2014 Toyota Yaris L 3-Door Little Notes Review

The 2014 Toyota Yaris L 3-Door comes in at a base price of $15,980 with our tester topping off at $16,477.

Basic wheels with some ergonomic quirks

ASSOCIATE EDITOR GRAHAM KOZAK: The first thing you notice about the Yaris is that it's sort of an adventure in unusual ergonomics. I didn't twist and contort myself into the back seats of this three-door subcompact, but the front seat was strange enough with its foreign, upright height (there's no height adjustment lever, so you either love it or leave it). The steering wheel barely elevates enough to miss my knees, and I'm not particularly lanky.

Once you get used to the seating position, though, spending a night in a car as stripped-down as this Yaris was refreshing. Does one really need power widows? In the depths of a Michigan winter, no. Automatic climate control? Nah, just turn the dial yourself. Power mirrors? Well, probably not -- although it can be a bit frustrating if you switch drivers frequently. Anti-lock brakes? The Yaris has those, though I'm sure if there was some way to make ABS manually actuated, Toyota would have gone with that on this car.

It might be easy for me to say that you can live without power-everything; after all, I was only subjected to this most basic of transportation modules for one night. Really, though, you adjust pretty rapidly to the lack of gizmos, and if your second car (assuming you have one) isn't full of cutting-edge tech, I don't think you'll miss them too much in the long run.

So my contentions with this car have almost nothing to do with its relative lack of features. To start, material quality just isn't that great. Hard plastics abound, and when they're patterned/textured, those patterns are pretty weird. Here, we're treated to a dashboard contrast panel that looks like it's covered in spit-out sesame seeds spray-painted gray.

Then, there's price. As Jake mentions below, this could make a perfectly acceptable bargain basement car for someone who can't afford much, or simply doesn't need any frills. Except, of course, for that sticker: You can take your pick of better-equipped used-car substitutes for this Yaris' $16,500 MSRP.

Ever wonder what could make a Mitsubishi Mirageseem like a well-equipped luxobarge? Here it is.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR JAKE LINGEMAN: This is really about as basic as transportation gets these days. Crank windows? Four-speed auto? Yikes.

I will say that the 2013 Toyota Yaris L 3-Door got me home through a pretty serious snow storm, without much of a whimper. It also ran down potholes and heaving pavement with aplomb. One thing that confused me was the traction control system, which would turn off when I hit the button, but turn back on every few minutes. I kept it off most of the time in the snow; I'm more concerned about getting stuck than flying wildly out of control.

I really hate the seating position in this car. Like the Nissan Cube and a few others, it feels like you're sitting on top of the car, almost as if you'll fall forward out of your seat. At least in the Cube, you can throw your arm out the window like a pickup truck; you can't really do that in this car. The seatbelt is also set pretty far back, making occupants twist their spines to grab it before taking off. As for the sheetmetal, it's a cute little car.

Throw a manual in it, which Toyota does offer; power windows and a seat height-adjustment lever, and this would be a perfectly acceptable bargain-basement car.

2014 Toyota Yaris L 3-Door

Base Price: $15,980

As-Tested Price: $16,477

Drivetrain: 1.5-liter I4; FWD, four-speed automatic

Output: 106 hp @ 6,000 rpm, 103 lb-ft @ 4,200 rpm

Curb Weight: 2,315 lb

Fuel Economy (EPA City/Highway/Combined): 30/36/32 mpg

AW Observed Fuel Economy: 29.6 mpg

Options: Rear spoiler ($329); carpeted floor mats/cargo mat ($180); cargo net ($49); first aid kit ($29)

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By: Graham Kozak on 4/04/2014
2014 Toyota Yaris L 3-Door Little Notes Review