Toyota Yaris 1.0

First things first, why are there so many reviews under 'Toyota Yaris 1.0', I see more T3's around than the basic Yaris. To be fair they were probably all too busy admiring their car and forgetting to realise the model. Back to the topic eh.

The striking point to a passer by would be its exterior design, well that's really all they see from the outside. Looking front on you see its large headlight that adds character to the car I must say, checking out its rear, not as attractive but can be considered as average (it's far better than the Renault Megane, errrr). The bumpers are the same colour as the car with the odd grey plastic patches to prevent a scratch when you scrap a car. This car is a 3 door so the doors are bigger than doors for a 5 door car.

On the inside, you find yourself somewhere else, the inside doesn't reflect the size it looks on the outside. It seems small on the outside but when you get inside, it is like it has grown in size (could happen, nothing is impossible).
The size of the boot is reasonable, you can surely get a fair bit of shopping bags in their. You're now saying to youself 'a few?' that not enough, but wait you can get a few more bags in if you slide the back seat forward. If that's not enough you can turn the 3 back seats into 1, by lying the two-thirds of the back seat down with a pull of a lever, and for you monster shoppers, lay the entire back seat down for the maximum space. Wow that's a load of shopping need to fill the car.

Driving the car at first was weird. The steering wheel felt smaller than the car I was used to, and the accelerator needed to get used to. My acceleration was never at its full, my foot kept on resting on something next to the pedal, so now I push the pedal down with the top of my foot rather than the middle. If you press the pedal with the top of your foot you will surely have no problem with the accelerator, for those who use the middle of their foot take a days test in it.

While driving the car, I look towards the speedometer, (arghhhh where's it gone, oh hold on it's in the middle of the car, phew). Yep that's right the display is not where it should be but in the middle of the car hiding inside a cave like thing. This is wicked cos passengers in the car cannot see how fast you are going, pretty snazzy (ideal if your mam is in the car with you). Not only is the display situated elsewhere, but everything is displayed in a digital format that looks like it is a metre away from you, taking a step into the future and discarding the analogues.

The car even has two gloves boxes, one is disguised as a lid to the bigger one, took me a while to find that one out. Sitting in the passenger seat I swing my legs back and forwards to notice something else, a sliding draw (get in). The driver also has controls over the windows (2 of em) and the doors (so you can tell them who is in control).
The features are not all for the driver, the passengers have their own goodies, a drink holder for every seat in the car (five in total) and don't forgot to mention one passenger has an airbag (what more do they want).

The petrol gauge is also displayed as a digital format and can be difficult to see how much petrol is actually left since the amount left is displayed in 'bars', but what I found out last week is that the CD player display can be set to calculate how far you can travel before you run out. No more reasons to run out of fuel now. The display can also show miles per gallon, my car is currently doing 32.5mpg (this so means nothing to me, this number is pretty low, the book says around 40+mpg, I seriously need to drive responsibly).

I think that is enough about the features of the car, lets see how it drives.

Well, it is a 1.0 engine (bring on the Impreza's) so that not going to give you the best acceleration, but who needs good acceleration, it is not like people go street racing. Just keep the gear at one till you reach 14mph that gives quite a quick acceleration, it maintains the life of your engine too (joke by the way). The drive is sweet and smooth, contributed by the power assisted steering and its suspension. The suspension seems to work nicely, fly down the speed by at around 23mph, you can hardly feel it (but I did have wheels either side of the bump). Speed bumps that stretch the whole width of the road, (ooompf) don't try going 30mph over them (the CD jumped and the impact was not pleasant at all, and who put the speed bump there, I couldn't see it).

This car does not have an alarm fitted as standard, but it does have an immobiliser this would stop anyone drive away without the key, unless they are professional thieves. Also, the door doesn't have a key hole, just a central locking thing on the key to open the door.

Overall, it is a lovely car to drive and be seen in.
Note: For you boy racers get a different car, don't think about modifying the look of it.