2005 Echo - does it exist
kgold
doesn't exist, or that they're just not being sold in my region -
Connecticut, USA.
Is anyone getting them?
2003's with 40K are getting MSRP around here!
--
Ken Goldman kg...@watson.ibm.com 914-784-7646
Mark Schofield
secondhand- for the same price as I paid for my daughter's Echo new two
years ago. I'd keep away from the Scion xA as an alternative. The mpg is
nowhere as good, although my wife loves hers. On Edmonds.com they note
"limited production" Toyota.com shows the "Yaris" comming in spring 06 as
the replacement. I'd wait till the spring.
"kgold" <kg...@watson.ibm.com> wrote in message
news:434d6...@news1.prserv.net...
Hachiroku
> The dealers in my area are saying that either the 2005 or 2006 Echo
> doesn't exist, or that they're just not being sold in my region -
> Connecticut, USA.
>
> Is anyone getting them?
>
> 2003's with 40K are getting MSRP around here!
Discontinued in the US, but not in Canada!
Go figure. I would guess a 38-45 MPG car would be flying out the door!
Mark Schofield
http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/future/yaris.html
"kgold" <kg...@watson.ibm.com> wrote in message
news:434d6...@news1.prserv.net...
FanJet
Whatever happened to puting the instumentaion in front of the *driver*?
Brian Gordon
Where you had to twist and strain to see it through the steering wheel?
--
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WickeddollŽ
"Brian Gordon" <bri...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:dik9tl$il8$1...@reader1.panix.com...
> In article <fLh3f.197$Xj4....@monger.newsread.com>,
> FanJet <FanJ...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>Mark Schofield wrote:
>>> check this out
>>>
>>> http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/future/yaris.html
>>
>>Whatever happened to puting the instumentaion in front of the *driver*?
>>
>>
>
> Where you had to twist and strain to see it through the steering wheel?
Amen! I'll never go back to left-mounted instrumentation, if I can avoid it
Natalie
Hachiroku
1. when you're building a car for the world market, you need two different
dashboards. This way, you make ONE dashboard, and two instrument clusters,
which you would have to do anyway!
2. Ever driven one? After the initial 'shock' of it not being where you
expect, it's actually in a good sot for looking at while you're driving!
What IS unnerving, however, is the lack of illumination of the steering
mounted controls at night; tha stalks and the buttons on the wheel. It's
dark!
WickeddollŽ
"Hachiroku" <Tru...@ae86.gts> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.10.13....@ae86.gts...
> On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:20:27 +0000, FanJet wrote:
>
>> Mark Schofield wrote:
>>> check this out
>>>
>>> http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/future/yaris.html
>>
>> Whatever happened to puting the instumentaion in front of the *driver*?
>
> 1. when you're building a car for the world market, you need two different
> dashboards. This way, you make ONE dashboard, and two instrument clusters,
> which you would have to do anyway!
>
> 2. Ever driven one? After the initial 'shock' of it not being where you
> expect, it's actually in a good spot for looking at while you're driving!
Yup!
>
> What IS unnerving, however, is the lack of illumination of the steering
> mounted controls at night; tha stalks and the buttons on the wheel. It's
> dark!
I don't have that problem - have you turned the light level down?
;-)
Natalie
Hachiroku
(Actually, it was a Prius, but similar dash!)
>
> ;-)
>
> Natalie
Brent Secombe
<Tru...@ae86.gts> wrote:
This is very true. It would be easy to get illumination power to the
steering wheel, and while you were at it you could gently warm the rim.
Heated seats are nice, but a heated wheel would do away withe need for
clumsy gloves.
Brent
FanJet
> In article <fLh3f.197$Xj4....@monger.newsread.com>,
> FanJet <FanJ...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Mark Schofield wrote:
>>> check this out
>>>
>>> http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/future/yaris.html
>>
>> Whatever happened to puting the instumentaion in front of the
>> *driver*?
>>
>>
>
> Where you had to twist and strain to see it through the steering
> wheel?
Never had the problem and I don't like the placement on the mini-cooper
either. If it's cute enough I'd buy one but I think my vote's still for the
Smartcar.
Buck Frobisher
news:121020052236452185%bseco...@yahoo.co.uk...
