Great little car - Highly recommend

Author's Rating:

Pros: Cost, mileage, interior volume, value for money

Cons: Haven't found any after 2 and a half years.

The Bottom Line: 
What a great little car. We love it. Ultra reliable and comfortable, great on mileage and has lots of room. If you want to drag race look elsewhere.

Author's Review
If you need a fuel efficient, comfy, relatively spacious mini-SUV, this car is for you.

We have the base model with the 5-speed. I added the side airbags and ABS for safety.

We currently have about 33000 miles on it and haven't had a single problem. Reliability is Toyota great. Oh....you didn't know that this is essentially a Toyota? Well it is. The engine and drive train are Toyota and have a good reliability record.

Now lets get down to the details:

Performance: Well, its a relatively small engine pulling a 2700 lb vehicle with a COD (drag coefficient) that isn't too good. You won't win any drag races and don't count on pulling anything. Overall its relatively slow off the mark. Having said that though it doesn't lean too much in corners and stops extremely well (braking is a high point and I'm talking the regular brakes). Merging on the highway might take some careful planning. Once you get going though it is fun to drive.
Great little clutch, easy engagement and smooth changes.

Looks: The paint is pretty good quality. Doesn't chip too easily (except on the body coloured plastic panels which don't stand up well to having a vacuum cleaner hose dragged over them). I like the overall style. Clean and sharp. Nicer than its splashier cousin the "Matrix" from Toyota.

Function: It has decent ground clearance which makes it more SUV like. You sit up reasonably high and the step-in to the drivers seat is effortless. The trunk is fantastic with everything folding flat to give a tremendous amount of room. I still have trouble believing some of the things we have brought home from stores in this thing.
I haven't tried the roof rack yet, but will probably give it a workout this weekend bringing home some large rolls of insulation. I expect it will work well (like everything else).

Mileage is really quite good. Average between 33-34 in relatively rural driving.

Interior: The seats are extremely comfy. We take it for a 3000 mile trip each Christmas to visit relatives and love it. No sore rear ends at all. The ride is quite comfy too. The quality of the internal gear is not bad really. A little plasticky, but what do you expect for 15k-20k? The seat fabric is good and easy to clean (one of our children rides horses so we spend a lot of time at barns, i.e. dust and dirt). I can't say enough about the cargo area being easy to use and large (with the seats folded down that is). If you don't fold the seats down the "trunk" is good for about 5 shopping bags.
The stereo isn't bad. Didn't splurge for the upgraded system. Don't really miss it.
The 110v plug is great. We use it to run a laptop to play DVDs for the kids during long trips. What a great idea.

Outside: The OEM tires aren't great (as usual), but I've replaced them with some Kumho Ecsta for some high spirited summer driving and some Michelin Alpine winter tires for.....the winter.
Headlights are powerfull. I'm pretty impressed. Daylight sensors turn them on reasonably efficiently. Lights on for safety is alright by me.

Maintenance: Easy. Not much to do. Do my own oil changes without even jacking up the car. You can reach the filter (if you are relatively skinny) and the drain plug from under the front bumper. I've put in Mobil 1 and K&N oil filters from day one to keep this baby happy. That little engine works quite hard. Other than that I've changed the cabin air filter and the engine air filter (twice) and thats about it.

Summary: What a great little car. Fun to drive, inexpensive to run and maintain. Can't say enough things about it. Plus.....its basically a Toyota. Go for it, you won't be disappointed.