Great inexpensive little car
Pros:
Affordable, reliable, great on gas, easy to park in tight spots.
Cons:
Not very powerful, difficult to maintain steady speeds on hills.
The Bottom Line:
Excellent car, as long as you understand what you're getting! It's not for everyone, but makes a great car for some people.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Don't buy this car if you want to be a race car driver! It's more like a go-cart. We bought this car new in 2004 while in Florida.
It is very reliable transportation. It is also wonderful on gas mileage - my wife is the primary driver, and at steady speeds and easy driving, she easily gets 40mph. With a 10 gallon gas tank, even when gas prices were at their highest, this car proved to be a good investment.
With that said, it's not a powerful car. We now live in Vermont, and the car is not great climbing hills. It can be hard to keep a steady speed going up without putting the gas pedal to the floor, which makes the car protest quite a bit. The car is also very light (2,000 lbs) so high winds can make driving a little difficult. We were worried about how the car would handle in the winter, but put studded snow tires on and had no problems.
As for the look of the car, it looks very small but feels quite roomy on the inside. It's got a large trunk and lots of "cubby" space inside. The oddest thing about this car is the placement of the spedometer - instead of directly in front of the steering wheel, it's located in the middle of the dashboard. It's an adjustment, but once you're used to it, it's fine.
It has had one "recall" issue. Apparently some have been having rust issues on the underbody in colder climates. Our car had only seen half a winter when we found out, so we brought it to a Toyota dealer for them to take the car apart and install a liner to prevent the problem. So if you buy the car used, you may want to check if this was ever corrected. Toyota will do it for free, and will send it to a body shop to remove any rust.
We got the very basic model, right off the lot. No power doors or windows, not even a CD player. It made the car extremely affordable brand new. I would recommend this car to people who want functionality and affordability. My wife loves it, and has no desire to change cars any time soon.
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