IS THERE AN ECHO IN HERE? Toyota unveils its latest economy car.(News)

Byline: MAC MORRISON

Toyota's Echo econocan never lived up to expectations. Toyota hoped it would help crack the American youth market, to the tune of 50,000 per year, but Echo came close to that number only once. Worse, it wasn't Gen Y that accounted for those nearly 49,000 sales in 2000.

Four years later, Toyota's Scion division sold 100,000 vehicles, while just 3900 people, apparently caught in a common sense worm hole, chose Echo. Through Nov. '05, 144,000 trendsetters (as Toyota is fond of labeling them) drove Scions off dealer lots, and Echo sales shrank to almost nothing.

"With Scion, we learned that young customers expect very upscale details,'' says Toyota marketing vp, and former Scion chief, Jim Farley. "We want the Yaris sedan to be seen as an attractive, premium product.''

At "well under $13,000'' starting prices for the Yaris sedan and hatchback models, "premium'' is a stretch, but both versions are solid improvements over their compact predecessor.

A new platform underpins Yaris, and the sedan-its wheelbase is 3.5 inches longer than the hatchback's-provides passengers with slightly more legroom than the Echo did, while the two-door offers slightly less. Other interior dimensions and capacities are similar.

Farley says Yaris will appeal to people who find Scion's offerings too flashy, and its lines appeal much more than the Echo's ever did. The four-door looks more upscale with familiar Toyota cues. The hatch will look more at home on congested European roads than in the driveways of premium-product-seeking young Americans, but several street-side observers flashed grins as it passed by.