Easy to park, drive and afford. The head room is exceptional, as is the trunk room. It has high visibilty for driving. It has plenty of pep for a four cylinder, even to get onto the highway. The door locks rattle sometimes - a design flaw. The overall design is modern, different and quite eye catching. I love my ECHO. It looks great and I have never regreted my purchase except for one thing.

The A/C is not able to handle the Arizona summer heat. When we go into the high 90's and up I am miserable. I took it to the dealer today and they say due to the large amount of glass and the dark color, it's black, there is nothing they can do. I think if Toyota sells them in this market they should be designed to handle the climate here. I am not a happy camper. I will be taking this to a higher level than the dealer, and will make sure that Toyota understands my frustration and dissatisfaction on this one point. Perhaps they will buy it back ?...

Except for the air conditioning, Echo is a fine little car. If you live in a cooler climate than Arizona go ahead and buy one.

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Nissen Sentra - Echo sits higher and get better gas mileage. Toyota Corolla has ucomfortable seats and is too plain.

Gas milage, headroom, good stereo system, handles well, 5 speed

NO CRUISE AVAILABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All in all, this is a great car! We put about 800 miles a week on. We have a Suburban, and the gas was killing us!!!!!! Filled the Echo up the other day $9.00 vs. $60.00 to fill the Sub.Lots of trunk room and headroom. Alot
of fun to drive. Good quality,decent looks. Can't wait to take it on a long trip.

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Focus,RAV4

Gas mileage is great, average 37-38 city/frwy. The look is unique, best space efficiency I have ever seen in a vehicle. Dead interior space made usefull almost everywhere. Great head space for 6 fters+. Good space for back seat passengers. Toyota engineering should get me 200k miles.

Sound system was weak (I am used to good sound and quickly installed aftermarket CD). Tried to put a rear trunk bike rack on and found the sheet metal to be too thin to properly support it (had to return). Will install roof mounted bike/luggage rack. Sheet metal appears to be thin all around...$13k must be the answer. Interior parts seem to be attached by snaps and can be disattached with the wrong force. Poor sound insulation from outside noises, especially at high velocity.

Echo is protypical design with good research. The cost and mileage sold me. I like the car alot, and look forward to driving it for a long time. It is of course short on frills and conveniences, but we all know what we can expect for $10-13k.

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Toyota Corolla, similar to echo but worse mileage.
Honda Prelude, nicer than echo, worse mileage.

Cheap, good gas mileage,handling isnt bad.

Everything else

This car is an OK car if you are on a budget and you are looking for a new car, though I have heard the Focus is much better.
Alot of headroom in this car is good. But it is so tall and light that at highway speeds it feels like the wind can push your car right off the road!

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2000 Cadillac Catera
1998 Audi A6
1993 Pontiac Boniville SSE

GAS MILEAGE! automatic door lock. 6 speaker sound system. very 'peppy' for a little car!! Lots of storage space.

no automatic windows! That's the only thing they could of added to the 2001...since they did add automatic doors!

Its only been a week, but it drives great! comfortable, roomy, fits 3 very comfortably in the back. Lots of extra storage space...under the passenger seat, dash board...great option to get is the remote starter, esp. for those really cold winter days! Easy/Fun to drive, and a great new look.

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HONDA CIVIC! beautiful cars, but am just as pleased with the Echo!

fuel economy, great interior design, lots of space, zippy engine, fun look

it's very no frills

I haven't had the car for very long, but it's been a blast to drive. I love the instrument panel and the six speaker sound system really is good. Its got great pick up and is a very smooth ride for the size of the car. Its got a cool euro feel to it. Agood deal for my money, nothing extra but I feel comfortable with the buy. It gets lots of comments (it is funny looking but cool cuz it's different). Some one looking for a sportscar at the same price might do better to look at the Tiberon. I test drove them both and actually prefer the echo for comfort and feel. You just can't beat Toyota quality either. I know this car will last until I'm ready to get a new one.

