Gojirra99
01-13-06, 07:38 AM
Two of the smallest, most frugal sedans for U.S. buyers are surprisingly easy to live with.
by Bengt Halvorson (2006-01-09)
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Why buy used, when you can get a new car and a full new-car warranty for the same price, or less? That's the buying logic - much of the time - for considering cars like the Kia Rio and Toyota 's new replacement for the Echo, called the Yaris. You might be able to get a more luxurious car for the money, but you can't beat "economy car" running costs.
We kept that in mind as we drove two such examples, the 2007 Yaris - soon to go on sale - and the new-for-'06 Kia Rio. The two have a lot in common. They both have engines about a liter and a half displacement, they both have continuously variable valve timing, they both are front-wheel drive with standard five-speed manual transmissions and optional four-speed automatics, both are significantly larger than the models that they replace. There are, no doubt, more similarities between the two cars, but for shoppers it might be more useful to focus on the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the cars.
Function over form
Both of these new models are taller, rounder versions of the traditional sedan silhouette, and more overtly functional than at all swoopy or sporty.
The Yaris sedan slots in the Toyota lineup a size smaller than the Corolla, into the place formerly occupied by the Echo, and the Tercel before it. But it's not nearly as diminutive as those former models - the Yaris is basically the same size as the Corolla was five years ago. Just next to last year's Echo, the Yaris sedan is about 4.5 inches longer than the Echo, with a wheelbase stretched about seven inches.
The Rio shows comparable increases in width and height, and a significant boost in wheelbase versus the outgoing Rio. Kia boasts that the new Rio has more interior space than the larger Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla.
The two cars have very different styles. On the outside, the Rio looks a bit derivative, especially with the flared, creased wheelwells like those on the Ford Focus, but arguably the simpler exterior is classy and clean. The Yaris sedan is attractive, rakish, and manages to stand out in a non-hideous way.
Toyota has done a great job making the Yaris's interior look distinctive. The choice of appointments and surfaces - more flamboyant and flashy than we've come to expect in a Toyota - looks like it would fit well in the Scion lineup and reminds us of the Scion tC. It's a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it design, though, with almost all of the controls and displays focused around a single center stack, topped off by the gauge cluster (speedometer still in the middle, like the Echo, Scion xA and xB), then the sound system below that and the climate controls down below. Materials aren't quite as nice to the touch as they were to look at, but still surprisingly good for a car that will start somewhere around the $12k mark.
Trendy or traditional?
The Rio's interior is different entirely - very straightforward and conventional. There aren't any big surprises, but it's what you'd expect in a small car design-wise, done with decent materials and tight assembly. Everything's right where you'd expect it to be if you've driven any of the Japanese-brand small cars in the recent past. The audio system is placed high, the climate control a set of three dials, mounted just below and out a little bit so as to be within easy reach, and the gauge cluster is easy to see.
It's simply amazing how these cars can fit four adults. Both of them have extremely well designed cabins and similar seating positions, though the Yaris's seats seem a bit more firm and supportive. In both cases, back-seat legroom is tight but tolerable for average adults even with the front seats at their rearmost position, and headroom was okay in back though it seemed a bit tighter in the Rio.
Now on to, which is the better performer of the two? In terms of power, there's not much of a difference - and they both weigh about the same, just short of 2400 pounds. At 110 hp and 108 lb-ft, the Rio makes four more hp and five more lb-ft than the Yaris.
There's no clear stopwatch-scorcher here, but the two do have different characteristics on the road. The Rio feels a little peppier from a standing start than the Yaris, though it's a minor enough difference to be due to slight differences in gearing or throttle calibration. We definitely noticed that the Rio had a more aggressively tuned gas pedal. The Rio 's engine was smoother than the Yaris' at the low revs and seemed to bring less noise and vibration into the cabin, but it becomes the coarser of the two as you pass the 4000-rpm mark.
For comparison purposes, we drove automatic versions of each. Their transmissions are both four-speeds and behave smoothly most of the time, with none of the jerky upshifts under heavy throttle that an automatic on a small car used to mean. Overall, for powertrain, it's a tossup, again with the Rio seeming a little quieter in normal driving. Both of them perform much better than expected for such low-priced rides.
