Echo's Con

[CJCride]

Echo's possible biggest con may be that there are not enough of them out there = Little Choice at Bone Yard.

[Yaris Hilton]

Supposedly 48,000 total were sold in the U.S. Most of them must still be running. I'm seeing more of them in my town than I did when they were current production cars.

[CJCride]

You are right they are still being driven, except for the few unlucky Write Offs.

[thebarber]

Originally Posted by Yaris Hilton

Supposedly 48,000 total were sold in the U.S. Most of them must still be running. I'm seeing more of them in my town than I did when they were current production cars.

# sold in the US doesnt really help a canadian...

not a lot in the junk yard as they werent GREAT sellers....but try looking at wreckers in quebec....the echo/yaris is WAY more popular in montreal/quebec than it was/is in southern ontario

[CJCride]

Thanks, maybe i,ll make a shopping list and head out before the snow flys.

[Yaris Hilton]

I've never seen Canadian Echo sales figures, but if that few were sold in the U.S. I'd suspect it was a low seller in Canada as well.

[CJCride]

It's a good car overall, I guess w/this Corolla and the last one, I got spoiled w/all the choice at the wreckers.

[jambo101]

A peek at our local Auto Trader(Auto Hebdo) comes up with 806 echos for sale in and around Montreal.
http://www.autohebdo.net/result/resu...rchStatus=used

[CJCride]

Merci, my French is not so good. That won't give me any problem at the wreckers yard will it?

The kid's rear defogger is on the fritz, feel it could be the relay[$109CDN] or the switch[$260CDN] at the Dealer. So much for the money saved on gas!

We will probably make a weekend out of it and drive out to Montreal, I'll toss an old pair of work boots in the trunk for the Bone yard/Candy shop.

Thanks Again

[Skuz]

Here in Qc, Echos are everywhere. It sure was a best seller.

My biggest gripe with mine is the ultra cheap interior that causes rattles that come and go.

[CJCride]

Originally Posted by Skuz

Here in Qc, Echos are everywhere. It sure was a best seller.

My biggest gripe with mine is the ultra cheap interior that causes rattles that come and go.

Good to hear you guys have lots of them. We'll drive out for a weekend before Winter[remember if we Torontonians see any significant Snowfall we stay under the bed and call in Canadian Forces].

[jiber172r]

Originally Posted by Skuz

Here in Qc, Echos are everywhere. It sure was a best seller.

My biggest gripe with mine is the ultra cheap interior that causes rattles that come and go.

I just bought a 2004 Echo RS for my wife, 2 weeks ago. It looks almost brand new. THe previous owner absolutely babied this car. We bought it to replace my wife's 2005 Saturn Ion. Man, what a difference. The Echo being a year older is better in every single way than the saturn. It doesn't feel cheap, handles MUCH better and is an absolute blast to drive. Heck, I've been driving it more than my 2009 Matrix XR this past week

I find the interior to be amazing. Then again maybe that's because ours is the RS version which is all black instead of gray interior, and also has the sports upgrades like the bucket seats from the XRS models, that are a lot more comfortable than the seats in my Matrix. For a 5 year old car there are absolutely no rattles, creeks or noises.

As soon as we bought it, we had it rust proofed, windows tinted, bought a hood deflector for it and I switched it to synthetic oil. Overall it's an amazing little car, even at 5 years old, and under 97k, I think we can easily get 5+ years out of it.

[0987654321]

Originally Posted by jiber172r

...and I switched it to synthetic oil. Overall it's an amazing little car, even at 5 years old, and under 97k, I think we can easily get 5+ years out of it.

I've never had so much fun driving as with my 2004 Echo HB, manual tranny. It gets sluggish with more than 2 people in the car, but that's rare for me anyway. IMO it's really the poor man's Mini Cooper

I quoted jibert about the synthetic oil: isn't that really expensive? And is it worth it? My dealer's answer to this query was "Don't bother it's just an Echo!" but I've been wondering if it is worth it after all.

[jiber172r]

Originally Posted by 0987654321

I've never had so much fun driving as with my 2004 Echo HB, manual tranny. It gets sluggish with more than 2 people in the car, but that's rare for me anyway. IMO it's really the poor man's Mini Cooper

I quoted jibert about the synthetic oil: isn't that really expensive? And is it worth it? My dealer's answer to this query was "Don't bother it's just an Echo!" but I've been wondering if it is worth it after all.

It's a lot more peppy than I thought it would be. Now I've got a cold air intake on my matrix and it made a good difference. If only I could convince my wife she needs one in her car, that would be awesome

As for Synthetic, why not? Synthetic lubricates better and lasts longer, and is less suceptible to burn and sludge like regular oil. Overall, it's cleaner, so it's better for any car. Sure it costs a bit more, but the little bit extra money in the short term prevents problems in the long term. Everyone I know who has run synthetic in their cars has had very few if any engine issues at all. Most don't. Oil is the blood of the car, and regular oil lasts 8k tops, whereas I can run synthetic to 12k and it would still be cleaner than regular oil at 8k, so in reality it costs about the same taking that into consideration, paying 50% more, but getting 50% more mileage out of it at least. You can never over-care for the engine. It's better to do more than not enough, especially if you plan on having the car for a while.

[denman]

Another point for the synthetic oil hijack: better cold starts, a big plus here in the "frozen north". I run synthetic lubes in everything, including my lawnmower and snowblower and change oil once a year; I've had decades of drive train success with this regime.