Toyota Echo

vocus

Those tires wear quickly from what I have heard. They used to be standard equipment on the Mazda Protege ES before 2001, and all the owners there said their treadwear rating was only like 160. Check your sidewalls for more info though.

pulgo

My Echo came with Michelin MX4's (treadwear rating 420). After 9k miles and measuring the tread depth there is no difference (still 9/32nds all around). I wonder how long these tires will last.

hera23

We live in Alberta and have just been informed that the Toyota "Access" program is in place now which means that we cannot negotiate for a price on our Echo. We were hoping to buy one, but with the dealer mark up of $1,000 over dealer cost, it seems we will have to look at a Ford Focus or similar. What do other Echo purchasers think of this and will they have the same program in the US?

majorthomecho

I have never heard of that. Can you give us more details? Is it like Saturn's no haggling?

cwo4

My ECHO came with Bridgestone Portenzas. They lasted 32,000 miles before I replaced them with Dunlop D60 A2's. According to Toyota's web site the tires are "supposed" to last 30,000 miles.

kaz6

I had Michelin MXV4's on my last car and barely saw any wear in 20,000mi of fast driving. Loved them! I suppose that since the Bridgestone's are much cheaper things equal out in the long run as far as cost. For any potential Echo owners; ask the dealer if you can have a choice of tires. The Michelin's would probably improve handling and ride over the Bridgestone's.
$1000 over invoice???? Ouch! Hope that doesn't start in the States!
Also, anyone notice how Edmunds is so enamored over the Matrix's styling? To me, it looks like an Echo made into a station wagon. Same basic wedge shape and sharp crease running from the side marker lamps to the tail. Funny how it would kill these reviewers to give any positive comments to the Echo's styling!
One important saftey note re: styling of Echo; the little bump on the side marker lights in front make the signal visible to traffic in the 5 or 7 o'clock position. Details!

majorthomecho

If Edmunds is enamored of the styling of the Matrix, I wonder how they are going to feel about the next generation Corolla. From the pictures I have seen (and sorry I don't have a link to provide) it reminds me quite heavily of the Echo.

Does anyone know how long Goodyear Integrity tires should last?

hera23

Majorthomecho: yes, it is just like Saturn. You can get more information from the Toyota.ca website. Basically you wind up paying MSRP less about $100. That is what I have been quoted by three dealers here. I'm ready to come down to the US to get a better deal! Cheers.

jhall7

Still haven't installed the armrest.

I had to laugh when I came into the house after scratching the heck out of the console and read your warning. Even though it was too late, it is still appreciated.

To be perfectly honest, I still can't figure out how you got the armrest to miss both seats when they are adjusted.

I look forward to the information when your site is activated. I am in no hurry. Thanks again.

Door Handle Situation:
My car is a 2001 two door. Only the passengers side seems to have the problem with the handle.

As stated before, the dealer told me that he believes there will be a notice sent out by Toyota stating what will take place to recitify the situation. He also said he has been made aware of several other Echos with the same problem. His thought was, the more complaints the quicker the responce from Toyota.

He personally showed me that nearly every Echo on his lot had the same situation to one degree or another.

What he could not tell me was what the long term affect would be.

Time will tell.

Thanks,
Jack

mbsmom1

I can't see why so many have problems with Echo's design, except for rear lights, I mistake Focus for Echo all the time...This is a useful little car. I chose 2dr-5speed, not only for economy but also for winter driving; manual shifting gives me more control in ice and snow, plus car seems to accelerate stronger. I originally tried Echo on my vacation in Puerto Rico, seemed to be common car there-especially as rental. My friend who stands over 5'8" had no problems sitting comfortably for long periods--we ran over 500 miles in 5 days on just one tank of gas and that was with automatic. After 5 days, I decided if and when I would buy a new car, Echo would be #1 on the list. Luckily, I was able to buy one last September. MRSP was $10,725 and I got it for 9,995 including winter package. My only complaints: not being able to add air without 2,000 more in options, and the rear windows of the 2 door not venting open. I like this cars weird look, and I prefer not to follow the norm--its gotten more than a few second looks and lots of questions; what is it, who makes it, etc., and I always suggest they sit in it to appreciate the height and room from the inside--you don't look like the Shell commercials where everyone scooted around on their butts. It rides high almost like a volvo, and visibility is great from that position. I have no regrets, especially with the constantly rising gas prices here in New York. All I can say is SUCKER to all you SUV gas guzzlers--at least I run 14 to 16 days-hear me-DAYS on a tank of gas. He who laughs last laughs best. To my fellow Echo aficionados, we have brains enough a appreciate a bargain with a great car maker-Toyota!!

