Toyota Yaris/Vitz/Echo depending on market.

Yup. In Montréal, sometimes there would be four other ones in the same stretch of parked cars as mine.

RS in blue was the one I had. With a manual. A manual! :-)

It did have the central gauge cluster. But I got the 2005 in June 2004, at an insanely high finance rate, because it had a tachometer.

The US’ aversion to hatchbacks is so bad, that Toyota designed a Canadian-only model, the Echo Hatchback (from the euro and Japanese version), for two (2!) model years, in 2004-2005. For Canada! And it sold like hot-cakes!

To me this is fascinating. I recently move from Québec, Canada, to California. In the process, my girlfriend and I got married back home before leaving. No name changes.

Just as click-bait-y.

Click bait? I know I fell for it.

If not tracking like a pro, who cares about the weight of about one passenger! It looks fantastic! And robot roofs are awesome. :)

Where is that supercut again?

I am in the less is more camp. My ‘09 and ‘14 WRX were 5 speed manuals in an era where that was frowned upon (oh, the online hate).

Wow, the discussion here is fantastic...

FBI:

Man, look at that sucker go!

Am still trying to understand why America hates manuals so much (and hatchbacks for that matter).

My non-educated guess: Sounds like he kept his foot into it, mostly preventing a full spin or crash. Right?

Those J-turns look like they hurt.

That GIF of the real thing looks like one would need a helmet ridding in the back. Wow!

What was the giant pole on the back of the Corolla for? Fish it out of the lake?

I have moral objections to them from the start.