[Thomas Chung]

looking forward to learning and sharing more about this Mazda 2 / Toytoa Yaris iA / Scion iA

 

[TorchMini]

Good purchase! What color? The manual has a reputation of great shifting action, so we'd love to hear what you think of it. I had to get the automatic for various reasons. My Yaris iA has under 30k miles soil you get to high miles and no troubles, we'd like to hear about that too.
I love the way they drive. I find the 106 h.p. adequate, especially with the 40 mpg

 

[2016 Scion iA MT]

Good purchase! What color? The manual has a reputation of great shifting action, so we'd love to hear what you think of it. I had to get the automatic for various reasons. My Yaris iA has under 30k miles soil you get to high miles and no troubles, we'd like to hear about that too.
I love the way they drive. I find the 106 h.p. adequate, especially with the 40 mpg

I bought what I like to call a "One-Year-Only" classic. It's a 2016 Scion iA, and AFAIK it's the only year this car was branded "Scion"; later years were branded first "Toyota iA", then "Toyota Yaris iA", etc... But I digress. I have the 6-speed manual and that's the reason I bought this car. At the time (and I believe still now) it was the only car I could get with a manual AND some infotainment, including sat-nav. For some reason, all the other cars in the sub-$20K price that had a manual were left out of any good infotainment or sat-nav options.

I drive my car like a civilized person, I enjoy my driving, as I replaced a 2008 E92 M3 6-speed manual for this one. Quite a downgrade in some areas, but you'd be surprised at how similar it is in other areas, but you cannot compare 414HP to 106HP, that's the biggest difference. Having said that, my lifetime MPG is 41.5 and all my driving is local (street and hwy) and with the AC on ALL the time (I live in Miami). You can quick-shift to 6th and enjoy 50+MPG or you can rev the S out of it and extract the max from the engine and you can keep up with traffic. Having owned a mix of Japanese and German cars I would say this car dampens bumps well and it gives you a fun snick-snick around town when you want and it parks in the tightest of spots.

 

[Mazda iA fan]

I understand how you can compare the iA to a BMW, obviously they are on a different end of the spectrum as far as power is concerned but there are similarities in the driving dynamics. I always thought of Mazda to be a lower code version of a BMW (with a lot better reliability.)

I have also found the Mazda manual transmission to be the best available. How would you compare the iA manual to the one in the BMW?

 

[2016 Scion iA MT]

If you subscribe to one of the tenets of driving, which is "It's more fun to drive a slow car fast, than it is to drive a fast car slow", then this will explain the differences between the iA and M3. For my use, which is Miami driving (lots of traffic, stop and go, urban, no parking, tight streets, one-way streets, crazy drivers), the iA is, I would say, more zippy than the M3. Driving the M3 is like riding a bull while the iA is like a rabbit. The M3 has much more power, but it does NOT like stop-and-go, it's more a track weapon, which the iA is not. I also have a Ducati Multistrada and THAT is like trying to rodeo an angry horse in the middle of traffic, especially in "sport" mode. The iA just slips in and out of traffic, just keep the revs up and the shifting action is like a FWD Miata (I've had 2). The M3 has more mechanical feel and is actually a bit harder to shift than the iA. On the M3 you are going through mechanical gates while on the iA you know it's cables and slides, but well-oiled slides, it's not as direct but easier to engage. When on the expressway, the ride is compliant yet composed. My other car currently is a VW Sportwagen 2.5 manual, and THAT has a ride that is too firm. So the iA straddles the line between being compliant on the expressway and zippy and firm enough to squeeze into traffic and make a tight getaway and turn when you need.

I've only 24K miles on my iA, and aside from an issue with the sat-nav when I purchased an eBay card that led to two dealer visits to fix the problem (I purchased the OEM one from the dealer and that solved the issue), I've only done oil changes and tire rotations (all paid for by Toyota, with the exception of the last 2), so, no problems to speak of.

Hope this information helps.