Our 2015 Mirage DE vs 2016 Toyota Yaris

[Gone2Alpine]

Well, first off, we bought our 2015 Mirage DE about 2 months ago. Like other recently new members, it was a rental from Hertz. We picked it up in excellent condition with 31K for about $7K. We needed a third car with excellent MPG, no payments and reliable. There were no other even close contenders when we made the purchase. FWIW, our other two rigs are a 2010 AWD Toyota Matrix and a 2012 Tacoma 4WD, as we do live in snow country.

Things to love about the Mirage after 2 months:

• MPG, MPG, MPG All fill-ups have come in at 48-49 mpg with mixed driving.
• No payment
• Good basic sound system, loaded 1000 songs on a USB stick and we're good to go
• Super roomy for a tiny car
• No hybrid complications
• Friends assume we bought it for $15K and think that would be a good deal
• So far has performed well in light snow and slick conditions even with Enasaves

As it turns out, after lurking here for the last two months, a number of you are former or current Metro owners. We owned 2 in the 90's. Both paid for themselves in gas versus car payment for a long commuter cars. Before reading this forum, and after the test drive on the Mirage, we said it felt like driving a new and improved Metro.

So this weekend, we had a family emergency and had to go to the Bay area. My wife needed to stay there, and I needed to be back home today. The cheapest and fastest solution was to rent a car one way - just about the same as a bus ticket but arrived in half the time. That rental happened to be a Toyota Yaris. I like the Mirage a lot more than the Yaris. Here's what I found:

• Only 33 mpg in freeway driving, driving in the same manner I would drive the Mirage
• The auto tranny downshifted on the slightest grades to a gear that caused high revs, and a buzzy noisy cabin
• No keyless remote entry
• No remote control for exterior mirrors, mirrors are too small
• A very busy ride
• Rear seat belts hang from ceiling and obstruct rear view
• Difficult to operate radio while driving and poor sound quality
• The cyclops uni-windshield wiper leaves a big corner untouched in the upper right

All of those tradeoffs were not worth the additional power the Yaris offered. This morning, I had a choice of cars for the work commute: the Yaris or the Mirage. I chose the Mirage even though I could have put 100 more free miles on the Yaris.

The Yaris looks like a giant in the garage compared to the Mirage.