Not much sport here
Now onto ride and handling. But first, another similarity: Both of the cars have struts in front and a torsion-beam axle setup in back, and both of these little sedans have a decent ride that's not nearly as choppy and busy as what was considered acceptable for small cars just a few years ago. In both cases, the ride is compliant enough to soak up most irregularities. The Yaris seems to have to firmer ride of the two, but the tides turn when you push them hard into corners or have to make a quick maneuver. The Rio rides softly and like a larger car, but when you expect it to be sloppy and throw it into a corner, it actually has good, predictable grip near the limit and decent body control. A possible reason is that the Rio has stabilizer bars front and back, while there's only one in front for the Yaris; also, the Rio gets standard 185-width tires, while the Yaris settles for 175-width.
So overall, for ride and handling, we'd give the Rio the slight advantage, though we wouldn't call either of these cars sporty or especially fun to drive. But both cars have tons of city-friendly maneuverability; they're easy to park with good visibility to boot; and they're still confident at highway speeds.
Stopping power, again, seemed virtually identical between the two cars - both cars have 10.0-inch front discs, combined with rear drums, but we liked the Kia's firm pedal feel a bit better. Neither the Rio nor the Yaris come with standard anti-lock brakes, which seems surprising given the otherwise generous level of standard equipment.
Speaking of standard equipment, front side airbags and curtain airbags were standard on the Rio LX we tested, but side airbags are optional on all Yaris models.
Fuel economy is no doubt a priority for buyers of a car in this class, and here the Yaris is the clear winner, getting five mpg more out of each gallon in the EPA city loop, for a winning 34 city, 39 highway with the automatic.
Worry-free for years
One of the main selling points of a car in this class, again, is that you get a new car for low overall running costs. The Kia is the winner here, with warranty coverage that far surpasses that on the Toyota - ten years or 100,000 miles on powertrain components and five years or 60,000 miles comprehensive. On the other hand, if existing Toyotas are any example, the Yaris may have a considerably higher resale value a few years down the line.
Both of these are much-improved, very agreeable little cars. Kia has taken a model that was a sluggish performer in some ways - one that frankly a lot of people might have preferred a used car to - and transformed it into a peppy city car that almost anyone coming from an older Civic or Corolla would be happy with. And Toyota has replaced the deft but stylistically at-odds Echo and turned it into a car that looks much more attractive, even a little sporty, and more functional, too.
Between these two, if looks are important, you'll probably find the Yaris a little more alluring - especially knowing that it isn't priced any higher than the Rio. If the flashy styling of the Yaris turns you off, the Rio might be a little plain but it's comfortable and surprisingly fun to zip around in.
If you opt for one of these, bear in mind that they're both very practical choices - not "must have" rides, but far from the "penalty box" that driving a small car once was.
2006 Kia Rio LX
Price: $13,295 base; $14,505 as tested
Engine: 1.6-liter in-line four, 110 hp/107 lb-ft
Drivetrain: Four-speed automatic transmission, front-wheel drive
Length x width x height: 166.9 x 66.7 x 57.9 in
Wheelbase: 98.4 in
Curb weight: 2365 lb
EPA (city/hwy): 29/38 mpg
Safety equipment: Front, front (seat-mounted) side, and side-curtain airbags; anti-lock brakes (optional)
Major standard equipment: Air conditioning, tilt steering, variable intermittent wipers, 60/40 fold-down rear seatback, AM/FM/CD sound system
Warranty: Five years/60,000 miles comprehensive; ten years/100,000 miles powertrain
2007 Toyota Yaris Sedan LE
Price: $14,000 (est. as equipped)
Engine: 1.5-liter in-line four, 106 hp/103 lb-ft
Drivetrain: Four-speed automatic, front-wheel drive
Length x width x height: 169.3 x 66.5 x 56.7in
Wheelbase: 100.4 in
Curb weight: 2326 lb
EPA (city/hwy): 34/39 mpg est.
