Fantastic
Nothing.
I love this car and it's never broken down. It runs like a new car.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 14th October, 2023
So amazing, it's like it's been designed and built by aliens
Nothing serious really. Worst thing is the rattling timing chain; it's been like that since we bought it, we got used to the noise. Even though it could snap at any time, regular oil changes have kept it tolerable.
Most annoying thing really was the metal wheels getting rusty and leaking air from the side; a quick trip to the tyre place fixes it as they wire brush the rust off and reseal the tyre.
Oh and a baboon in a safari park ripped off the rear tailgate wiper arm; this was weak cast aluminium that has oxidised, so it was no wonder.
What can I say, will another car EVER live up to this one. I keep joking to my partner that it's like it's been designed and built by aliens.
It's not the biggest of car, but for what's classed as a supermini, it's like a tardis. Don't attempt to sit more than two kids and a baby seat in the back if you want a stress free journey. Two kids or two adults are fine in the back. The back seat slides back for more leg room or less boot space; they go down nicely and easily too.
It's quick for a car with such a small engine, and even though the timing chain rattles, you know when it comes on cam. And when it's doing 70mph on the motorway it's on cam, so it will keep up with the traffic very well, even with two adults, two kids and a baby and a pram; I'm seriously not joking! It's a bit noisy at speed, but it does it with a nice, confident machiney whine from the engine or gearbox.
Handling wise... At sensible speed limits it will ooze confidence in any weather, even fully loaded; it's quite amazing that it feels so safe.
All in all, it's cheap as chips to run, sounds like a bag of spanners and looks like a kid's toy, but don't dismiss this amazing beast. I want a 4 door 1.3 version next.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 14th February, 2018
This had to be among if not the most reliable vehicle in the last 20 years. Toyota already had it with the early Corolla and 4Runner in the early 90s, and proved again it can do a car that simply will make garages file for bankruptcy. Also the Prius was very issue free.
The second generation Yaris (2005 and up) was quite a different car.
The 1999-2005 Yaris was a weird looking car that was so well put together. Plenty of plastic inside the cabin (the dash plastic heats up so much in summer you can warm up a sandwich on it), the seats have no shape yet are so relaxing on long roads, the steering takes 10 turns from lock to lock like in an old Lada, and the instrument panel located in the center of the dash leaves an empty place behind the steering wheel like a desolating desert. Despite all these, despite being anachronistic, toy-sh like, clumsy looking, this car was almost a perfect achievement. Comfortable and easy to drive, great up-seating driving position, cheap on gas, good visibility, easy entry, zippy, and above all so reliable that Toyota must have realized at some point the company was losing money by having its workers at the dealerships wasting time, because no Yaris was coming in for repairs. A brilliant design management team worked on this car.
Totally agree, personally I think cars like this are a result of an excellent decade for cars in general - the 1990s. Cars from this time period were modern enough to have fuel injection, safety features like airbags and so on, and tried and tested proven designs. And not too new and complex to be plagued with unnecessary electronics from the likes of a vehicle from about 2005 onwards. Every car I had from the 90s era had excellent reliability. Shame I cant say that about cars I've had recently.
27th Apr 2025, 12:47
I agree with you. I bought this same car with 60,000 miles on it about 9 years ago and the only servicing I needed other than the annual oil and filter change was to replace two tires due to weather rot.
Replace the battery even though the battery was still working, but didn't want to take the chance, and had the brakes done once.
Like you stated, this 25 year old car still runs like a new one and I love this car. I'm 71 years old and this is either my 7th or 8th Toyota I've ever owned because I learned in 1970 with my first Toyota Corona how dependable Toyota's are.