If Toyota can price and
If Toyota can price and market this right, I can see it doing well in the value car segment, unlike the Yaris or PriusC. The
This is like a sexy update to my 1989 Geo Metro 5-door LSI. Engine specs are comparable, 1.0-liter 3-cylinder. This is a bit heavier than the 1700 lb Metro, but more power and torque. The 5 door was technically a 5-seater, but not practically except for small people (e.g. kids). It was a popular vehicle for young families on a budget.
With the 5-speed manual, the Metro was spritely off the line because of the power to weight ratio. It got it's reputation for being a slug from the 3-speed automatic. I rented a 2-door with auto once and it did think for awhile after you floored the accelerator.
Until the first gen Prius, it was the only vehicle close to getting 50 MPG with a gas engine sold in the US. My prior vehicle was a Chevy Sprint ER and I bought the Metro because the wife insisted on 4-doors and I drove 30k miles a year as a field engineer. I made a net profit driving those cars including maintenance, insurance and depreciation. We had a number of Sprints and Metros in the family (much like we have Prii and other Toyota hybrids) and I found them incredibly reliable with proper maintenance. I spent a total of $300 for repairs over 187K miles. Would have been less, but I replaced the water pump when the timing belt was due and had a freak failure of the clutch diaphragm spring in single digit weather at 137k miles. Shop said it was the easiest clutch repair they had ever done because they only had to unbolt it from the engine. There was about 1/2 wear remaining on the clutch plate when that happened. I finally replaced the front disc pads at 140k. Never replaced the rear drum shoes. Got better gas mileage at 187k than new.
In 2000, I finally replaced it with the 1st Gen Prius, which was replaced by a Gen 2 at 180k miles which was replaced with a Gen 3 at 183k miles. That was replaced early with a Prime because dealer incentives and tax credits made the Prime about the same as Corolla hatchback. Until the Prime, the 2004 Gen2 was my favorite model overall. Going from Gen 3 to the Prime is a step up that is almost comparable to the Gen1 from the Metro in terms of comfort and refinement. The center console design is as stupid as heck, but I rarely have a passenger.