levine90

Took my 2 door manual on a 400+ mile road trip up and down I-85 between South and North Carolina. I was a little worried about how it would handle at speed, as this was my first long interstate trip, but I was pleased to discover that it was a very competent performer at 65, 75, up to 85 miles per hour. Handling was good, visibility was great, and the seats were fairly comfortable. At one point it started to rain extremely heavily (flood is perhaps a better word) and visibility was cut to maybe 20, 30 feet, and following proper precations, I felt extremely safe in the Echo even with large 18 wheelers and SUVs around me. I look forward to making that commute many times in the future.

Cheers,
Peter

swooosh

I found out the dealer pricing on a 2000 Toyota Echo cruise control system by SCS for around $189.38 CAD w/o installation.

My question is... is this a very difficult installation? Do manuals, instructions come with the system? Can I do this myself? I am quite knowledgable about cars but obviously not a super mechanic or anything.

thanX!

majorthomecho

I washed my car this morning and I discovered a couple of chips in the paint that went down to the metal. As there was no discoloration, I think they just happened yesterday or this morning.

I followed directions on the touch up paint bottle and tried to get the excess paint off the brush before applying, but I am not Picasso and I don't think I did a very good job.

Anyone have suggestions for touch up jobs and getting only as much paint on the car as you need.

vocus

I have a major scratch on the hood of my new Protege, and I am going to an arts & crafts store to get a small brush to apply the touch up stuff with. Try that, it might work better than the rather large, thick brush in the touch-up bottle.

janbee

I dont know if you have it in the states but toyota has come out with a touch-up paint in the form of a pen with the colour on one end and the top coat on the other..it sells for about $10 CDN I will pick some up soon, hmmmm maybe Ill call them today and see if they have it in stock..Ill let ya know!

kaz6

I tried one of those pens for my mom's Maxima. The only problem I had with them was the tip getting clogged up. You can also try clear nail polish for touch-ups. The shine makes it look a part of the paint more than the touch-up at times.

kneisl1

Saturday I leave for Alaska with my motorcycle so Ill be gone for a while from the list. Just in case you miss me!

majorthomecho

Its Evil Kneisl. ; )

Take care and have fun.

majorthomecho

I could have sworn that someone posted a message about Toyota sending them a letter saying there were problems with the child seat anchor in the 2001 Echo and it was being recalled due to it not performing well during NHTSA testing.

Did I imagine that post or did it get yanked for some reason?

I wonder if it got yanked for being bogus. Are the child seat anchors even in use during a NHTSA frontal crash tests?

Also, I have to wonder because it was a couple of days ago that I saw the post and I have yet to see anything from Toyota and I have a 2001.

palmdaleflyer

1st post here... Happy Echo owner for 2 months. I've rolled up 3,500 miles and can say that this is a FANTASTIC car.

For anyone in So Cal, I cruise my Echo up to Palmdale everyday, and drive home in pretty strong crosswinds everyday. It does move around more than most cars, but if you don't overcorrect, it's no problem at all. I've been averaging about 37mpg with the A/C on and going uphill. Not bad.

I've called the 3 closest Toyota dealers to me asking about installing cruise. 2 have said they don't and the other said it was a 2 month wait. Can anyone help me out with finding someone who can do it?

Thanks

sonatafan

The child anchor notice wasn't bogus....I received it in the mail at the beginning of the week here in Columbus, OH. I called my local dealer and they said they wouldn't have the necessary parts in until sometime next week. Don't know why that post would get deleted and don't know if mine will too, it specifically says it's not a recall but an upgrade. The anchors worked just not to Toyota's standards....

geegee1958

I got a notice in the mail also, and my Echo is a 2000, so it must be the 2000 and 2001's that are both involved. I have'nt spoken with the dealer yet, since I don't use child seats, and have never even had a rear seat passenger yet, so I don't know wether they have the necessary parts yet, but I guess I'll have it checked out sooner or later, maybe when the oil is changed. And the mailing specifies that it is not actually a recall, but a voluntary upgrade, due to test results that indicated potential problems.

jhall7

If you are fortunate enough to have an "Auto 1 one" in your area, they will install cruise in the Echo for a total of $249.00.

