Buying a NEW car

Well, my method is the neurotic method of car-buying, so only follow my advice if you're not looking to buy immediately. (I.e. not anytime in the next 6 months lol...)

First off, the car site of all car sites: http://www.edmunds.com
Edmunds for the Yaris: http://www.edmunds.com/new/2007/toyo...chlanding.html

That should give you the "true cost to own" which is useful to know, and also the invoice price. You might try to haggle the dealer down to invoice at least, because even if they sell it to you for invoice they get what is called holdover money (from their parent company) and still profit. I do not know about your specific market, but for the Yaris you should be able to haggle them down a bit (vs. other similar cars like the Fit or Mini that they can barely keep on the lot).

Also, Edmunds has forums for each specific make/model, this thread may be of interest to you: http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0aeb8b/0

Crash test ratings: http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx
Crash test ratings for Yaris: http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=589
(In other words, get side airbags with your Yaris or say goodbye in a side impact crash...)

Yaris-specific Internet forum: http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/
I'm sure there are others, a 5-second search revealed this one. Forums often have several old-timers that are more knowledgeable than the people who make the cars themselves. Of course, that depends on the target demographic of the specific make/model you are interested in.

When I purchased the WRX, I had researched cars for 2 years. I knew every new usdm model that was confirmed for release for the next 12 months and every concept vehicle that was a possibility within the next 24 months after that. I still spend 1-5 hours weekly researching cars even though I am not looking to purchase anytime soon. I have about 5k posts on various car forums...

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by seferia

...but the fact that the phrase exists proves that Toyota is not infallible.

True! You cannot run on auto-pilot just because of a brand. For example, Honda makes great vehicles but I remember something about a certain year model of the Prelude having an automatic tranny that was pretty much guaranteed to fail... You have to look at the specific model and also the specific model year of a vehicle when doing research...

Originally Posted by Philia

Yeah I heard that Echo and the Yaris has a real slow response time when pulling out. Possibly that's why its not well liked by friends.

Actually, I have heard the opposite. I have heard the demise of the Echo lamented on car forums because it actually had better gas mileage than the Scions, for example, because of its gearing (for one thing).

There's nowhere I can't reach.