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accent, civic, celica, tiberon

Gas mileage. Approximately 40 miles to gallon in mixed freeway and city driving. Sound system is good(3 in 1 cass/CD with 6 speakers). Smooth shifting automatic transmission. Lots of cargo space for a small car with 60/40 foldown rear seat. Sitting position feels similar to our RAV 4. Feels like a much larger car. It has a unique look, which I like. Heater and defroster work great, not warm enough to try the air yet.

Don't go to the Toyota web site and build your dream model of this car because it will be nearly impossible to find. I felt I had to compromise and get the automatic trans after calling every dealer in southern california trying to find a five speed in the color I wanted with the features I wanted. The only thing that some drivers might not like is the way this car gets blown in very windy conditions, though it doesn't react much different than a small toyota or nissan truck. Also, no factory cruise control available, I'll have to install an aftermarket.

I chose the echo because I felt it accelerated better than any of the other cars I drove, except the Corolla; it has a roomier interior than any of the other cars; the driving position and in and out in more comfortable; and it gets outstanding gas mileage. Also, after checking on many of the discussion boards around the web it seemed as if most echo owners were extremely happy with their cars. I liked the look of the echo better than any of the others I drove. It's hard to beat 40mpg. Since I commute 150 miles roundtrip a couple of days a week I'll be looking forward to not visiting the corner gas station quite so often. If you want a good reliable, comfortable commuter car that doesn't look so generic I think you'd be happy with the echo.So far my only complaint is lack of factory cruise control as an option.
I'll admit I got a bit bamboozled by one of the salesmen and wound up paying about $1000 more for the car than I originally intended(also this was partially my fault for not entering the correct loan amount on the Edmunds' site loan calculator and letting the salesman negotiate monthly payments which were too high instead of price of the car). But I forget about that when I get behind the wheel. It's a fun car to drive, even though it's not a racer. Think of it as the poor man's VW Beetle.

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I test drove a Nissan Sentra (2nd choice), Honda civic (hated it), Saturn s series(not enough for the money), and a Toyota Corolla(too plain looking). I also considered a Ford Focus but from reading owner reviews on message boards decided not to even test drive one due to reliability issues.

Great mileage (44MPG with automatic, better than EPA estimates). High
seating position, quiet for an economy car, reasonable leg room in the
back seat, reasonable trunk, short, so it's easy to park in San Francisco.

No cruise control, no body side moulding.

Love the car. It's fun to drive. Our car has option package 1, 2, and 3,
rear window defogger, 4-door automatic. Will probably do an after market
cruise control. I recommend the Echo!

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Honda Civic HX (no power windows, A/C is a dealer add on)
Toyota Prius (Lots more money actually about the same highway mileage)

Lots of head room. Control panels are easy to read. Visibility is fantastic. Great city handling!!! Easy to get in and out. GAS MILEAGE!!! Lots of storage space, especially for cds. I like the interior seat fabric as well. Easy to clean and take care of.

Hard to find the features you want in the color you want, unless you want to wait 2 to 6 months for delivery from the factory. Also, it does tend to get knocked around a little in the wind.

I love this car! Easy to drive. FUN to drive. And it gets fantastic mileage! I would definitely recommend this car to anyone who does a lot of city driving.

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none

Great milage, simplicity, reliability, comfort and styling at a good price. I also appreciate the thoughtful location of the instrument control panel.

I couldn't get power windows.

Last week, I bought myself a 4 door automatic Echo for commuting and running errands around town. Since then, my entire family has fallen in love with it. The Echo is easy to drive and gets a lot of great comments. I really like the placment of the instrument panel, because, unlike other cars I no longer have to adjust the steering wheel to get a good view of the speedometer. The placement also seems to make me more aware of my speed. That's important in this zippy little car. The climate control knobs are large and easy to operate. I suggest that anyone looking for a comfortable economical car, check out the Echo.