The cruise was Rostra, which is what other dealers install.

Jack

drew_

majorthomecho

Readers of this board will remember that I wrote Edmunds a letter of complaint about the review of the Echo not being current in terms of crash tests.

They used my letter for their June Letters To The Editors and they slammed the Echo again.

They should expect a follow up letter from me.

thoover

Let them slam away. I appreciate that Toyota people had the courage to bring a product as unique as the ECHO to the US market. We owners know that the ECHO works hard for us every day, is reliable, roomy, peppy, economical, and in my view, cool.

I hope they are as happy with whatever they have chosen to drive as I am with the ECHO!

sonatafan

I don't think the comment made by the editor about the size of the Echo was a slam. It's true whether you want to beleive it or not. ALL small cars are like that and the Echo is no different. Both the Government and IIHS (IIHS still hasn't tested the Echo) tests are based on the "same vehicle weight" ratio when being evaluated.

The only test that is different and can be compared across the board is the side impact test, where the vehicle is stationary and struck by an object of a different size and weight.

majorthomecho

I consider Chris's response to me a slam because they don't point out this warning in all the other cars. To be fair, they need to warn everyone about size from the lightest car to the heaviest. There is always something heavier out there.

sonatafan

Your'e right, I agree with you from that standpoint. The biggest SUV is no match for an 18 wheeler and there's plenty of them on our roads!

majorthomecho

As some of my fellow posters may remember, my roommate is in the market for a new car and considering the Echo for herself given how happy I have been with mine.

She wanted to get an up close look at an Echo in gold and an Echo in the new blue color. We were out shopping and had a happy coincidence.

We went to a store and parked and here comes a blue Echo and it parked in the spot just before us.

She thinks the Echo looks very pretty in blue. I will probably make some calls to dealers to check who has a gold Echo that we can look at.

kaz6

Hi all! Third day in the desert and high around 110 degrees!!! Let me say this about the a/c: the problem is not the a/c itself but rather the tall greenhouse and large interior volume that keeps the a/c working hard. I can say this because it takes a long time for the temperature to go below 95 at night here(past midnight and still around 97)and as soon as the sun goes down the a/c doesn't nearly have as hard a time cooling things off. FYI, the air is very cold coming out of the registers. My Echo is also a dark color which can add 5 degrees to interior temp.-so I've read. Any temp. below 100 and the a/c has no problems.
BTW: averaged 38mpg so far in high heat/air running. I had to switch to 89 octane as there was excessive knocking off idle in this heat. It is running much better now. Altitude is also pretty high at around 2000ft.
I have also noticed an increase of 1-2mpg on average since I've switched to synthetic oil. Coincidence? I'll keep you all posted!

dsgecho

How many other people have recieved the child safety seat anchor recall mentioned in several recent posts? I have a 2001 model but have gotten no notices yet. Since I have 1 daughter, it would help to know if this model is involved!
Thanks,
Don

geegee1958

I have my notice right in front of me and it's title is "2000-2001 MODEL YEAR ECHO UPPER CHILD RESTRAINT TETHER ANCHORAGE UPGRADE", so it appears that both model years are affected. I have a 2000, and received my notice the middle of last week. The return address of the notice is Torrence, Ca and I live in the Miami, Florida area, so it does not appear that the mailings come from a local Toyota distribution center (east coast, anyway.) I made an appointment for next Saturday to have the upgrade done, and there was no problem with the dealer having the necessary parts, as someone else had mentioned.

cwo4

I live in NC. The local dealership said they would call when they got the replacement/repair parts in. My "upgrade" notice arrived over the weekend. Since our "baby" will be 27 on his next birthday, I'm not in a big hurry! 41,970 miles and I'm still happy with my Y2K ECHO!

majorthomecho

I have a 2001 and I have yet to receive the notice. I will check it out with my dealer tomorrow. Even though I don't have children, I am still going to have the work done if my vehicle is affected.

As near as I can tell, it is not a government mandated recall because the recall is not listed on the NHTSA site. This makes me feel better about Toyota.

jrblack100

I purchased my 2001 Echo a few months ago to replace a car which was on its last leg and I was not ready for a large car payment. What a great car it has become. Got over 43 MPG last week making a commute in the Dallas area (but generally 35 MPG around town). Too bad the Edmund guys can't admit when they've made a bad call.

smonk59

There has been a recall for my 2001 4-door. Something about the driver seatbelt. It is campaign number 10F.

