Sage Automotive Group
2007 Toyota Yaris
The new benchmark for affordable and economical driving. edited by Greg N. Brown
Walk Around
The Toyota Yaris has an appealing look to it. We never warmed to Toyota's previous subcompact, the Echo, which tried too hard to look different and ended up looking just goofy.
Though they share platforms and powertrains, the Yaris liftback and sedan were developed under different chief engineers and design teams, providing the entry-level buyer with two distinctive choices in a small, economical subcompact. Toyota is one of the few automakers that can afford such luxury of manpower, and it was put to good use in the Yaris project.
The liftback was designed around the theme of "powerful simplicity," but our first impression was that it's cute as the proverbial bug. With its wedgy profile, large front halogen headlamp clusters, creased hood lines and "T-grille," it has all the character that its predecessor, the unloved Echo, never possessed. Virtually every exterior element is body-colored, but the Yaris avoids looking like a featureless blob due to strategic placement of black trim around the base of the A-pillar, on the B-pillar, on the two strips that run the length of the roof, the front grilles and foglamp surrounds at the base of the windshield.
The rear hatch opens down to the bumper line and raises just high enough to allow a six-foot-tall person to stand under it. Like everything else about the Yaris, the hatch's function feels just right. Opening of the hatch is well damped by two struts, and closing it takes no more than a gentle downward push.
The Yaris sedan's theme is "Simple is Cool," which is based on the Japanese art of flower arranging, where unnecessary decoration is shunned in place of a single, simple design. Its long, stretched cabin, arched beltline and short overhangs give it sporty proportions, and the multi-reflector halogen headlamps lend it a premium look. Longer and wider and riding on a much longer wheelbase than the Echo sedan it replaces, the Yaris sedan has proportions that work together to create a sportier car.
Despite their distinctive styling, both the sedan and liftback share a 0.29 coefficient of drag, excellent numbers that help quiet the ride and increase fuel economy at cruising speeds.
Interior
2007 Toyota Yaris
The Yaris is a marvel of space efficiency with clever cockpit packaging. Its relatively long wheelbase (the longest in class) makes the Yaris cockpit feel quite spacious, especially in the liftback with its tall, extended roofline. Legroom isn't quite as generous as headroom, though six-footers can occupy every seat except the center rear without complaint.
The front seats have supportive, deeply dished backs, but the cushions are flat and short, which means the long-legged will not enjoy optimum comfort and lower-body support. However, the fabric upholstery is classy looking, durable and provides good grip in the corners. Our test car's black upholstery studded with blue dots was especially handsome. Though the seating position is nicely upright and allows excellent forward sightlines, it also feels awkward relative to the steering wheel. The wheel adjusts for rake but not for reach, so it's necessary to pull the seat fairly far forward to assume the proper 10 and 2 o'clock hand placement, and this results in a position that's more like sitting in a chair at the dining table, legs bent at 90 degrees, than in, say, a sports car. The sedan's front seats also feature a height adjustment feature, which helps the driver find a more comfortable position.
Access to the liftback's back seats is provided by a walk-in lever in the shoulder area of the passenger seat. There is no such lever on the driver's side. The rear seats in the sedan and liftback are adequate to the task of hauling passengers over short distances, but the liftback offers the advantage of a recline feature that increases the seatback angle from 10 degrees to 28 degrees. A 60/40 split seat with 5.9 inches of fore and aft adjustability is also available, greatly increasing the liftback's comfort and practicality. A pair of levers on the shoulder of the seatback make the operation a snap. The sedan's rear seating can also be ordered in a 60/40 split configuration, but there is no recline feature.
Cargo space in the Liftback with the seats upright is 12.8 cubic feet, 25.7 cubic feet with the seats folded down. The Sedan's cargo volume is 12.9 cubic feet with the seats in place, 13.7 cubic feet with the 60/40 rear seats folded down. That's less than what's available in the Honda Fit, Nissan Versa and Kia Rio5, but the wide rear openings, which extend down to bumper level, make the task of loading and unloading the Yaris easy.
Just as the two Yaris models differ in exterior styling, the instrument panels for the liftback and sedan are distinctive, but each features a center-mounted gauge cluster and an overall simplicity of design. The sedan's IP looks a bit more upscale with its dual-toned trim and Optitron illuminated gauge cluster, which includes a standard tachometer for 5-speed manual models along with a 120-mph speedometer, fuel gauge, odometer/trip meter and various warning graphics. Tachs are not available in liftbacks, but they do have three gloveboxes to the sedan's one. Outboard cupholders are standard on both models.
The center console differs in style between the two models, but the stereo and air conditioning functions are, in typical Toyota fashion, equally easy to view and use. Turn signals and lights are operated by the leftside steering column-mounted stalk; the right stalk is for the front wipers (plus a rear wiper in the liftback). Storage bins abound, on either side of the center stack and along the doors. For those cars equipped with the MP3 stereo, the center console includes an auxiliary input.
Overall, the Yaris controls are all very intuitive, the interior is comfy and the trim and upholstery appear classy. There would be no shame in taking the boss out to lunch or your mother-in-law to the opera in a Yaris.
