Och

iTrader: (3)

120mph on a public road in ANY car is crazy, and downright retarded. You may get away with it once or twice, but eventually you're either gonna lose your drivers license (best case scenario) or get yourself and other killed/seriously injured.

Whats a safe speed limit? I don't know. Depends on many factors - road and weather conditions, traffic conditions, the car, and the driver. I personally try to never exceed 80mph. When cruising down a nice interstate, I usually go at around 10 over the limit (65-75mph depending on location).

Bretsuaz

I had an 07 yaris sedan. It was a great car. Had 35k miles on it wehen I got rid of it and I never had one problem with that car. I have owned many new cars in my life, and this was one of the best. When I traded it in, people were laughing because I was trading it in on a 2007 Tundra. When they were parked next to each other it made the Yaris look really small.

spwolf

80 mph is legal limit in most countries in europe, and people with their 1.0l Yarii do that... most of them go 95mph which is maximum speed of 3cly Yarii, and is still speed where police wont stop you.

Yaris will not trip over itself at those speeds.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Right, but you have to understand that accidents do happen. And accidents are a lot more likely to be fatal at high rates of speeds. And at 95mph, its easy to make a mistake and get yourself into an accident.

Also, on a side note, a lot of all season tires are barely rated for speeds of 95mph.

spwolf

our highways have a lot less exits, so it is a lot safer to drive fast. After all, it wouldnt be an legal limit otherwise. As you have read, Europeans do like to limit everything they can ;-).

Additionally, Yaris is very light car, and it is quite safe with its 15" wheels. Old generation Yaris with 13" and very thin wheels is another story of course.

SLegacy99

Someone give him a Prius so he can rack up 400k miles on that. Then we could get some fine long term data.

-J-P-L-

He's been driving like this for quite a while. His last car was a Mazda Protege, which was a well built car, and he took it to about 300,000 miles. It wasn't nearly as trouble free though.

I doubt he would get a Prius though. Especially since he drives over 90% highway (Prius shines most in city). The price premium of a Prius over a Yaris just to get 10 mpg more isn't worth it plus the potential need for an expensive battery replacement which in this guy's case would be a short time.

IMO, there's only 2 cars on the market that make economic sense for this type of extreme driving. The Yaris and the Honda Fit. This conclusion is based on combining low initial purchase price, low maintenance cost, fuel economy, and long term durability. If I were to add just one more option, it would be the Scion xD which is actually more comparable to Fit than the Yaris.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

his gas pedal was stuck the whole time so just decided to drive around the nation

SLegacy99

Irrelevant. Prius has the best Hwy fuel economy rating in the country...unless perhaps he got a bike.

Trexus

Don't forget the Nissan Versa which would make sense for all that long driving...

I would assume his next goal is to reach 500,000 miles...

-J-P-L-

Of course, but people seem to forget a huge point. That the Prius, on average, cost $10,000 more than a Yaris. That's a LOT of gas. So for 10 mpg more on the highway, it's hard to justify. Am I saying people shouldn't get a Prius? No, I love the Prius. It's a more luxurious car so I understand that it isn't just an MPG comparison. But many don't need the premium qualities of a Prius. For a 1-man high mileage workhorse, a simple, cheap, reliable car is the way to go.

I didn't accidentally forget the Versa. ...Or the Accent, Aveo, SX4, Rio, Smart, ect.

The Versa and Accent are good cars but they just don't stack up in quality and combined with the lower FE, and ugly styling, not a good choice IMO.
Don't get me wrong, the Versa and Accent's quality isn't bad but the Versa has had some initial issues and the Accent isn't proven long term like Toyota and Honda (yet). I still doubt, with good reason, that a Hyundai wouldn't make it to 400K with almost no repairs.

Oh, and his ultimate goal, which he sees as probable, is reaching 1,000,000 miles.

SLegacy99

Yaris: 29/36 MPG
Fit: 28/35
Cobalt: 25/37
Versa: 28/34

-J-P-L-

That's the Cobalt XFE - a high gear manual. Problem is, the Cobalt is junk.

SLegacy99

I don't care for Chevy at all, but the Cobalt is far from junk.

Let's run some number shall we.


Yaris: 29/36 MPG $12,605 (hatch), $13,365 (sedan)
Fit: 28/35, $14,900
Cobalt: 25/37 $15,670
Versa: 28/34, $13,150
Prius II: 51/48, $22,800
Insight: 40/43, $19,800

So if gas is $3.00 a gallon and we go by all highway miles for the sake of simplicity and I will calculate the cost of fuel added to the cost of the car.

Yaris: Uses 11,111 gallons, costing $33,333 in fuel = $45,938 (hatch) or $46,698 (sedan)
Fit: Uses 11,428 gallons, costing $34,285 in fuel = $49,157
Cobalt: Uses 10,810 gallons, costing $32,432 = $48,102
Versa: Uses 11,764 gallons, costing $35,294 = $48,444
Prius: Uses 8,333 gallons, costing $25,000 = $47,800
Insight: Uses 9,302 gallons, costing $27,906 = $47,706


Looks like he already has the best vehicle. Though I wonder how maintence costs would impact this. If we ever see a Prius I that might become the best option. Which leads me to the point that of course these vehicles are not optioned the same. But as far as base models go, this is it.

I should also note that cruise control is not standard on Yaris and I could not add it on the 3 door hatch model. The next cheapest trim that the site would allow me to add cruise control on was the sedan and it came in at $16,735. I could not add cruise control without adding a whole package of options. I would think that cruise control would be quite important if you were going to drive this much.

lamar411

I just have to add what i think about the cobalt. my camry was in a minor accident and i am stuck with a rental cobalt. i have a 50 mile commute that was fine in the camry but its a total pain in the cobalt, the seats are uncomfertable and the controls are very flimsy. The leg room wasn't great either when i had to take my five foot 8 son in the back with someone around 5 ft in the front. i would take the yaris over the cobalt anytime. ive driven a yaris and i enjoyed it.