I recently took off ALL of the wheel covers to wash them and scrub them, they get a lot of brake sludge on them, I have found the best was to do this is to soak them in a bathtub with hot soapy (dish soap, cuts grease) water for an hour or two, THEN scrub them, its much easier that way. I haven't put them back on yet because its easier with a rubber mallet and I need to go buy one. So right now my normally very nice looking echo looks like it has 4 spare tires on it

janbee

I dont know what this stuff is but it seems within the last couple weeks my hubcaps have some grease on them, is there a product that will easily remove this so I dont have to take the hubcaps off...what about the same product used to clean tires????

kaz6

I just spray mine with a wheel cleaner(2001 brand or Armor All)and rinse with high pressure. It cleans every nook and cranny with no problems.

mbohun

To replace wheel covers you do not need a rubber mallet. You need only to start in one corner of the wheel and wedge one corner into place, then hold this end down with one hand while pressing firmly down on the others, do not hammer around the remaining edges. Hammering seems to cause the inner spring band to spring back, the harder you hammer the more it springs back. This will seem very awkward at first but it works. The fit of these wheel covers are very tight, much carder to get on and off than those on my other Toyota.

majorthomecho

I have yet to get notification of either one of the two recalls supposedly affecting the 2001 Echo.

Bet I don't get a recall notice in the mail today either. ; )

thoover

majorthomecho, according to the NHTSA database, there are no recalls or TSBs at all on 2001 ECHOs.

The issue with the "upper child restraint tether ancorage" is a Toyota upgrade - it passed the Federal standards, but isn't up to Toyota standards.

What is the other issue you were thinking of?

sonatafan

The JC Whitney armrest install is now on my website. Just click on "Armrest Installation" link when you get there.

http://www.geocities.com/sonatafan

kaz6

WOW! Thanks for the very detailed instructions and pics!!! I was wondering what it looked like and it does look better than I thought-coming from JC Whitney...

majorthomecho

One "recall" was the child seat tether anchor and the other was something to do with the driver's seatbelt mentioned by Smonk59 in post #1887.

smonk59

Well I got my wheel covers back on. WITHOUT a mallet. I had to have one on my previous vehicles, because It would take me 4 hours by hand, but the toyota echo is pretty easy to get back on, you just have to use your foot to hold the bottom down .

I recently added some stuff inside my echo. Like I bought a hawaian visor organizer, but instead of putting ito n the visor I attached it to the upper glover compartment, it works really good there and looks pretty neat, I got some blue jelly floor mats to go over my carpet ones (they are started to get real dirty and look bad). And I got a blue jelly grip steering wheel cover, which works WONDERS, it has lil massager things on it I have 10 thousand miles on my car (got in december) and I am pretty happy with it. Although I am looking at the matrix as soon as it comes out, that car looks SWEET! i've noticed something about the echo, if you ask anybody their opinoin on it, its always they either LOVE IT or HATE IT. Noone is like "its ok" its always "THAT IS SO NEAT" or "damn, that car is ugly as hell" I don't know if the seatbelt recall is just for southeast toyota distributors or all over? I live in Gainesville Florida so I don't know if it effects yal up north.

jon

mathan

I just got my recall letter in the mail this morning. It says there is a voluntary Customer Satisfaction Campaign on the 2000 and 2001 models.

mathan

HI everyone,
Does anyone find there are problems getting the 2001 5-speed (manual) Echo into reverse? I sometimes hear a bit of grinding... not good.

I'm going to get the car looked at. I had it in for it's first oil change two weeks ago and they didn't notice anything.

babyboomer

sonatafan:
Ref post 1893, your pictures and details are admirable. My armrest is just popped over the console, down too low to rest arm. So your installation lifts the unit enough for driver and/or passenger to put weight on it without weakening supports?

breckco

Mathan,

This happens with all cars because reverse does not have syncronizers that match transmission speed with engine speed. Forward gears do. Try this. When you come to a stop and have the car in neutral, depress the clutch, then put the transmission in a forward gear (I use 2nd) before you put it in reverse. You should be able to get reverse with no grinding using this method.

Live Happy,

Chris