Safety equipment: Front airbags; front side and side-curtain airbags (optional); anti-lock brakes (optional)
Major standard equipment: Air conditioning, tilt steering, 60/40 fold-down rear seatback, rear defroster, AM/FM/CD/MP3 sound system w/mini-jack
Warranty: Three years/36,000 miles comprehensive; five years/60,000 miles powertrain
source : thecarconnection
by Bengt Halvorson (2006-01-09)
http://www.thecarconnection.com/images/gallery/10513_AEYLHRWRTYCYD.jpg
http://www.thecarconnection.com/images/gallery/9214_image.jpg
Why buy used, when you can get a new car and a full new-car warranty for the same price, or less? That's the buying logic - much of the time - for considering cars like the Kia Rio and Toyota 's new replacement for the Echo, called the Yaris. You might be able to get a more luxurious car for the money, but you can't beat "economy car" running costs.
We kept that in mind as we drove two such examples, the 2007 Yaris - soon to go on sale - and the new-for-'06 Kia Rio. The two have a lot in common. They both have engines about a liter and a half displacement, they both have continuously variable valve timing, they both are front-wheel drive with standard five-speed manual transmissions and optional four-speed automatics, both are significantly larger than the models that they replace. There are, no doubt, more similarities between the two cars, but for shoppers it might be more useful to focus on the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the cars.
Function over form
Both of these new models are taller, rounder versions of the traditional sedan silhouette, and more overtly functional than at all swoopy or sporty.
The Yaris sedan slots in the Toyota lineup a size smaller than the Corolla, into the place formerly occupied by the Echo, and the Tercel before it. But it's not nearly as diminutive as those former models - the Yaris is basically the same size as the Corolla was five years ago. Just next to last year's Echo, the Yaris sedan is about 4.5 inches longer than the Echo, with a wheelbase stretched about seven inches.
The Rio shows comparable increases in width and height, and a significant boost in wheelbase versus the outgoing Rio. Kia boasts that the new Rio has more interior space than the larger Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla.
The two cars have very different styles. On the outside, the Rio looks a bit derivative, especially with the flared, creased wheelwells like those on the Ford Focus, but arguably the simpler exterior is classy and clean. The Yaris sedan is attractive, rakish, and manages to stand out in a non-hideous way.
Toyota has done a great job making the Yaris's interior look distinctive. The choice of appointments and surfaces - more flamboyant and flashy than we've come to expect in a Toyota - looks like it would fit well in the Scion lineup and reminds us of the Scion tC. It's a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it design, though, with almost all of the controls and displays focused around a single center stack, topped off by the gauge cluster (speedometer still in the middle, like the Echo, Scion xA and xB), then the sound system below that and the climate controls down below. Materials aren't quite as nice to the touch as they were to look at, but still surprisingly good for a car that will start somewhere around the $12k mark.
Trendy or traditional?
The Rio's interior is different entirely - very straightforward and conventional. There aren't any big surprises, but it's what you'd expect in a small car design-wise, done with decent materials and tight assembly. Everything's right where you'd expect it to be if you've driven any of the Japanese-brand small cars in the recent past. The audio system is placed high, the climate control a set of three dials, mounted just below and out a little bit so as to be within easy reach, and the gauge cluster is easy to see.
It's simply amazing how these cars can fit four adults. Both of them have extremely well designed cabins and similar seating positions, though the Yaris's seats seem a bit more firm and supportive. In both cases, back-seat legroom is tight but tolerable for average adults even with the front seats at their rearmost position, and headroom was okay in back though it seemed a bit tighter in the Rio.
Now on to, which is the better performer of the two? In terms of power, there's not much of a difference - and they both weigh about the same, just short of 2400 pounds. At 110 hp and 108 lb-ft, the Rio makes four more hp and five more lb-ft than the Yaris.
There's no clear stopwatch-scorcher here, but the two do have different characteristics on the road. The Rio feels a little peppier from a standing start than the Yaris, though it's a minor enough difference to be due to slight differences in gearing or throttle calibration. We definitely noticed that the Rio had a more aggressively tuned gas pedal. The Rio 's engine was smoother than the Yaris' at the low revs and seemed to bring less noise and vibration into the cabin, but it becomes the coarser of the two as you pass the 4000-rpm mark.
For comparison purposes, we drove automatic versions of each. Their transmissions are both four-speeds and behave smoothly most of the time, with none of the jerky upshifts under heavy throttle that an automatic on a small car used to mean. Overall, for powertrain, it's a tossup, again with the Rio seeming a little quieter in normal driving. Both of them perform much better than expected for such low-priced rides.
