Filed under: Trends, Economy, Sedans/Saloons
Toyota, Honda, Nissan's smallest prepped for battle
The three major Japanese automakers, as
though in a time warp to the first fuel crunch in the Seventies, are gearing up to release their latest small vehicles
on U.S. shores in 2006. (Yaris, Fit*, and Versa, respectively.)Timing, again, couldn’t be more perfect. Though prices have dropped from $3 per gallon, government and independent studies forecast eventual increases through the next twenty years. And the public agrees: sales of small vehicles such as the Chevrolet Aveo and alternative fuel vehicles like the hybrid Prius have all risen.
Unlike the Seventies, though, it’s not just fuel savings attracting American interest. The new vehicles are well-equipped compared to the old econoboxes of yesteryear with features like MP3 capability (Yaris), an advanced braking system (Versa), and others once found in costlier models.
The competition is heating up. Again.
*Picture is of the Honda Fit, also known as the Jazz.
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Andrew 7:06PM (12/24/2005)
We have had our Honda Jazz hatch [ Fit ] for 2 months now and love it.
Amazing amount of interior space, and the fold down rear seat arrangement beats anything the opersition has come up with. Here in Australia Honda call them their"Magic Seats".
We have down sized our cars to the Honda and a Suzuki Swift [Great fun to drive, but I dont think you get these?] both cars sharing top motoring awards both here and Europe, and we would not go back to the Subaru legacy we traded.
Small cars have made tremendous strides over the past years. Both of these cars surprised me by just how good they are.
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James Sonne 10:02PM (12/24/2005)
Tad, #17, so you'll take your safety ... at the cost of others. Basically you would prefer to be the one doing the killing instead of reducing the number of large vehicles on the road. It's a fallacy, the road isn't safe because of big vehicles. It's larger, lane hogging vehicles that are the abnormality, not small vehicles that fit where on roads. If you buy larger vehicles, someone else will buy even larger vehicles thinking it is more safe. My cousin was given a Ford Explorer because she felt unsafe in her Honda Civic ... and yet she drives like a crazy person. Passive safety from a larger vehicle is not a good thing. Active safety from smaller more nimble vehicles is, in my opinion, the way to go. The more people that buy larger vehicles the more larger vehicles there will be on the road. So buy smaller and you won't have to worry about being hit by a large vehicle. I think that buying a car based on the fact that you want to do the killing in an accident is not a good way to look at things, though.
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Geotpf 12:33AM (12/25/2005)
The market for true subcompacts such as these cars in the United States is very small, probably less than 10,000 sales a month, total, with the market for compact (Civic/Corolla/Cobalt) models and midsized (Accord/Camry/Malibu) models probably being twenty times as large (each), if not larger.
Even with high gas prices (which, of course, have dropped significantly for the Katrina-affected highs), most people in the US will still go with models that are slightly larger and slightly more expensive.
That's not to say that's its not good that these are offered here, just that sales will be quite small. Since these cars sell well in other countries, slow sales won't even hurt these companies finacially (provided they don't have unreasonable expectations). They do help out a bit with these companies' average MPG, as well.
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Geotpf 12:38AM (12/25/2005)
MikeGR-That Ractis looks very similiar to the Scion xA (although it's clearly not-the xA is based on the Toyota ist).
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Robert 7:17AM (12/25/2005)
Yeah the fit is almost here!!!!
I cant wait to get one and shove a k24/k20 under its hood... hurray the CRX lives
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Robert 7:25AM (12/25/2005)
Reply @ James Sonne
I have owned almost nothing but small cars and I have been in 2 accedents in civic's I was side swiped by a chevy blazer I was in my 1988 civic 4 door, I needed a new door the chevy needed a new front end. I was also in an accedent with a ford explorer I hit it in the rear about 20mph in my 1997 honda HB I got a nice dent on my hood due to hitting the towing hitch but the explorers rear bumper fell off and the hitch witch is attach to the steel frame was bent into the rear hatch. im not sure what you mean by beer cans unless it's that reclcyed crap the big 3 have been trying to make things with
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grasspress 4:22PM (12/25/2005)
Re John V, #6, and Tad, #18: Hi, John and Tad. Are you guys some of those stealth bloggers from the petroleum industry? Eventually, we will all (except the very well heeled) be driving the small, high-mileage vehicles and everyone should hope the engineering to protect occupants of these smaller, lightweight (no other engineering or technology choice to provide cost-effecitve and marketable high-mileage performance in production vehicles) will continue to evolve toward increased safety.
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Lurch 1:01PM (12/27/2005)
Your comments: Tad and John V.: what is the solution? Require
everyone to drive long-nose Peterbilts? Outlaw pedestrians? Tell me about how many lives Hummers and Excursions save when we pump the last drop of petroleum out of the earth and transportation becomes a pair of Nikes. Oops! Need oil to make those too.
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leather bear 10:06PM (12/30/2005)
What John #6 and Tad #18 fail to take into account is the fact that not all crashes involve another vehicle. We can all admit that an ostrich egg will come out best in a collision with a chicken egg, but if you whack either one with a baseball bat its gonna be omelet time regardless of which one gets hit. In a collision with an inanimate object (power pole, tree, bridge abutment, etc.), its not the size or weight that counts, its how well the body shell has been engineered. Go to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety website (www.iihs.org) for a couple of examples. Compare the frontal offset crash results of the 2003 Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla with the same year Ford F-150 Pickup or Chevy Astrovan. Same collision, vastly different results. In the Civic or Corolla, youd probably just unbuckle your seat belt and walk away with no (or minor) injuries. In the big, heavy F-150 or Astrovan, severe (or fatal!) injury is the likely outcome.
On a different note, Im also looking forward to the battle of the sub-compacts next year. I was hoping to see a Fit (gotta do something about that name), Versa, or Yaris at the San Francisco auto show last month, but all three were no-shows (maybe at the San Jose show next month?). Will one of these tempt me out of my 04 Scion xA (36,000 miles of absolutely trouble free 30MPG driving)? Well know sometime next spring.
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Captain James T Krik 11:48PM (1/12/2006)
well im in the market this spring for one of those small subcompacts / whatever i get i need auto/air/pwr windows and cruise :)/ unfortunately that means no matter what i get - FIT, YARIS, KIA RIO, VERSA ill bet it cant be done for less than 15k PLUS tax :(
Versa looks very bland :( but at 38 AVERAGE miles, wow ill prob save and get that one ( ps KiaRio06 drives great too ! was very impressed !) but looses 50% value in just short time :( , oh shoot ...maybe ill wait till end of 06 and get 06 RIO LX for about 7500. ha :)
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