Used 2002 Toyota ECHO Consumer Reviews
Used ECHO for sale
Nice Little Car
CharlieA, 02/14/2003
2002 Toyota ECHO 4dr Sedan (1.5L 4cyl 4A)
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
A lovely little vehicle. I am 6'2" tall. I sit upright in the driver's seat, with plenty of room above the top of my hat. The only negative comfort feature is the foot rest for the left foot, sized for a midget. That can be uncomfortable, particularly for long drives. I waited three months for delivery of my Echo from Japan, in order to get an Antilock Braking System (ABS); a very worthwhile choice.
Decent Compromise Car
Ken, 02/03/2024
2002 Toyota ECHO 4dr Sedan (1.5L 4cyl 4A)
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I bought my Echo a year-and-a-half ago with 112K miles when I was looking for an inexpensive small car for putting around, and was immediately disappointed to discover that it needed about $2500 in repairs to be brought up to snuff. This was my fault for not having the car thoroughly checked out by a mechanic before I bought it, but in my defense, I expected it to need some work, just not this much. My takeaway is that just because it's a Toyota without excessive mileage, doesn't mean that it will never need to be repaired. But after paying for the initial repairs, the car has been trouble-free, so I really can't complain. The only other repair it needed was to fix a slow leak in a tire that cost me all of $6. Meanwhile, knock on wood, the car has been quite reliable, and although I can't say that it's a joy to drive, it's not bad. It gets me from point A to point B fine, and yes, it has the advantages of maneuverability, ease of parking, and good gas mileage associated with a smaller car, without being cramped inside. There's actually a fair amount of interior and trunk space. Though, it is a smaller car with what feels to me like a sewing machine engine. As a smaller car, I doubt that it's the safest one on the road, and after all these years, I wouldn't be surprised if the airbags failed to deploy. Well, this is just one of the tradeoffs you make with a smaller, older car. But the sewing machine engine takes a little getting used to. The car will go highway speeds, and can pass other cars too, but it's far from a powerhouse. It's not even very peppy, which some smaller cars are. Of course, mine has the automatic transmission, and I'd imagine that the manual is peppier, but I like automatics and feel that my car only has adequate power--and no more. I have also discovered two unsafe features of the car. One, which others have mentioned, is that for some reason it's real easy to hit the accelerator when you want to hit the brake. Maybe the pedals are too close together, I don't know, but I did that a couple of times before I learned to be more careful in this car than I ever needed to be in other cars. The other unsafe feature, for me at least, is that the part of the body to which the windshield attaches on the driver's side easily prevents me from seeing pedestrians in a crosswalk just before they're in front of my car. I almost hit pedestrians in crosswalks twice simply because I didn't see them until I recognized this problem and learned to anticipate it. Again, I've never had this problem in other cars, so suspect that it's a design shortcoming of the Echo, but now that I'm aware of it, it's no longer a problem. I could care less about how stylish my car is, but I couldn't help noticing that many of the early reviews said that the Echo is ugly. That's not my sense. In fact, now that I'm an Echo owner, I'm in the habit of eyeballing other older Toyotas and trying to guess if they are Echos. Sometimes they are, but just as often they're a Yaris or even an early Corolla. I still can't always tell them apart. In fact, a neighbor has a late-1990s Corolla, and when I compare its specs with my Echo, I can't find much of a difference. (The Echo is a little taller and shorter, which are both features I prefer.) As far as I can tell, there's not much difference between the Echo and an older Corolla or Yaris, so I have no idea why those two models have been more popular than the Echo. Since I don't drive a lot, I'd like to give my ownership of the Echo a couple more years before I render a firm opinion. However, after plunking down the money for both the car and the initial repairs 18 months ago, I can't say that I'm disappointed with my Echo--or at least any more disappointed with it than I would be with any car in its class. Some of my gripes would apply to any smaller car, after all, and for other reasons (mostly space) I wanted a smaller car. More to the point, I'm not trying to sell my Echo, and if I did, I wouldn't have any idea what car to get instead. (Maybe another Echo?) My Echo is therefore fine for me, but I didn't and don't have super high standards. I knew when buying that I was making compromises about what I ideally wanted in a car and what I practically needed in one, and so far the Echo has turned out to be a decent compromise.
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2002 Toyota ECHO for sale near you
Showing 3 of 4 listings
- Base SedanMSRP: $7,990602 mi away
- Base SedanMSRP: $1,4871,236 mi away
- Base CoupeMSRP: $2,9991,710 mi away
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Best Designed Car Ever - Thank you, Toyota
Hoptod, 02/06/2023
2002 Toyota ECHO 4dr Sedan (1.5L 4cyl 5M)
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
This is my favorite car of all time. Yes, very basic, but the most practical, friendly, and reliable vehicle I've ever driven, and I've driven mine for 350,000 miles over 20 years. Surprisingly roomy with a high seating angle and exceptional field of view for a subcompact. Every functional item is easy to use. Nothing interior has broken in 20 years except a couple of interior light bulbs. Engine is incredibly easy to maintain and reliable. I believe Toyota abandoned this design because it was "too good."
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2000 Toyota Echo 55000 miles on odo.
Istok, 04/12/2002
2002 Toyota ECHO 2dr Coupe (1.5L 4cyl 5M)
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
This Car is better than Honda Civic. I drove that Car. Other than hadeling there is nothing that is beter about 2002 lx except: Exterior looks and handling. I drove my friends 2002 lx. Echo rides better, gets better fuel economy, engine seems stronger ( I blow his doors off), than we swich cars and Echo still wins. His car is also manual. I pay a lot less for insurance than he does, both of us same agent, he is 1 year older, I even have one ticket and he does not, and we have identical policies. BUY THIS CAR.
2 door Toyota Echo 2001
femme, 06/04/2002
2002 Toyota ECHO 2dr Coupe (1.5L 4cyl 5M)
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Good qualities: The 2 door Toyota Echo 2001 is a fun car to drive - it zips around, up hills even with the AC on. It also has a fantastic 3 in 1 stereo system with 6 speakers. It stands a little higher off the ground, especially for a small car, which is very helpful in this era of SUVs. I am a large person, and the Echo fits me well, with plenty of head room and no need for a seatbelt extender. I also find the dashboard set up (with the MPH in the center of the dash) to be easier to read than peering through the steering wheel, and I love all the additional spaces built in to the dash.