The three weirdest things about the all-new 2015 Toyota Yaris

The 2015 Toyota Yaris differs from other Toyota cars in some pretty obvious ways. It is a Toyota car, and it is not the sales leader in its category. That’s unusual. It also has a brand-new grill, but not the one that Corolla, Avalon, and Camry have switched to in their recent redesigns. Here at the three that stuck out at a recent media launch I attended.

The Yaris is Imported From France
First of all, Toyota doesn’t import many cars and trucks to the North American market anymore. In fact, it makes cars and trucks in the US and then exports them to other countries. That’s right. All that “made in ‘Murica” stuff has been turned on its head. If Toyota were making the Yaris in Japan, we would not be at all surprised. Many Lexus cars are still made there and brought to the US. But France? Why France? This makes about as much sense at Ford making its Transit Connect in Turkey or the Camaro being made in Canada.

One Humongous Wiper
The Yaris also has a strange windshield wiper. It is one huge, articulating arm that wipes the entire windshield. Mercedes and others have experimented with this. Ford likes to have them work backwards with the arms mounted out near the fenders, but the one huge arm is more than a little strange.

Dealer Installed Nav
You cannot buy a Yaris that has navigation. You can buy one from a dealer who will retrofit a navigation system into your Yaris though. My neighbor has a 1978 International Scout. It has dealer installed air conditioning. I believe that is the last time anyone in America was happy to hear about a dealer installed option. Clearly, Toyota expects many of its customers to be younger, phone savvy buyers that will use a free app instead of shelling out thousands for an options package. Maybe some of these weird new Toyota ideas aren’t so crazy.

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