2nd place: Toyota Yaris LE Four-dr hatchback
To be fair the Yaris is a nice and large small compact car. The problems with this is that the value is not as good as the Honda Fit. For starters the base CE and LE only come with a full folding rear seat without split rear seatbacks. There are ABS, power windows and other goodies in the Yaris but it is only standard on the RS. There are nice standard features like AM/FM/CD with 4 speakers, tachometer and much more. However with the price over $16 000 Canadian and add in the packages and the price blows over $18 000 Canadian before taxes. The Yaris is one of the most efficent vehicles on the road today. Plus insurance is cheap.For under $15,000, you might expect a cheap, cramped interior – but you'd be wrong. Though the Yaris is a small car, it is bigger than the Echo hatchback it replaces: 110 mm longer, 30 mm wider with a 90 mm longer wheelbase that significantly improves rear legroom. And while the Echo hatchback has four seatbelts, the Yaris has five, plus three height adjustable rear head restraints, and three rear 3-point seatbelts. The driver and front passenger sit in tall, contoured bucket seats that are easy to access through the large, but rather heavy, front doors. To get in the rear seat, the right front passenger seat will slide forwards automatically by lowering the seatback. There is a surprising amount of headroom and legroom for rear passengers, and the rear floor is flat. On the downside, the rear seat isn't really wide enough for three adults, the rear side windows do not open, and there is no centre armrest or storage pockets. There is one cupholder at the back of the centre console. The quality of the interior seat fabrics and dash materials is surprisingly sporty for a base model. My Yaris LE model had black cloth seats with attractive blue speckles, and the grey dash was accented with a metal-look centre console and light grey door armrests.
As with the Echo hatchback, the instrument cluster is positioned in the centre of the dash-top, but the Yaris' gauges are brighter and easier to see. A large round speedometer and tachometer are flanked by a 'bar-graph' fuel gauge, digital clock, and odometer. With the instruments in the centre, the tilt steering wheel can be positioned at any height you prefer without obscuring the instruments. I prefer a low steering wheel position to reduce the effort on my arms and provide a clear view of the road ahead. In all, I'd say the Yaris' driving position is very good, unless you prefer the lower, laid-back driving position common to many older passenger cars. The Yaris' rear seats and trunk are suprisingly roomy for a compact car. The ride is like a mini Lexus. The 106 hp provides a lot of power but it isn't good for passing power on the city or highway. Visibility is good on all corners. The standard manual five-speed transmission is easy to change, the shifter fall readily to hand, and the clutch pedal effort is low. Overall the Yaris is a nice car but it just lacks some value and lack some "finesse" feel even if it rides like a mini Lexus.
1st place: Honda Fit LX
The Fit has been on sale in Europe and Japan markets since 2001. The Fit is ready for a redesign possibly 2007 or 2008. Of course, there's more to the new Honda Fit than its clever interior, but as it's an important differentiator, let's begin with it.
The Fit's combination of a tall hatchback bodystyle (five-feet high) and a low cargo floor - made possible by a compact rear torsion beam suspension and a fuel tank moved forward under the front seats instead of under the cargo floor - creates a surprisingly roomy cargo area and cabin.
The Fit's passenger volume of 2550 litres compares to the Toyota Yaris hatchback's 2382 litres, and behind the rear seats, the Fit's cargo area of 600 litres is more than double that of the Yaris hatchback. The Fit's seats, called "Magic Seats", are really quite ingenious. They can be folded in four different ways to meet different cargo and passenger requirements. In the 'Utility Mode', the 60/40 split folding rear seatbacks can be folded down flat to create a loading floor up to 168 cm long. There are a few steps involved in folding down the seatbacks: the front seats must first be pushed forwards using special levers located on the top of the front seatbacks. Then, the rear seat cushions are pulled up and a support bar underneath folds flat against the underside of the seat cushion. Next, by pulling on a lever located on top of the rear seatbacks, you can fold the seatbacks down flat. Lastly, pull the front seat back to their original position. The rear head restraints don't have to be removed because they fit underneath the front seats. It sounds complicated, but it's easy to do after a couple of tries. In the 'Tall Object mode', objects up to 128 cm tall, such as bicycles or plants, can be stored vertically behind the front seats. To create this space, you flip up the rear seat cushions and fold up the support bar against the seat cushion to lock them in place. In the 'Long Object mode', the right front seat can be folded flat. Combined with the right rear seatback folded flat, the Fit offers a load length of 240 cm on one side of the interior. On the other side, the driver and two rear passengers can also be transported.
Lastly, in the 'Refresh mode', both front seatbacks can recline almost flat creating a kind of bed. It's not really intended for camping, but if you want to pull over by the side of the road and have a nap, it's quite handy. The interior of the Fit is quite nice and upscale. The seats are very comfortable but I found the material of the fabric collected a lot of lint. The Fit's simple radio and climate control dials make for simple use but I found the quality of the sound coming from the radio to be subpar. There is no variable intermittent mode on the wipers. There is a lot of standard features on the Fit including standard on all models, front, front side, side curtain airbags, ABS, EBD, AM/FM CD and much much more. The visibility is excellent in all four corners and I wasn't expecting such a great view upfront. The 109 hp is fast and fuel-efficent. There are paddle shifters for the uplevel Sport but they are not available on lower models. The brakes are excellent and road noise is kept to a minimum. The price of the Fit is nicely done, placing it in the middle. Overall this is the best small compact car in this market.