CarComplaints.com Notes: The Toyota Echo has better fuel economy & far less problems than its competitors.
Typical fuel economy reported by owners starts at 35 MPG, with 40-50 MPG easily possible with some thoughtful driving. With not even a hint of any major problems, the Toyota Echo is a fantastically reliable car with fuel economy that puts some "eco-friendly" hybrids 10 years newer to shame.
First it was the heat shield under the car... such a pain that repair shop after repair shop refused to remove it. As far as they were concerned it was impossible to remove. This heat shield is the worst anyone I know has ever seen in design. It starts with a rattle, and it's right under your big fat plastic mesh fuel tank so you can grind it off, or else kaboom. Its shaped & tempered to wrap around the exhaust pipe (so much for TQM). When it falls, the back side will be rusted away long before the rest of the car, it will start scraping along the ground causing sparks under your car; winter or summer it doesn't care. It will grind & grind. You can try to tie it up but thanks to there being basically nothing you can connect to; your repairs will fall as the shield shakes, jumps, rattles & then scrapes on the ground over & over & over until you start to go crazy.
Now thanks to the good old weight of the fat warped scraping heat shield, every time you reverse & its flaps are scraping on the ground or even just near it, if its on the angle where the exhaust catches it; it'll nonetheless catch on cracks/culverts/rocks/garbage/etc. which every time will jolt your gas tank but amazingly never cause a leak. The issue is that it will push & pull on your exhaust pipe in between the resonator & the catalytic converter, and thanks to a little brace meant to hold up the pipe, it will get caught on that & after a few months of scraping nightmare, it will rip your exhaust pipe apart.
When this happens, it's time to retire the vehicle. Basically the car is then straight piped, loud enough to get the car pulled off the road after ticket after ticket from the car not being worth the cost to properly fix it.
Now you will say, "just weld the pipe back together" - you can do that, but after a few months it'll fail, thanks to bad catalytic, which is thanks to oil burning in the engine caused by carbon buildup in the pistons. The pressure on this break point will build & build until it blows right through your welds thanks to them being attached to a rusty pipe. The problem returns over & over & over again.
Know though, when the exhaust is broken apart, that is the ONLY time you can actually take off the heat shield, let it rust, drive through all the puddles you can & then know there's a tear point in the middle of the heat shield (hardest part to reach when the car is lifted); tear the heat shield in half & pull with ALL your body strength, back & forth tear tear tear while wearing THICK gloves. Do the same on the passenger side too; the night mare is over & whatever you do; DO NOT SHOVE ANOTHER HEAT SHIELD ON THE CAR EVER AGAIN.
Thanks to the bending of the pipe that will ensue from tearing off your heat shield; your exhaust pipe will be permanently deformed & on high culverts/pot holes/rocks/debris, your exhaust pipe will be torn off on each one, wrapping itself around each object with its incompetent bent design.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
First it was the heat shield under the car... such a pain that repair shop after repair shop refused to remove it. As far as they were concerned it was impossible to remove. This heat shield is the worst anyone I know has ever seen in design. It starts with a rattle, and it's right under your big fat plastic mesh fuel tank so you can grind it off, or else kaboom. Its shaped & tempered to wrap around the exhaust pipe (so much for TQM). When it falls, the back side will be rusted away long before the rest of the car, it will start scraping along the ground causing sparks under your car; winter or summer it doesn't care. It will grind & grind. You can try to tie it up but thanks to there being basically nothing you can connect to; your repairs will fall as the shield shakes, jumps, rattles & then scrapes on the ground over & over & over until you start to go crazy.
Now thanks to the good old weight of the fat warped scraping heat shield, every time you reverse & its flaps are scraping on the ground or even just near it, if its on the angle where the exhaust catches it; it'll nonetheless catch on cracks/culverts/rocks/garbage/etc. which every time will jolt your gas tank but amazingly never cause a leak. The issue is that it will push & pull on your exhaust pipe in between the resonator & the catalytic converter, and thanks to a little brace meant to hold up the pipe, it will get caught on that & after a few months of scraping nightmare, it will rip your exhaust pipe apart.
When this happens, it's time to retire the vehicle. Basically the car is then straight piped, loud enough to get the car pulled off the road after ticket after ticket from the car not being worth the cost to properly fix it.
Now you will say, "just weld the pipe back together" - you can do that, but after a few months it'll fail, thanks to bad catalytic, which is thanks to oil burning in the engine caused by carbon buildup in the pistons. The pressure on this break point will build & build until it blows right through your welds thanks to them being attached to a rusty pipe. The problem returns over & over & over again.
Know though, when the exhaust is broken apart, that is the ONLY time you can actually take off the heat shield, let it rust, drive through all the puddles you can & then know there's a tear point in the middle of the heat shield (hardest part to reach when the car is lifted); tear the heat shield in half & pull with ALL your body strength, back & forth tear tear tear while wearing THICK gloves. Do the same on the passenger side too; the night mare is over & whatever you do; DO NOT SHOVE ANOTHER HEAT SHIELD ON THE CAR EVER AGAIN.
Thanks to the bending of the pipe that will ensue from tearing off your heat shield; your exhaust pipe will be permanently deformed & on high culverts/pot holes/rocks/debris, your exhaust pipe will be torn off on each one, wrapping itself around each object with its incompetent bent design.
- Phil S., North Bay, ON, Canada