Test drove a Yaris today. Now to hunt down the only Smart in town..

[deltadart]

Ate lunch over by the Toyota dealer today so afterwards went over to take a look at the Yaris. My wife hates this cause all our married life i'm always pulling into a car dealership. Of course a salesman spotted us right away and we got barely stopped and he was right there to assist us. Saw a red 2 door 5-speed. My wife said she would rather it had the autotrans but admitted it was rather fun to drive with the 5 speed. To tell you the truth it's a nice car but the one thing I hate about it is the placement of the gauges. What the heck is Toyota thinking. That being said now I want to drive a Smart just to compare the two. I saw a yellow one a couple of times so i'm half tempted to follow the guy home and pay him $10 to take a test drive. With all the attention and questions that you Smart owners get I think Smart should send you a few bucks for doing PR for them.

[NCC1701]

Originally Posted by deltadart

I saw a yellow one a couple of times so i'm half tempted to follow the guy home and pay him $10 to take a test drive. With all the attention and questions that you Smart owners get I think Smart should send you a few bucks for doing PR for them.

Heck, just yesterday (my first full day of ownership) a stranger offered me $20 just to LOOK at my car.

Yeah, we probably should get some benefits from smart. Two days and I've answered questions ... hell, in just two days I've already lost track of how many times. While it's still fun, I can foresee a time when the attention might get old if smarts don't become more common in my neck of the woods.

[Dave Van]

Yaris dash layout is so they can use it for left or right hand drive car w/o mods.....

[saskdiesel]

The reason I bought my Fit was that the Yaris is not only ugly but the gauges in the middle??

[MENSA42]

Originally Posted by NCC1701

Heck, just yesterday (my first full day of ownership) a stranger offered me $20 just to LOOK at my car.

yea, i think a test drive is gonna run ya at least $50!!!

Originally Posted by saskdiesel

The reason I bought my Fit was that the Yaris is not only ugly but the gauges in the middle??

my guess is that they think it's safer to have the gages in the middle where they can be viewed 'unobstructed' by your hands and arms while on the steering wheel.

the wifes Ion has the same set up......not sure what i think about it. i DO know i DON'T like driving her car. not because of the gages, just because it's no Toyota, Honda or SMART!

[SmartBob]

The center gauge cluster is real easy to get used to. The other day a friend said something about it and I had totally forgot that it was in the middle.......not a problem at all.

[chieftmc]

Originally Posted by Jeepster55

......... i DO know i DON'T like driving her car. not because of the gages, just because it's no Toyota, Honda or SMART!

And your Jeep is?!

[Rmichael1]

I let a friend of mine test drive my smart last night. She loved it but her husband, who was not there, is worried about safety. Another friend of mine has a Yaris and he does not like it although he loved it at first. I'll have to ask him why.

[WhiteNBlack08]

Originally Posted by deltadart

Ate lunch over by the Toyota dealer today so afterwards went over to take a look at the Yaris. My wife hates this cause all our married life i'm always pulling into a car dealership. Of course a salesman spotted us right away and we got barely stopped and he was right there to assist us. Saw a red 2 door 5-speed. My wife said she would rather it had the autotrans but admitted it was rather fun to drive with the 5 speed. To tell you the truth it's a nice car but the one thing I hate about it is the placement of the gauges. What the heck is Toyota thinking. That being said now I want to drive a Smart just to compare the two. I saw a yellow one a couple of times so i'm half tempted to follow the guy home and pay him $10 to take a test drive. With all the attention and questions that you Smart owners get I think Smart should send you a few bucks for doing PR for them.

No offense, but if some stranger comes up to me and asks to drive my smart, I'm going to tell him to pack sand. I don't ever let other family members drive my cars(except my wife of course)!

[martek@wcnet.org]

Me too, no one drives my Smart but me. I love people to sit in it to get the idea of how large it is inside, but driving it, No No!!!!