> This is very true. It would be easy to get illumination power to the
> steering wheel, and while you were at it you could gently warm the rim.
> Heated seats are nice, but a heated wheel would do away withe need for
> clumsy gloves.
>
> Brent
Thing I don't like about the dash is that there is no durn light on the
ashtray!
ps: I drove a 1,300 kilometre round trip several times over the summer.
Automatic sedan, with the AC on, cruising mostly at 110-115kph I got 46 MPG.
But that's an Imperial gallon, and I converted it all from metric anyway, so
who in hell knows if it's right?
Hachiroku
I would guess. I had a '95 Tercel, basically the same car, and averaged
over 40 MPG during the period I owned the car.
Brent Secombe
wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:20:27 +0000, FanJet wrote:
>
> For what reason? so it can be what you are used to?
Perhaps, but that's not a bad reason. In an emergency you're likely to
do what you're used to doing. If you're accustomed to finding the
instrumentation with a simple downward glance, having to look downward
and rightward will take longer.
The elevated cost of satisfying the opposing demands of left- and
right-hand drive dosn't justify making the instrumentation's location
unfamilar to both. Each car is driven by one person at a time, and the
driver shouldn't have to pay a penalty just because other countries
have different standards.
The Prius has unusual instrumentation and controls, but those
innovations don't involve the controls and data a driver needs
suddenly. The brake pedal, the accelerator, the steering wheel, the
speedometer, the horn -- those and other vital controls are where you'd
expect, and they function conventionally.
By arraying the gauges and alerts horizontally beneath the windscreen,
Toyota has made it easy to site the crucial readouts (speedometer, etc)
at one end or the other, placing them in front of either the lefthand
or righthand driver as needed. That's smart design.
And BTW when you look at those crucial readouts, you're not viewing
them directly. You're seeing their reflection in a 45-degree mirror.
Could Toyota be anticipating the day when those readouts will be part
of a head-up display system wherein the data appear to float in the
driver's field of view? That would require no looking downward at all,
merely a small refocusing of the eyes.
I suspect the Prius is a rolling testbed for Toyota's broader plans.
Brent
Buck Frobisher
replace it.
The hackback is the Yaris. Havne't seen one on the road yet.
kgold
> I don't think you'll find one. I saw an 03 in Saybrook/Loernson Toyota-
> secondhand- for the same price as I paid for my daughter's Echo new two
> years ago. I'd keep away from the Scion xA as an alternative. The mpg is
> nowhere as good, although my wife loves hers. On Edmonds.com they note
> "limited production" Toyota.com shows the "Yaris" comming in spring 06 as
> the replacement. I'd wait till the spring.
According to the dealers around here, the Yaris will be Echo-sized but
with a big engine and nowhere near the same gas mileage, a hatchback,
and loaded with toys and power everything, so much more expensive.
kgold
>
> Whatever happened to puting the instumentaion in front of the *driver*?
Having driven an Echo for two years, you get used to it very quickly.
And then you find:
- no matter your height or seat adjustment, the steering wheel never
blocks anything.
- there are no bothersome reflections from the instruments at night.
I don't think this is a big issue either way, but I like the centered
instruments.
I do miss the temperature gauge, though.
kgold
>
> Perhaps, but that's not a bad reason. In an emergency you're likely to
> do what you're used to doing. If you're accustomed to finding the
> instrumentation with a simple downward glance, having to look downward
> and rightward will take longer.
1 - I'm trying to imagine an emergency that requires a quick look at
the instruments.
Ah, got one. "Oops, a radar trap - quick - how fast am I going" :-)
2 - It took me just a few days to get used to the center mounted
instruments. For a car purchase, it's really not an issue.
For a rental car, I agree that a more typical layout is better. Years
ago, Fords had strange controls - horn on a stalk, strange headlight
switch, even an unusual method for removing the key, and I hated
renting a Ford.
High Tech Misfit
> According to the dealers around here, the Yaris will be Echo-sized but
> with a big engine and nowhere near the same gas mileage, a hatchback,
> and loaded with toys and power everything, so much more expensive.
Either those dealers are uninformed, or it is different between the U.S. and
Canadian models. The Canadian model comes in three trim levels and costs
only a little more than the Echo, and gets about the same gas mileage. The
engine is a re-tuned version of the Echo's engine but has about the same
amount of power.
