2004 Toyota Echo Hatchback By Tony Whitney ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On my frequent trips to Europe, I've often admired a little hatchback called the Toyota Yaris, which seems to be very popular over there - especially in Germany. A bit of investigation revealed that the Yaris is more or less the same car as the Toyota Echo which has been sold here since 2000. The Echo is a two or four-door sedan and I suppose that at launch time, Toyota believed that North Americans would warm more readily to a "trunked" car than a hatchback. I wasn't alone among the automotive journalism community in wondering why Toyota wouldn't bring the Yaris to our shores. Most of us thought it was better looking that the Echo sedan as well as being sportier and more practical with its combination of swing-up hatch and fold down rear seats. Perhaps our pleas were heard by Toyota after all because the hatchback has now arrived in Canada and is being marketed in two and four-door versions, For those who just have to have a trunk on their set of wheels, the Echo sedan remains in the range. Toyota is not using the name Yaris here, but has opted instead for the moniker "Echo Hatchback." I would guess that the Echo has been such a popular product Toyota decided to build on its existing reputation for marketing the new body style. The big appeal with this car in any form is that you can buy a Toyota - with its legendary build quality, durability and high resale value - for a very modest sum of money. Obviously, the Hatchback boasts a similar mechanical specification to its sedan sibling and the main difference is body style. I've always been a big fan of hatchbacks because of their amazing ability to swallow large and bulky loads. Although this new Echo is a fairly small car, it has a surprising amount of cargo space in hatchback form. Add to this the sporty image you get with a hatchback and this becomes a very desirable subcompact. It's very attractive to look at and in one version, it looks almost like a production racer with its various add-ons. Expect this newcomer to attract sport compact fans and tuning shops. Power comes from a 1.5-litre, twin cam, 16-valve, four cylinder producing 108 horsepower at 6,000 rpm. While this horsepower figure might not sound too impressive, the light weight of this car (1,256 kg) means that it turns out to be a faster package than one might think. Certainly it gets briskly off the mark - especially with the available manual gearbox - and most owners will find it a lot of fun to tool around in. I often find cars like this just as much fun to drive than more expensive, sportier products. The suspension is intelligently designed to match the size of the car and since the wheels are almost at the extreme corners of the vehicle, it doesn't pitch and bounce over road undulations as much as you'd expect. An automatic transmission is available, but this does mean a slight sacrifice in fuel economy. The cabin of the Echo Hatchback is quite roomy for such modest dimensions and four adults can be carried in reasonable comfort providing they aren't too large. It's an easy car to see out of, thanks to generous glass areas, and although not much can be seen of the car's nose from the driver's seat, it's very easy to park because of its compact length. A front disc/rear drum brake setup is more than adequate to deal with stopping the new Echo - its light weight helps here too. Some models get ABS, which is well worth the extra cash. The interior of the car is quite radical and design-conscious with a centrally located instrument pod and curvaceous, flowing lines to all the trim components. The seats are comfortable up front and there's more headroom than you'd expect from a car in this class. No less than four sound systems are offered covering everything from "old fashioned" cassettes to MP3s. Toyota points out that its intention with the Echo Hatchback was to offer lots of options and customized parts so that no two models would ever be quite the same. Owners can personalize their Echo to fit their lifestyle - an interesting concept and on Toyota's part, a shrewd effort to capture a piece of the youth market. On the subject of the "youth market," far too many vehicles arrive with this segment in mind but with completely inappropriate pricetags. This accusation cannot be leveled at Toyota because a base Echo Hatchback two-door costs just $12,995 - a sum that almost anybody with a job can afford. Shame on those automakers who attack the youth market with $35,000 products! This new Toyota is going to be very popular indeed and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see sales topping those of the sedan versions very quickly. The car also has a lot going for it in these days of wildly fluctuating fuel prices. There's a lot of appeal in an automobile that combines economy with sporty performance and looks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Back to Tony Whitney's Auto Reviews Page