The recent trend of car prices going up isn’t just frustrating for buyers. Dealers are also fed up with the lack of options for cheap cars that they can offer their customers. This frustration is even felt by dealers for brands normally known for their affordability, like Toyota. It was one of the many brands to abandon the subcompact car segment in the U.S. market over the last decade when it discontinued the Toyota Yaris in 2020.
Automotive News spoke with Russ Humbertson, Jr., the new chair of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council. Affordability was one of the topics of the interview, and Humbertson expressed his desire for a new Toyota Yaris on his lots, but explained why bringing a car like that to market at a reasonable price is more challenging than it sounds.
“I would definitely consider [bringing back the Toyota Yaris],” Humbertson said. “The challenge with that vehicle was making it compliant for safety and emissions in the United States that it made it so expensive it was bumping up against Corolla, and it’s obviously not even close to a Corolla. Toyota’s answer was that it would just make more Corollas, but that changed as well. We aren’t seeing more Corollas, so maybe something like Yaris could work again. I know a lot of dealers would like to see a subcompact hatchback again to address affordability as well as to have a product in a segment that we know has demand.”
The Toyota Yaris was discontinued in the same year that GM killed the Chevy Sonic in the U.S., although the Chevy Spark lasted until 2022. As for the rest of the subcompact class in the States, the Ford Fiesta went away in 2019, the Honda Fit bowed out in 2020, and the Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio were discontinued in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
No matter how badly dealers want the subcompact class to make a comeback, it seems unlikely to happen in the near future. Even if cheap subcompacts in international markets like the third-generation Chevy Aveo, fourth-generation Toyota Yaris, or fourth-generation Honda Fit were to come to the U.S., they’d have the problem of not being that much cheaper than a bigger vehicle like the Chevy Trax, Toyota Corolla, or Honda Civic due to homologation costs.
Comments
If Toyota were to bring back Yaris, they should bring the Yaris Cross. Being an SUV the safety is now non-issue and emission is being softened by the current admin anyway.
Subcompacts went away cause after the 08 collapse where OEM’s were churning out cars but were not making high enough profit margins, the magic word is “Average Transaction Price” or ATP. The board members and CEO’s would rather go bankrupt with a decent ATP and no volume then sell a single model at minimum margin.
Compacts used to be low profit, entry level vehicles that you sell for maybe even costs, but allow you to save on production of parts for higher margin vehicles, or who’s profit comes as part sales or upgrading within the same brand further down the line. Instead, that market is now being dominated by mechanics and the aftermarket. I’m fine with that. The non union, small town mechanic now gets the money GM/Toyota Ford would get with a new car sale.
“Last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it!”
Mike,
That’s exactly what I thought.
They should rename it the Carp.
By the end, Toyota was selling the Mazda2 as a Yaris. It was a good choice, but even they were phoning it in. The United States is the same now as it was up to the early 1970s: the home of the Whopper. They’re just trucks instead of sedans now.
I’ve rented 2 Yaris right hand drive cars while traveling and to be honest, the chassis was fairly tight and there was decent room in it. The problem with the vehicle is the 3 cylinder non-turbo engine and I believe had a CVT transmission. The cars were fairly attractive, though I could not image either one lasting 50k miles without serious powertrain repair. And the fasted I could get going was 92 KPH; so about 55 MPH.
I owned a 2007 and 2014 Toyota Yaris hatchback… 1.5L, 4 speed automatic. I drove both cars to well over 100K miles without a single issue. The little Yaris performed surprisingly well and was a great car with outstanding reliability.
Hyundai and Kia seem to sell boat loads of this size. Works for them.
Neither make a subcompact anymore.
There’s the Kia Soul.
Bring back the Chevy Spark, both gas and electric.
My 2012 Yaris with a five speed 4 cyl is a great car. Bought it new has 160K miles Tires, a battery, 1 wiper blade and oil changes. Bring it back!! I’ll buy another.
Americans are bad at math. The top selling vehicles in Mexico America former USA, get 15 MPG. We were smarter in the 70s and 80s. You could get a Chevette Scooter with back seat delete or even a Caprice with no AC.