Hey guys.

I'm interested in knowing if any of you nutters have piloted Echos or Yarisssss(whatever, the plural of Yaris), and what you think of them. Being a Domino's bitch, I am tasked with this torture on an almost nightly basis. The things I have learned are:

FWD sucks

Aircon sucks...all of my power when the shitty compressor switches on at 5 grand in second.

Electric steering sucks harder than Thai ladyboys

Ditto autos (especially pointless bloody gated ones)

ABS sucks

Olympic Sprinter tyres suck

Giant Yaris doors 1 foot thick and 5 feet long suck

Ditto the crazy tree trunk A-pillars

Central instruments suck

Digital fuel gauges suck ridiculously variable amounts

Echo manual shift quality sucks, along with its spongy clutch

Echos 'eye in the sky' seating position sucks

Mind drilling beep caused by leaving the lights on, or having the ignition on without putting on a seatbelt sucks

Fuel cards WIN!!!!

so tell us what you really think........:sob:

I've driven a Yaris.

I found it a bit weird to drive at first.

 

The digital speedo is in the center of the dash, and you constanly glance over there to watch the speed.

The visibilty is poor; its sortof harder to see out the back, say, when changing lanes, compared to an old rolla.

The front of the car is more rounded, unlike the flatter front on an old rolla, so its a bit harder to judge how much clearance you have.

 

The engines OK, it accelerates smooth (1.5L VVTi)

 

I still way prefer an old rolla though :sob:

Deleted

Edited May 24, 200818 yr by Sbox

I found the Yaris to be better than the Hyundai gets, The Gets has some poke in 1st but as soon as you hit 2nd the inspiration goes out the window.

the echo i used to flog around for dominoes was awesome fun to drive. nippy with great take off from the lights. i used to pull the handbrake on and flick it from drive to reverse so it looked like i had airbag suspension, and could out my foot flat on the floor in drive with my other foot on the brake and when i let off the brake it was gone!

 

for a cheap city runabout there is nothing better. for everything else, anything else is better.

 

cheers.

I worked for a toyota service department for 3 yrs and have driven many echo's and yaris's. It is my personal opinion that whoever said that good things come in small packages had never driven thses cars. Think they're complete rubbish. I know I'll get flamed for this but I'd take the 7 speed Auto Honda Jazz over a Echo/yaris anyday.

Had an echo as a company runabout.... not an overly rewarding driving experience but pretty indestructable.

And as much as everyone bags them, my starlet is an infinitely nicer vehicle to own and drive even though its a model generation behind.

Oh, and there's also the crushing flaw that I forgot to mention, mainly because months of subjection to its devilry has numbed me to the awesome evilness.

Electric throttles suck.

When I first started to drive it, it was a stallfest. It's amazing how big the impact of a half second delay between pressing the accelerator and the engine revving is on the car's driveability for a noob. If you give the pedal a quick jab, your foot can be back off the pedal before the thing revs. I drove an n14 pulsar the other day, and nearly wet myself with joy upon redicovering the meaning of throttle response. Desensitization is a terrible thing.

When they were introduced on Commos a year or two ago, I remember a comment in a Motor magazine sidebar. The journalist inquired of an engineer how many throttle cable failures had been experienced since the VT's inception, to warrant the switch to drive by wire. "None that I'm aware of."

Aparrently the extra cost of components required for "drive by wire" is negated by the lesser amount of time it takes to assemble the vehicle on the production line. It may only be a matter of seconds... but when you're churning out several thousand lumps of automotive compromise per day, those accumulated seconds equate to more units that can be produced per day... more profit....

 

*sigh*

I drove an echo a few times, shifting into second gear was a pain in the ass, wasnt overly fussed about the digital speedo and trying to do a hill start without revving the crap out of the engine and dumping the clutch is mission impossible.

 

matt

after doing alot of kms in a manual dominos echo, you learn that they are half decent cars. The echo at my shop was looked after quite well apart from the 2nd gear synchro. There is a bit of body roll in them but u can actually use that to u'r advantage when cornering, the steering isn't bad, the aircon makes near to no difference with acceleration, and it does go pretty good for a 1.5L. The clutch shouldnt be spongy unless its been thrashed, the brakes stop u in a hurry, and it IS possible to have a little fun in them in the rain but u have to be careful since it has a short wheel base, they spin quicker, hill starts is just basic clutch control (but if u have a rooted clutch then u will need to rev it a bit), and i quite like the idea of the cluster in the middle, it does make it safer, you're using more vision and can glance down at it while ur checking whats ahead. The seat is up way too high in my opinion, and i don't understand how people can drive it with the steering wheel tilted any higher than the lowest setting. U can get the seat right to be in control of the car, u just have to learn it.

 

As for the auto echo, i hate driving autos cuz there is no control when cornering (i like to feel the load when i'm taking corners), they are slow and the aircon makes a difference in power.

 

The yaris's suspension is crap imo. It feels like a boat to drive... yet again another automatic car.

 

Those are my opinions.

Edited June 4, 200719 yr by edi25

Hey guys.

I'm interested in knowing if any of you nutters have piloted Echos or Yarisssss(whatever, the plural of Yaris), and what you think of them. Being a Domino's bitch, I am tasked with this torture on an almost nightly basis. The things I have learned are:

FWD sucks

Aircon sucks...all of my power when the shitty compressor switches on at 5 grand in second.

Electric steering sucks harder than Thai ladyboys

Ditto autos (especially pointless bloody gated ones)

ABS sucks

Olympic Sprinter tyres suck

Giant Yaris doors 1 foot thick and 5 feet long suck

Ditto the crazy tree trunk A-pillars

Central instruments suck

Digital fuel gauges suck ridiculously variable amounts

Echo manual shift quality sucks, along with its spongy clutch

Echos 'eye in the sky' seating position sucks

Mind drilling beep caused by leaving the lights on, or having the ignition on without putting on a seatbelt sucks

Fuel cards WIN!!!!

 

do they make u drive it? or is it a choice to save fuel / wear n tear on ur own car.

 

I work in your region by the way :bash: and yes i know that some deadshits (street trash/cool kids/homeless deadshits/ect) there damage the company car just for the fact that its a company car. Didn't someone try ripping off the shark fin there one night a while ago? almost as bad as the caboolture stores customers. I've noticed that where I'm working at the moment, some tossers have kicked in 3 panels, keyed the side 2 or 3 times, and slashed 2 tyres in a matter of 2-3 weeks.

heh... this is quite funny. I used to own an eagle boys franchise up here a while ago. Nice to know that some things haven't changed. You know those bloody horrible Diahatsu Mira's EB used to have with the big f@$koff phone on the roof? In my 3 years as a franchisee my guys crashed 4 of em, rolled 2, and ripped the phones of pretty much all of them driving under carparks. :bash:

 

You know what I did after that? I bought shitty old cars and had them painted black and pink.

I had 2 slant-front ke70 wagons, a pussbox astra, another ke70 sedan, a diahatsu move, 2 Ae82's and a suzuki alto with a 5" exhaust tip and mags :cool: that little f@$ker drew more stares than a rediculous illuminated phone I can tell ya.

 

AND... nobody bothered to key them, kick them, slash the tyres, and they never broke down.

getting a manual yaris yrx on friday will post up what it is like