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Original poster

Does anybody drive a Toyota Yaris or Mazda 2 or similar?

14 replies

Cattleprod · 19/05/2011 14:48

I'm looking to buy a small secondhand car that's cheap to run, tax, insure and repair. It needs to have 5 doors, and the budget is £2000-3000, so it has to be a model that's been around for a few years and become affordable.

Toyota Yaris and Mazda 2 look like the sort of thing I'm after. Other options are the Ford Fiesta (bit dull?) Vauxhall Corsa and a few others.

Does anybody have one of the above cars? Does it comfortably fit two car seats in the back? Is there room in the boot for a buggy? Do you like it? Would you recommend it?

Thankyou! Smile

OP posts:
HarrietJones · 19/05/2011 16:04

I've got a yaris. I love it. Mines a 53 and worth about 2k. It's a v good runner, I've had it 6 years & not done any work on it. I have dd2 on a booster & dd3 in a 0 car seat onisofix and dd1 (5ft) fits in the middle.
My pram fits in the boot.

The back row of seats slide back& forward to make the boot bigger & I've had all sorts of suitcases & abike in there (pre dd3)

They also come out v well in safety tests, someone spun me & I only had a little dint & they were quite bashed!

RhinestoneCowgirl · 19/05/2011 16:08

We have a Yaris, it's our family car. Ours is fairly old now (2002) and we've had for about 6 yrs. It's always been really reliable.

We have a 4yr old and a 2.5yr old and easily get their car seats in the back. There isn't a huge boot with the back seats slid back but we can fit the buggy in. For holidays we have a roof box.

Original poster
Cattleprod · 19/05/2011 18:18

Thats interesting to hear about a third person fitting in the back between the two car seats. Is it a bit of a squeeze for her or could a slim adult fit? I would have a 3.5 yr old in a maxi cosi tobi, and a newborn seat for the first few months, moving on to a maxi cosi and an age 4+ booster.

Also the roofbox would be good as I need one for work. Would a reasonably large roofbox fit? I assume this means that Yarisses come with the roof rails etc to fit them to?

OP posts:
kirrinIsland · 19/05/2011 18:24

I have an 05 diesel yaris and it's great. Can't comment on the child seats as I only have one so far, but the pram fits in the boot just fine. It's very economical too - £35 tax and pretty much runs on fumes :)

Original poster
Cattleprod · 19/05/2011 19:13

Sounds like a unanimous thumbs up to the Yaris. £35 tax! Is that because it's a diesel? The petrol one I looked at on autotrader said about £115 tax iirc.

OP posts:
HarrietJones · 19/05/2011 19:15

Yy v ecomincal, I'm still doing 50mpg and it's getting on a bit.
Dd1 is v slim so not sure a normal adult would fit although a skinny one should be ok, I've never checked how much space she has Blush

Don't have roof bars on ours but the other car has them fitted & they were cheap to do

HarrietJones · 19/05/2011 19:16

Mine is 1.3 & petrol . Think its £115 tax. The cheap tax might be on newer ones or the 1L /1.1 ones

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 19/05/2011 19:21

I've got a newish Yaris (59 reg) and love it. We use it as a main family car now, but use DH's bigger car for holidays. We have two children (aged 5 and 7) in stage 2 car seats, I would say only the most stick thin adult would fit in between them and we had finished with pushchairs before we bought it, but it is cheap to run (ours is £35 tax but that's because it has the new Ecodrive petrol engine, think that was probably only introduced in the last year or two). Before that I had a Toyota Corolla for 10 years and it was by far the most reliable car I have ever had and managed 120k miles with only routine servicing and a few tyre changes.

hocuspontas · 19/05/2011 19:21

Love my Yaris. 7 years old and very reliable. Plenty of room for 3 older children in the back plus weekly shop in the boot. If I was going to fault it at all it would be the inability to pull away in 2nd gear from a not-quite-stopped position. Very annoying but it might just be the model I have.

kirrinIsland · 20/05/2011 07:51

Yes, the cheap tax is because it's diesel.

pollyhelene · 21/10/2011 19:24

I've got a Mazda and I love it. unfortunately i am on this board because a tiny babystyle oyster only fits in the boot with the parcel shelf off, or if you put the seats forward. So it will be fine for the first one, on the way, but we will have to upgrade if we need a double buggy at some point - which we hope to.

I should think a small adult would be able to sit in the middle however; and it is cheap to run and i love the 4 doors and the isofix looked fine for the babyseat in trial.

we also go camping with it for 2/3 weeks at a time with no roofrack and that is fine too

hope thats somehelp, its just the buggy is the problem!

peasizedbladder · 27/10/2011 21:54

I've had a yaris for 6 yes, v v reliable. It's y reg and so far (touch wood) only replaced tyres and maybe brakes. Ours is only 2 door which made finding a car seat to fit v difficult (you can't access the side to get the belt looped through). But this wouldn't be an issue with a 4 door. Boot is small (but expandable) so you would need to check buggy fits. Ours is something like 125 a year to tax but it's a 1.3 'sport' model (is that possible?). We call it the go cart.

gettingalifenow · 27/10/2011 21:56

I love our 3 year old Yaris. Can't help on the car seat Q as we bought it so the teens woul have something safe and reliable to drive, and on that score, we're very happy

Selks · 27/10/2011 22:22

Is a Yaris roomy enough inside (for a small car)? Are they smaller than a Fiesta?

I'm looking into these myself; need a change of car.

Does anyone on here use a Yaris for commuting....how is it?

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