.

Cheers,
John M.

[Jaeger]

7.0 on the highway?

I typically get well under 6 on the 400 series but never over even when "pushing it".

I would have thought the Echo (manual) would be a step back here as it is 8 years old.

Cheers,
John M.

Yikes - 7 is not that impressive at all.

Jaeger

[Solstice2006]

I guess a subcompact is not on the list for a commuter car, that consists of 90% highway, 100km roundtrip.  With the Mazda6 (v6) I average around 9l/100km going about 110km/h.  With our previous G6 (v6), doing the same route/speed, I would get around 7.5l/100km.  So my existing choices still remain, Golf Wagon TDI, Equinox (4 cylinder), and we will see the Elantra GT hatch when it comes out.  I will miss the Elantra Touring!

[Ontariodriver]

Only if you are a total incompetent.  I drove my Echo for hundreds of thousands of KMs with no tach.  If you have ears and a feel for the engine...there is no need for a tach. FFS...it only has 105HP...you do not need a tach.

I have to say I never look at any gauges to change my gears. You just know by the sound of engine.  Nobody looks down and drives. Hey these must be the same people who look down at the gear stick to what gear there in LOL.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Only a couple of cars I had with manual transmissions didn't have a tach. It always bugged me, and it had nothing to do with where the redline was or when I shifted. Omitting the tach was a sign of cost cutting. A daily "You bought a cheap car? No tach for you!"

[dirtyjeffer]

James, of course this vehicle will have "epic reliability"...there is nothing in it to screw up.

[Jaeger]

Only a couple of cars I had with manual transmissions didn't have a tach. It always bugged me, and it had nothing to do with where the redline was or when I shifted. Omitting the tach was a sign of cost cutting. A daily "You bought a cheap car? No tach for you!"

Agree completely.

Jaeger

[Vanstar]

7.0 on the highway?

I typically get well under 6 on the 400 series but never over even when "pushing it".

I would have thought the Echo (manual) would be a step back here as it is 8 years old.

Cheers,
John M.

Put 20,000 km on that motor and I am sure you'd see fuel consumption improve quite a bit. My office car is a 2008 Fit manual. When it was new, it got 9.0 on city traffic, now it regularly gets 7.0.

[JohnM]

"Put 20,000 km on that motor and I am sure you'd see fuel consumption improve quite a bit. My office car is a 2008 Fit manual. When it was new, it got 9.0 on city traffic, now it regularly gets 7.0."

Agreed.  I made the mistake of putting synthetic in my Suzuki Esteem at 3000km due to a long upcoming roadtrip.  The engine didn't really loosen up until 70 or 80,000.  Efficiency was still improving after 350k.  All oil changes were synthetic.

Since auto journalists test basically new cars, their mileage figures really have to be mis-leading.

Cheers,
John M.

[Vanstar]

"Put 20,000 km on that motor and I am sure you'd see fuel consumption improve quite a bit. My office car is a 2008 Fit manual. When it was new, it got 9.0 on city traffic, now it regularly gets 7.0."

Agreed.  I made the mistake of putting synthetic in my Suzuki Esteem at 3000km due to a long upcoming roadtrip.  The engine didn't really loosen up until 70 or 80,000.  Efficiency was still improving after 350k.  All oil changes were synthetic.

Since auto journalists test basically new cars, their mileage figures really have to be mis-leading.

Cheers,
John M.

In my experience, auto-journalists do not have a driving style that optimises fuel consumption! Really, their figures are worst case scenarios!

[wing]

^ I disagree, I drive slower than many other commuters on my way to work and try to keep off the brakes and coast a lot.  Oh and my 2008 which is the same engine also gets 7.0 so no you aren't getting any better unfortunately.

[Mike]

"Put 20,000 km on that motor and I am sure you'd see fuel consumption improve quite a bit. My office car is a 2008 Fit manual. When it was new, it got 9.0 on city traffic, now it regularly gets 7.0."

Agreed.  I made the mistake of putting synthetic in my Suzuki Esteem at 3000km due to a long upcoming roadtrip.  The engine didn't really loosen up until 70 or 80,000.  Efficiency was still improving after 350k.  All oil changes were synthetic.

Since auto journalists test basically new cars, their mileage figures really have to be mis-leading.

Cheers,
John M.

In my experience, auto-journalists do not have a driving style that optimises fuel consumption! Really, their figures are worst case scenarios!

Not Wing as he states, his mileage is usually great.  Me on the other hand, my commute and area I live in promotes poor fuel economy

[johngenx]

Our Corolla gets low 7's in all city driving, so I would expect better from the lighter, smaller-engined Yaris, but incremental gains won't be huge.  I would expect it to be running at least into the 6's...

[dirtyjeffer]

Our Corolla gets low 7's in all city driving, so I would expect better from the lighter, smaller-engined Yaris, but incremental gains won't be huge.  I would expect it to be running at least into the 6's...

the rental Rio5 LX+ i had in February returned 6.5 in the two days of strictly city driving i did when i had it...my Rio5 SX is sitting at 7.5 on its second tank of gas, which is down from 8.5 in its first tank...i would imagine by the summer, i should be down to mid 6s with mine...my commute is almost exclusively city driving unless we specifically take a small trip somewhere, which doesn't happen often.