OK, here goes... Toyota Yaris is one of the worse [sic] cars on the planet. It's ugly, plainer than a pig's butt inside, has center stack guages, and I wouldn't be caught dead in one.

But seriously, I don't really see how it could be one of the worst, although their citing vague steering and poor acceleration may make it nerve-wracking merging and going on today's "deathrace 2000" highways around cities.

Now the FJ Cruiser - so glad it's on the list - thank you CR. The FJ Cruiser 'idea' had potential but the implementation is so poor. It's a solution looking for a problem no one has.

 

Sorry but no way in hell I'd get a Yaris over a Fit unless you like the Yaris exterior looks better. The Fit is based on an older design but it just "Fits". The Yaris interior is a damn mess and YELLS cheap.

Seriously, go to an auto show and sit in a Fit then sit in a Yaris and the difference is pretty obvious.

 

I have sat in both and I'm not arguing that the Fit has the better interior. Anyone can see that. But I'd never buy a Fit. It has awkward proportions and is ugly. I think the Yaris sedan is a much better looking car. The Yaris is also faster and yet achieves better gas mileage as well.

But at the end of the day I wouldn't buy either. I want a Civic!

 

People need to judge cars in perspective though.

The Yaris is about the 2nd or 3rd lowest starting priced car in America (after Aveo and Accent). Do people expect it to be among the better cars out there? If by definition cheapest makes you the "worse", then what's wrong with that. It should be the "worse". Just like the Aveo is probably the "worse". Hell, it's starts at $10K.

I would hope a million dollar car would be among the "best".

 

I've driven and/or reviewed a number of vehicles with the center-stack gauges, including the Toyota Yaris/Echo, Nissan Quest, Mini Cooper, Scion xA/xB, and Saturn Ion. While I respect the opinions of others, I'm not convinced. It is simply a cheap, low-cost method of doing both left and right-hand drive models for export.

 

I agree that the Yaris is no luxury car and is plain-looking inside, but the doors open and shut like vaults compared to some other small cars, and the hardware is well-done. That cannot be said for some other Toyota products today.

And the Fit, agreed, is larger and has more room inside than the tiny 3-door Yaris hatchback. And I agree the Fit's dash is more attractive......the Yaris center-stack gauges? Yes, IMO, you can HAVE them......see my posts above.

But both cars....the Fit and Yaris......show very high build quality no matter which one you personally prefer. (though, if you remember the Fit review I did two years ago in '06, I cut my finger on a very sharp piece of metal next to the hood catch while trying to open it.....it may have been a defect. It delayed the test-drive about a half-hour while the dealership got me a butterfly bandage and I had to want for the bleeding to stop)

 

It's just an average. If Honda had a car that scored 2nd on every list, and only lost out by a couple of points, it may have a better "average" showing than Hyundai. Hyundai's minivan is scored as having reliability "much worse than average"--that will bring the "average" rating for the entire car's line up down.

If you scored all A's--except for one class, where you got a B, would that mean you weren't a better student than the guy who had all C's, except for 1 A+?

 

The question is, did Honda have a car that scored 2nd in every category of this CR list?

 

No, that isn't the question. That's just an example of how Honda could have "averaged" better than all others. The best average score goes to the make that, company wide, had an average score better than the average score of all other makes (whether any individual car was 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). I haven't checked CR's math, but they report that company was Honda.

 

They stated what criteria they used for Honda placement, all of it's cars are on the recommended list, Toyota had several models not recommended. It's a reasonable criteria and it is more or less backed up by several other reporting agencies as well.

 

As I stated earlier, the vehicle categories of this Top 10 CR list cover almost the ENTIRE Honda US lineup. That means for Honda to have the best average out of all automakers, they MUST have placed 2nd or 3rd in every category on this list otherwise CR's math would not make sense.