Source: http://www.canadiandriver.com/testdrives/06yaris.htm
High Tech Misfit
> For a rental car, I agree that a more typical layout is better. Years
> ago, Fords had strange controls - horn on a stalk, strange headlight
> switch, even an unusual method for removing the key, and I hated
> renting a Ford.
I remember those God-awful "pod" controls for lights and wipers that Pontiac
used in some of their cars in the late 80s/early 90s.
Hachiroku
> Brent Secombe <bseco...@yahoo.co.uk> writes:
>>
>> Perhaps, but that's not a bad reason. In an emergency you're likely to
>> do what you're used to doing. If you're accustomed to finding the
>> instrumentation with a simple downward glance, having to look downward
>> and rightward will take longer.
>
> 1 - I'm trying to imagine an emergency that requires a quick look at
> the instruments.
>
> Ah, got one. "Oops, a radar trap - quick - how fast am I going" :-)
That's what I was thinking, but there's also: I smell Maple Syrup.
Oops..not temp guage in the Echo...
>
> 2 - It took me just a few days to get used to the center mounted
> instruments. For a car purchase, it's really not an issue.
>
> For a rental car, I agree that a more typical layout is better. Years
> ago, Fords had strange controls - horn on a stalk, strange headlight
> switch, even an unusual method for removing the key, and I hated
> renting a Ford.
And we hated owning a Ford. After YEARS of hitting the center of the
steering whell, you now have a car backing out of a driveway, looking the
other way ,and you hit the center of the wheel, and...NOTHING!!!
Locking up the brakes in a full sideways skid always got their attention!
"Better Idea", huh...
WickeddollŽ
I also miss the tachometer, but I've heard that it's included in the newer
models. I have the prototype
Natalie
kgold
>
> I also miss the tachometer, but I've heard that it's included in the newer
> models. I have the prototype
The 2003 has a tachometer, but I typically shift by ear anyway.
WickeddollŽ
> "Wickeddoll®" <wickeddoll1958...@yahoo.com> writes:
>>
>> I also miss the tachometer, but I've heard that it's included in the
>> newer
>> models. I have the prototype
>
> The 2003 has a tachometer, but I typically shift by ear anyway.
>
> --
> Ken Goldman
I shift by pushing the gas pedal down further....
:-)
Natalie
merdea...@yahoo.com
Pretty cool 3d views of the interior. Yaris has been launched early in
Canada (October, 2005) and the will be launched this spring in the USA.
A sedan version is apparently in the works.
If you want a unique car, forgetaboutit. The Yaris hatchback is well on
its way to becoming a modern day VW bug. Unfortunately, instead of
Lindsey Lohan, they hired some looser from Toronto (Uncle Yaris) to
star in all the commercials. Apparently (although I find this hard to
believe), the marketing campaign is the most expensive automobile
publicity campaign in the history of Canada.
The commercials suck. However, being 31, I'm over the hill for Toyota's
target audience of under 30.
I don't like the look of the Yaris. I prefer the look of my Echo
hatchback. The Echo is smaller and lighter. There was talk of a hybrid
version but I guess only the lucky early adopting Japanese will have
access to it.
One review said the Canadian Yaris has been slightly modified for
Canada's harsh winters. Something about steering. However, I haven't
seen that confirmed anywhere. The Canadian version is made in Japan.
There will be plenty of small cars to choose from this Spring in North
America, something we haven't been used to. I'd buy the Mercedes B
class hatchback, but for C$30,000, I'll have to wait until I get a job.
I must be part of the target audience for the made in Canada Toyota
Corola. The commercials are hilarious. I think they are the best
commercials on TV. Premise: Father approves of daughter's date as soon
as the Corolla pulls up to the curb. Cut to scene of daughter entering
car. Variations: driver/date is a jock, a nerd, a girl (they kiss!),
three jocks. Too funny. If there was a hatchback version, I'd buy it.
Sam in Canada.
PS. I live on the border and I regularly get my car searched by US
customs. Not once have they checked the storage compartment under the
seat. Loaded with weed or prescription drugs, one could easily pay for
the car while making weekly crossings. Uncle Yaris would approve (as
would Lindsay Lohan, I'm sure).
-------------------
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