It's not just how many Yarises they could sell, but also how many people might have been refusing to buy the more profitable Corolla, Prius, CHR, etc. because the Yaris existed.
The Yaris GR, wasn't it AWD? Didn't it have somewhere around 250-260 horsepower? Sounds like it would have no trouble selling here except that it isn't a Subaru which is what everyone wants by default for some reason.
Normally I strongly prefer notchback bodystyles myself, but in that specific instance, I despise Subarus so much for so many reasons that I would take the Yaris.
So did the Evo, plus it had sharper handling, and didn't sound like it was dying, and didn't have head gasket problems, and didn't have the weakest pistons in all of human history because something something emissions. And it didn't make its driver look quite as vapey. Didn't help it much.
Only room for one in the market. As far as value goes, I don't know the US performance car market well enough to tell.
manufacturers are just forcing large cars to North Americans now. Honda has discontinued the Fit, Toyota is offering a rebadged Mazda 2 as a "Yaris", Nissan discontinued the Micra, Mazda has discontinued selling the Mazda 2, and Mitsubishi sells the Mirage. Chevrolet also offers the Spark, but those are all superminis. The most common small cars are the Toyota Corolla, Subaru Impreza, Honda Civic, Volkswagen Jetta, Nissan Sentra, and Mercedes C class. Midsize cars are sparse, mostly Ford Fusion (Mondeo), Subaru Legacies, Honda Accords, and Toyota Camrys. there may be the occasional Arteon, but those aren't very common to see.
It's because the American subcompact sales have tanked in the last years. 1979 - #1 subcompact (Chevette, 376k) outsold the #1 compact (Fairmont, 339k) 1989 - #1 compact (Accord, 363k) slightly outsold the #1 subcompact (Escort, 334k). 1999 - #1 subcompact (Civic, 318k) and #1 compact (Cavalier, 272k) trade places once again. 2009 - #1 compact (Corolla, 297k) easily outsold the #1 subcompact (Versa, 83k). 2019 - #1 compact crossover (RAV4, 448k) and compact car (Civic, 326k) got a big lead over the #1 subcompact crossover (Trax, 117k) and demolish the #1 subcompact car (Versa, 67k). And the market became a "winner takes all" one. In 2009, the top 4 subcompacts were Versa with 83k, Accent with 68k, Fit with 67k and Yaris with 64k sales. In 2019, it was Versa (67k), Fiesta (60k), Fit (35k) and Spark (32k) and Mirage (27k).
I really don't understand why they don't sell the GR Yaris over here. I thought the USA liked AWD hot hatches. I know because Golf R's are kinda popular over here. The EA888 motor is good for extensive tuning. But I don't know, maybe it's the same reason we don't get many performance wagons over here. (Or just wagons in general) Oh and no Mercedes A45s AMG over here either, the fastest hot hatch ever. Just great. --- Post updated --- The new M3 and M4 is going to get a wagon version (marketed as Touring by BMW) and I REALLY want it, but nooo, the US wants SUVs instead. So you get an X3 M instead, which is basically an SUV version of the G80 M3. It's very annoying.
How did japan have so many toyota luxury cars? Brevis, Mark II, Verossa, Progres, Altezza, Aristo, and Crown!
Same reason why in 1966 the USA had, if I'm not mistaken, 23 fullsize car models from General Motors - the market could take all that. Even if you remove duplicates that were basically trim levels and body styles, you are left with 9 cars, bumped up to 10 with the 1967 Eldorado. And Toyota's dealer network was basically a watered-down version of GM's strategy.
We also don't get the A-class hatchback in the US. In fact there are American cars that AMERICA doesn't get. Like WTH dude.
It's so dumb. Ford Focus ST MK4, you live in the US and you want one? nahh fam, even though this car is American, you don't get it. *sigh* just-just why?
it really is dude, like there's SO many Beemers and Audis I want over here, but we can't have them. Because "Americans want SUVs and trucks, and that's their selling point, nothing we can do". Load of bullsh*t. We love hot hatches and wagons and it's...ughhhhhh it's so annoying. But I'm gonna end this rant before anyone else has anything to say about this lol
I'm going to go god damn insane about this FORD HAS CARS THAT AREN'T SOLD IN AMERICA YET IT'S AN AMERICAN COMPANY !@#$%^&*(*&^%$#$%^&*()(*&^%$#$%^&*()(*&^%$#@#$%^&*()_)(*&^%$#@#$%^&*()_)(*&^%$#@
