Toyota Yaris 1.3

I bought my Yaris in May 2000 and have been pleasantly surprised by it's performance.

My previous car was a Honda Civic - the sporty looking type and very low to the ground. It was my second Civic and whilst I had absolutely no problems with it, and was happy with it's performance, I found getting in and out of it not an easy task with my arthritic knees. Also as I had recently retired from work and my mileage dropped drastically it seemed more practical to have a car which wouldn't guzzle petrol quite so badly. Not a fault with the Honda, more the way I drive - as my son would say "take off the lead boots"!!

Well, the knees won! I looked around at quite a few models and the Yaris (which was receiving lots of attention in the press at the time) seemed to fit the bill. It is relatively high off the ground - getting in and out is a doddle.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't do many miles per year - in the last twelve months I have only notched up 1750 miles but the Yaris has not disappointed me.

It has a real funky engine with plenty of go when you need it and it is supremely easy to park. I park the car outside my house and even on the coldest day it has started first go - which surprised me considering I sometimes don't use it for 3/4 days at a time.

I do take a lot of stick from my son who insists on saying what a small car it is, but even he has to admit that it is very roomy inside for the driver and front passenger. The boot space is fine for a good weekly shop and with the rear seat down it becomes a really decent size for carrying much larger items.

I looked at the Fiesta and Corsa but am more than happy with my final choice. The innovative dashboard is excellently placed to allow you to keep your eyes on the road even when checking your speed and you really have no excuse to exceed the speed limit since the digital speedometer is big and bold. Even the poorest eyesight couldn't miss it.

Power steering and electric windows make it a pleasure to drive and the sunroof would be quite handy if we could just get the weather!

The automatic transmission is as good as in any car I've driven and whilst the purists would say automatics don't have the oomph and acceleration of a manual transmission, personally I am more than happy with the effortless driving it provides.

From a safety aspect, it has twin air bags although thankfully I can't vouch for their efficiency - I can only hope that I will never have to test the manufacturers claims in this respect!!!

All in all the Yaris is well worth checking out if you are contemplating a change.