Not much sport here
Now onto ride and handling. But first, another similarity: Both of the cars have struts in front and a torsion-beam axle setup in back, and both of these little sedans have a decent ride that's not nearly as choppy and busy as what was considered acceptable for small cars just a few years ago. In both cases, the ride is compliant enough to soak up most irregularities. The Yaris seems to have to firmer ride of the two, but the tides turn when you push them hard into corners or have to make a quick maneuver. The Rio rides softly and like a larger car, but when you expect it to be sloppy and throw it into a corner, it actually has good, predictable grip near the limit and decent body control. A possible reason is that the Rio has stabilizer bars front and back, while there's only one in front for the Yaris; also, the Rio gets standard 185-width tires, while the Yaris settles for 175-width.
So overall, for ride and handling, we'd give the Rio the slight advantage, though we wouldn't call either of these cars sporty or especially fun to drive. But both cars have tons of city-friendly maneuverability; they're easy to park with good visibility to boot; and they're still confident at highway speeds.
Stopping power, again, seemed virtually identical between the two cars - both cars have 10.0-inch front discs, combined with rear drums, but we liked the Kia's firm pedal feel a bit better. Neither the Rio nor the Yaris come with standard anti-lock brakes, which seems surprising given the otherwise generous level of standard equipment.
Speaking of standard equipment, front side airbags and curtain airbags were standard on the Rio LX we tested, but side airbags are optional on all Yaris models.
Fuel economy is no doubt a priority for buyers of a car in this class, and here the Yaris is the clear winner, getting five mpg more out of each gallon in the EPA city loop, for a winning 34 city, 39 highway with the automatic.
Worry-free for years
One of the main selling points of a car in this class, again, is that you get a new car for low overall running costs. The Kia is the winner here, with warranty coverage that far surpasses that on the Toyota - ten years or 100,000 miles on powertrain components and five years or 60,000 miles comprehensive. On the other hand, if existing Toyotas are any example, the Yaris may have a considerably higher resale value a few years down the line.
Both of these are much-improved, very agreeable little cars. Kia has taken a model that was a sluggish performer in some ways - one that frankly a lot of people might have preferred a used car to - and transformed it into a peppy city car that almost anyone coming from an older Civic or Corolla would be happy with. And Toyota has replaced the deft but stylistically at-odds Echo and turned it into a car that looks much more attractive, even a little sporty, and more functional, too.
Between these two, if looks are important, you'll probably find the Yaris a little more alluring - especially knowing that it isn't priced any higher than the Rio. If the flashy styling of the Yaris turns you off, the Rio might be a little plain but it's comfortable and surprisingly fun to zip around in.
If you opt for one of these, bear in mind that they're both very practical choices - not "must have" rides, but far from the "penalty box" that driving a small car once was.
2006 Kia Rio LX
Price: $13,295 base; $14,505 as tested
Engine: 1.6-liter in-line four, 110 hp/107 lb-ft
Drivetrain: Four-speed automatic transmission, front-wheel drive
Length x width x height: 166.9 x 66.7 x 57.9 in
Wheelbase: 98.4 in
Curb weight: 2365 lb
EPA (city/hwy): 29/38 mpg
Safety equipment: Front, front (seat-mounted) side, and side-curtain airbags; anti-lock brakes (optional)
Major standard equipment: Air conditioning, tilt steering, variable intermittent wipers, 60/40 fold-down rear seatback, AM/FM/CD sound system
Warranty: Five years/60,000 miles comprehensive; ten years/100,000 miles powertrain
2007 Toyota Yaris Sedan LE
Price: $14,000 (est. as equipped)
Engine: 1.5-liter in-line four, 106 hp/103 lb-ft
Drivetrain: Four-speed automatic, front-wheel drive
Length x width x height: 169.3 x 66.5 x 56.7in
Wheelbase: 100.4 in
Curb weight: 2326 lb
EPA (city/hwy): 34/39 mpg est.
Safety equipment: Front airbags; front side and side-curtain airbags (optional); anti-lock brakes (optional)
Major standard equipment: Air conditioning, tilt steering, 60/40 fold-down rear seatback, rear defroster, AM/FM/CD/MP3 sound system w/mini-jack
Warranty: Three years/36,000 miles comprehensive; five years/60,000 miles powertrain
source : thecarconnection