New car = Adventure!

We just bought a 2008 Toyota Yaris Sedan. Our entire reason for purchasing it was for the great gas mileage. We have a family friend who's driven a Yaris for a couple years now (purchased one shortly after they were introduced to the market), and he gets fabulous gas mileage. We needed a gas saving vehicle because my husband drives about 120 mile round trips 4-5 days out of every week, and while our Toyota Camry gets great gas mileage, it just wasn't enough.

We are already familiar with the Toyota name and have always been impressed with their quality. The Yaris is no exception. For a lesser expensive car, it surely surpasses expectations. The sedan is fairly roomy inside. We're not small car people, but I actually felt like the Toyota Corolla that we test drove was less roomy than the Yaris. The back seat is carseat friendly, as both our toddler's forward facing seat and our infant's rear facing infant carrier fit nicely behind each front seat. It does have the LATCH system as well, which is convenient.

The seats themselves aren't the most comfortable when we have our Camry to compare to. There isn't much lower back or arch support. However, there are plenty of pillows made to correct that.

My husband delights in the center dash console. I, personally, have a hard time getting used to not looking directly over the steering wheel to see how fast I'm going or to check how much fuel is left in the tank, but my husband now prefers it to be in the center.

One thing we're not please with is how the lights on the roof (the reading type lights) are so bright and seem to shine directly into your eyes. Word of advice- do NOT switch one on while you're driving in the dark! It will temporarily blind you!!

The car doesn't coast, but that's not a big deal to us. It drives very smoothly and is a quiet ride. We've regularly been getting around 37 miles per gallon in town, and at least 40 miles per gallon easily when driving on the freeway.

The cars trunk is very spacious. We've parked the Yaris beside the Camry and compared the trunk size (because we often haul strollers and other bigger items around back there), and they're quite similar. The Yaris trunk seems a bit deeper than the Camry, so even though it's not quite as wide, it makes up for it and you can still fit close to the same amount in each one.

We are extremely please with the Toyota Yaris. It's met all of our needs, and while there have been a few minor drawbacks, overall the car is a very pleasant little thing to drive.