My Mums 07 Yaris

[rambler]

hi folks

i normally live on the rav4 forum

but i thought i would drop in here to tell a tale

my mother (in her late 60's bless her),has had her 07 yaris 'zinc' 1.3 for almost 3 years now,she purchased it for toodling round in,visiting her grandchildren and other menial little jobs and tasks in her happy little retirement.

now she has been moaning during the last few months about the car not 'jumping' into life on cold morning starts.

not enough 'omph' in the Battery she says ! !.so today she took the car to colchester toyota to have ALL her car recalls done at once.. .

whilst she was there,she mentioned about the Battery and was asked,''do you have a Battery charger at home',my mum looked blank,'battery charger' she questioned......whatever for???....the cars only just 3 years old

now being an old lady,she doesnt have a clue with cars,she just drives it where she wants to go...thats it.

then she was then told that perhaps 'her yaris' wasnt suitable for her needs...

and she would have to drive for at least 25 miles to recharge the battery from an initial start up.and not using ANY of its functions whilst in the car,other than indicators.

especially the heater...in this cold weather :o

she was dumfounded...almost speechless,a car that once it has been started you are advised not to use any functions at all until you have covered at least 25 miles,so battery can be re charged fully.

when she told me,i just laughed,its a small economical vehicle that was designed for these sorts of purposes,much like the aygo,and iq,all small vehicles that are designed to be reliable,comfortable,safe and affordable to run.

and they advised not to use any controls on short local trips, as the battery gets drained too easy,that needs re designing

sorry for the 'rant'

i just think its daft though,.

BTW, what is the biggest,most powerfull battery you can fit on a yaris '07' reg 1.3 ??..anybody know

[Raeman]

You posted a similar thing a while ago, we all told you to give the car a good thrashing every now an then to clear it's guts and charge the Battery.

My own 1.3 regulary does short trips of UNDER 10 miles, i have the lights, heaters, and CD player on and in the 3yrs i've owned it, i've never had any Battery problems with it at all.

What i do however is every now & again, i will take it for a drive up the M6 for a few junctions and back again, occasionally thrashing it's pants off in 3rd & 4th then cruising at 80-90mph.

Doing this every few weeks does it a world of good but sometimes i can leave it for months and the Battery still performs like it should.

Maybe you should drive it and give it a long M/Way run.

[reece]

It needs a good run to stretch its legs and blow the cobwebs out. Constant town driving will kill your car.

[Madasafish]

For the past decade my wife has driven her Peugeot 106 diesel an average journey of 1 mile and stopped. On hour later the return trip. At night. The Battery lasts 3 years and then must be replaced.

Never charged properly...

[Chris81]

It will hardly 'kill' the car - if the car isn't taken out for the occasional long trip then the Battery will just need charging every now and then. It seems on this forum if anyone says anything even slightly negative about the Toyota brand you get shot down straight away.

What the dealer told her about the car being 'unsuitable for her needs' is just rubbish. Cars (and batteries) do benefit from a good blast every so often but even if this isn't done then it's stupid to recommend that the car is unsuitable. And frankly, not all Yaris suffer this fate. My friends mk1 phase 1 1.0 only ever gets used on short journeys (sub 10 miles) and never ever gets taken above 60mph. It's 7 years old, still on the original Battery, never had a Battery charger anywhere near it and it starts every time.

[kman1]

Just put a new Battery on it - all will be fine. Once the batteries get weak they won't hold their charge at all esp the modern calcium ones.