2005 Echo - does it exist

The dealers in my area are saying that either the 2005 or 2006 Echo doesn't exist, or that they're just not being sold in my region - Connecticut, USA.

Is anyone getting them?

2003's with 40K are getting MSRP around here!
Reply to
kgold
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Reply to
Mark Schofield

Discontinued in the US, but not in Canada!

Go figure. I would guess a 38-45 MPG car would be flying out the door!

Reply to
Hachiroku

check this out

Reply to
Mark Schofield

Whatever happened to puting the instumentaion in front of the *driver*?

Reply to
FanJet

Where you had to twist and strain to see it through the steering wheel?

Reply to
Brian Gordon

Amen! I'll never go back to left-mounted instrumentation, if I can avoid it

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll®

  1. when you're building a car for the world market, you need two different dashboards. This way, you make ONE dashboard, and two instrument clusters, which you would have to do anyway!
  2. Ever driven one? After the initial 'shock' of it not being where you expect, it's actually in a good sot for looking at while you're driving!

What IS unnerving, however, is the lack of illumination of the steering mounted controls at night; tha stalks and the buttons on the wheel. It's dark!

Reply to
Hachiroku

It's easier to see anyway!

I don't have that problem - have you turned the light level down?

;-)

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll®

This is very true. It would be easy to get illumination power to the steering wheel, and while you were at it you could gently warm the rim. Heated seats are nice, but a heated wheel would do away withe need for clumsy gloves.

Brent

Reply to
Brent Secombe

(Actually, it was a Prius, but similar dash!)

Reply to
Hachiroku

Never had the problem and I don't like the placement on the mini-cooper either. If it's cute enough I'd buy one but I think my vote's still for the Smartcar.

Reply to
FanJet

Thing I don't like about the dash is that there is no durn light on the ashtray!

ps: I drove a 1,300 kilometre round trip several times over the summer. Automatic sedan, with the AC on, cruising mostly at 110-115kph I got 46 MPG.

But that's an Imperial gallon, and I converted it all from metric anyway, so who in hell knows if it's right?

Reply to
Buck Frobisher

I would guess. I had a '95 Tercel, basically the same car, and averaged over 40 MPG during the period I owned the car.

Reply to
Hachiroku

For what reason? so it can be what you are used to?

Reply to
Knotty

Perhaps, but that's not a bad reason. In an emergency you're likely to do what you're used to doing. If you're accustomed to finding the instrumentation with a simple downward glance, having to look downward and rightward will take longer.

The elevated cost of satisfying the opposing demands of left- and right-hand drive dosn't justify making the instrumentation's location unfamilar to both. Each car is driven by one person at a time, and the driver shouldn't have to pay a penalty just because other countries have different standards.

The Prius has unusual instrumentation and controls, but those innovations don't involve the controls and data a driver needs suddenly. The brake pedal, the accelerator, the steering wheel, the speedometer, the horn -- those and other vital controls are where you'd expect, and they function conventionally.

By arraying the gauges and alerts horizontally beneath the windscreen, Toyota has made it easy to site the crucial readouts (speedometer, etc) at one end or the other, placing them in front of either the lefthand or righthand driver as needed. That's smart design.

And BTW when you look at those crucial readouts, you're not viewing them directly. You're seeing their reflection in a 45-degree mirror. Could Toyota be anticipating the day when those readouts will be part of a head-up display system wherein the data appear to float in the driver's field of view? That would require no looking downward at all, merely a small refocusing of the eyes.

I suspect the Prius is a rolling testbed for Toyota's broader plans.

Brent

Reply to
Brent Secombe

Here in Canada, there's no 2006 Sedan, nor anything on the horizon to replace it.

The hackback is the Yaris. Havne't seen one on the road yet.

Reply to
Buck Frobisher

According to the dealers around here, the Yaris will be Echo-sized but with a big engine and nowhere near the same gas mileage, a hatchback, and loaded with toys and power everything, so much more expensive.

Reply to
kgold

Having driven an Echo for two years, you get used to it very quickly. And then you find:

- no matter your height or seat adjustment, the steering wheel never blocks anything.

- there are no bothersome reflections from the instruments at night.

I don't think this is a big issue either way, but I like the centered instruments.

I do miss the temperature gauge, though.

Reply to
kgold

1 - I'm trying to imagine an emergency that requires a quick look at the instruments.

Ah, got one. "Oops, a radar trap - quick - how fast am I going" :-)

2 - It took me just a few days to get used to the center mounted instruments. For a car purchase, it's really not an issue.

For a rental car, I agree that a more typical layout is better. Years ago, Fords had strange controls - horn on a stalk, strange headlight switch, even an unusual method for removing the key, and I hated renting a Ford.

Reply to
kgold

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