Yaris sorry it is off topic . . .

That is the Mazda2, which all new Yarii sold in North America now are. If Mazda follows the usual design cycle, a redesign should be coming soon. Of course, that doesn't mean Toyota will adopt the new model for the Yaris.

 

Always better to rent a car that you're intending to drive for the next 10 years or so.

I've been looking for a replacement commuter car for about 10 years now.
CFO got the last new one (in 2012, a full size three-row grand-baby hauler) and I'm starting to circle around my next car.....maybe in the next year or two.

I'm thinking that a Corolla-sized car or a baby ute might me my next car (3 mile commute to work, quarterly 600-mile road trip to the home sod) but I really looked at the Yaris too.

We'll see.....
I'll probably start to rent cars for the road trip soon, which will be kinda hard on the Yaris....but I'm not tall, actually like small cars, and I'm probably more interested in overall fuel economy than the average driver.
I'm very price sensitive only because I don't dig car payments and will want to pay the thing off in a very short time.
I usually buy new, base models because I keep them for 10-15 years and most people today maintain a closed-hood maintenance philosophy.

There's good ink on the Yarzda....but there's a lot of competition out there in the tiny car world.

 

A second pass: Most subcompact cars have little or no center console at all. Some (Prius c, Hyundai Accent & others) don't even have the console connected to the dash, it's an open area instead.

I think somebody decided that this car would be more attractive with a cockpit style arrangement, with the dash connected to the center pod in front of the shifter. There just isn't room to really pull it off in this car. They could fix it without changing sheet metal.