Toyota's Bargain Leader
Over the years, Toyota has become one of the largest purveyors of automobiles. They have expanded their lines by building incredible luxury vehicles, sports cars, and full size trucks. Today’s Toyota is an enormously successful automaker with a rock solid reputation.
But – it was not always so.
Toyota (in the United States) started in 1937 as a scrappy car company with small cars and trucks forming the foundation of their line; as the years progressed they began to build some of the best in the industry. One of the small cars Toyota builds now harks back to that time of simplicity and logic. Back to a time when an affordable, economical transport suited price weary consumers.
Quite frankly; I refer to a time similar to today.
Early Toyota Corollas, Starlets, and Coronas have a successor in the Toyota Yaris. Many readers are familiar with Toyota’s less expensive brand “Scion” as they sell inexpensive cars. The Toyota Yaris is less expensive still.
In the Unites States, the Toyota Yaris three door is the smallest, cheapest offering. That is not to say the Toyota Yaris is a “cheap” car. Standard equipment includes side and side curtain airbags, antilock brakes (ABS) and air conditioning. A jack for a MP3 player is standard too.
Some of Toyota’s modern designs can be polarizing and complex. The Toyota Yaris is a refreshingly simple and (dare I say) “cute” design. The three and five-door Toyota Yaris (is it “Yari” for plural?) are very similar and share the same 96.9 inch wheelbase and 150.6 inch length. The trick? Toyota grafted rather large doors on to the three-door. This aided ingress and egress from the rear seat as the opening is so large. With the five-door, Toyota simply built smaller, regular sized doors and kept a majority of the Yaris the same.
This is a smart way to keep design/engineering costs down.
The Toyota Yaris Sedan is a completely different vehicle at 169.3 inches length and with a 100.4 inch wheelbase; the sedan is a much longer vehicle sharing very few (if any) body parts with the hatchbacks. Toyota kept the overall shape and design of the sedan a little less playful looking with a lower roofline and a slightly thinner width. Still, you immediately know it is related to the hatchbacks.