Gadgetory

well I'll say this everything on this trailer has one important characteristic in common they're just fine when you got real essential basics to get covered let's go for a run in the 2012 Toyota Yaris se and check the tech now the Yaris like the Nissan Versa recently got a dose of organic redesign shape that looks like a ball a putty that was shoved in a latex glove I'm not a big fan of that school I like cheap cars to look simple and kind of handsome but so be it the RS is available in three trim levels and two body styles there's an L trim level mostly suitable for like messengers and people who carry blood supplies around real basic stuff then you've got the le and the SE which is the sport or special edition that's what we've got here and you can get a Yaris in three or five doors well well here we are in the Yaris now the thing that really inexpensive cars tend to do and often not do real well is try to hard inside to look like something that isn't plain that usually goes bad on a budget but they keep doing it here is a aftermarket looking head unit that's actually very Scion style but this is the upgraded unit because we're in SE if you get an L you get a real basic head unit with just four speakers we have six speakers and a little nicer rig that brings us an optical slot right here for discs AM an FM radio of course satellite radio is available notice we have aux and USB we'll get to those in a moment HD radio also interesting on a car this popular and low cost that makes the radio folks very happy I'm still not sure a lot of consumers know what that is or care now by the way the HD radio and the bluetooth streaming are part of this upper grade head unit the base unit wouldn't have those and finally here are some Bluetooth hands-free calling buttons which is also integrated into this unit now I mentioned aux and USB are interesting I'll give you a little time to find them take a minute take an hour take next quarter you still won't find them they're in here up and under way down there up in the north 40 but even better than that you'll find this in the glove box of your yards from a surplus sale at a closed State it'll for the mentally insane I'm pretty sure this is what you used to strap people down during violent encounters with the attendant no it's not that is it the hell is it it's a tire tie down belt apparently when you get a flat you stow it behind the back seat and carry it around like some kind of odd family heirloom I don't get that what you will find that it truly is from the Soviet era is this gear box that's a four-speed automatic kids you have never seen that before if you're under 30 what that means is it has four forward gears that's all not even one for every finger such things do exist but they typically haven't since the mid 80s do yourself a favor and get this guy with the 5-speed manual well there it is one and a half litres of four-cylinder sitting sidesaddle nothing too fancy about it except variable valve timing but what doesn't these days but this little basic engine does the basics well 106 horsepower 103 foot-pounds of torque modest yes but the car only weighs what 2,400 pounds yourself it gets up to 60 in a little over nine seconds that's actually kind of notable for a car at this price point to be sub ten seconds at zero to sixty it's a good benchmark MPG on this guy is thirty thirty eight almost in the vaunted forty club and that's with the manual gearbox which we don't have if you go with that soviet automatic we do have you lose three mpg on the highway that's substantial okay let's roll in the Yaris see it does what little cars often tend to do the power comes on willingly you can tell immediately without coming on forceful there's a difference okay so about that transmission now it's only got three plus one gears to work with right but you would think it's shifting a lot more gears because it's always shifting but that's because the gear jumps are very present because it makes big jumps or drops between cogs you really notice them more and they're a big event that's really where this kind of a transmission is going to bother you is you'll be in the wrong gear a lot more often and the cars to correct that a lot more often so in all it's just pleasant little high riding springy light input transportation think about it all of those things are basically everyday Pleasant on a day-to-day driving basis that's why this car sells so well okay Yaris is a cheap car but not the cheapest thing you can buy it's nearly fifteen base for an L with destination rolled in you can add another three grand almost to go SC with all the niceties in the tech that we saw on our car and of course the choice between three and five-door as well as that four-speed automatic and a five manual are key things to test out in person you