2009 Toyota Yaris

We started driving Toyota Yaris about eight months ago. We chose it mostly because it’s small and consume less gasoline compares to other sedan. Small, so that we can maneuver much easier when we’re stuck in Jakarta’s famous traffic. Changing lanes when there’s only tight space available is quite easy to do with this car. Because of its compact size, it is faster to be cleaned and consume less water. Another thing is that its compact size makes it easier for us to park it in our adequately sized three walled garage without fear of bumping any parts of the car on the walls or gate. I love the added security to start it because it’s a fact that most people (including us) though rarely but happen to forget to check the gear before starting the car and lead to many mishaps (the car jumps forward is one). This precaution at least won’t make the car suddenly jumped when started and who knows might start a chain of unfortunate events. The dashboard is ok and easily monitored. The many “pockets” around the dashboard are appreciated though because one can never have enough spaces to fill, especially for coins and parking tickets and others (we put in money notes and coins in different pockets and we have notes and envelopes ready in other pockets and some first aid kids in another pocket). We can’t still decide whether having easy access to the boot from the inside is a good thing or not because sometimes it’s kind of scary to realize that there’s a big open dark space behind you. The boot is easily converted if we need a bigger space at the back, however this mean no one can sit at the back seat because it will be folded down to create that space. I don’t really like its air-conditioner positions because it’s not very flexible. The back seats might not feel the cool air from the front while the front seats already are freezing because of the cold. Air-conditioner is one of the most important parts if you live in a tropical country like Indonesia, so the fact that it’s not distributed evenly is a bit inconvenient at the hottest days of the year. With this compact size comes the disadvantage of seats size. For those who have long legs, you can be assured that it won’t be too comfortable for you to sit at the back seat after a while. Compact size also means it’s pretty crowded already with only 4 of our family members in the car let alone 5. However, sometimes, one must forego some foreseen discomfort to enjoy the advantages offered. We would recommend this car for a young family or a family, with younger children, who require less parking space. Mostly we would recommend this car for those who live in big cities where traffic jams and lack of space are the facts of life. Our most memorable moment was when we were looking for a space to park in a mall, the parking lot was pretty full. First, we had to drive down a pretty steep and not too wide lane down to the underground level. We saw a big SUV in front of us scrapped the walls as the driver tried to maneuver slowly to no avail. Then there’s a sedan in front of us trying to park and after awhile the sedan gave up and when we tried, we drove right in with enough space to open the doors to get out.