The Toyota Yaris has numerous good qualities. To start, the car is very attractive. I bought a two door in white, and I get compliments on its sleek and cute style all the time. It is small but not confining. There is plenty of trunk space, which for me was a huge plus. In addition to the sizable trunk, the interior of the car is very roomy. It is a small car, minus the small car feel. The car runs great and is perfect for commuters.

Overall, the Prius has been fun to drive, especially on family trips. It gets great mileage and handles hills better than I'd expected, even lots of hills like driving through Oregon's coast range. It averages around 45 miles per gallon, though I expect it would have better mileage if we drove it more in heavy traffic. The power mode feature is useful for handling hills or needing to accelerate to get onto the freeway, and the eco mode is useful for driving in heavy stop and go traffic. It holds a lot more than we'd expected, especially with the seats folded down. The one downside is that the braking feels very rough and sudden. I suspect that it's because of the mechanism that uses the brakes to power the battery. Applying what would be normal pressure to the breaks on another vehicle makes the Prius brake uncomfortably hard and fast, and can jolt the passengers very abruptly. Other than that, it handles well, and there's been no issues with its performance since we acquired it last winter. Getting to turn the car off and on with a button is also fun and interesting. Our family also enjoys the feature that allows you to hook up on iPod directly to the Prius' speakers - great for long trips when you're often going in and out of radio station range.