Toyota ending Yaris Hatch & Sedan production for United States by end of June

This will end 15 years of Toyota Yaris Hatchback and Sedan sales in the United States

An alleged leaked memo from Toyota to All Southeast Toyota dealers and General Managers leaked on Reddit announced the end of Yaris (sedan) and Yaris Hatchback production specifically for the United States market.

Although the Reddit thread deleted the memo, we’ve saved a copy here.

“Toyota would like to thank the Yaris family for fifteen years on the market and nearly half a million vehicles sold in the U.S. Yaris Sedan and Yaris Hatchback production for the U.S. (including Hawaii) will end at the end of June 2020. Puerto Rico will have minimal production through November 2020.”

That leaked memo hovered around for a few days before the rumor was confirmed by Toyota thanks to our friends over at Autowise.com. In a statement to Autowise, Toyota says,

“The Yaris sedan and Yaris Hatchback will not be available for model year 2021. Model year 2020 will be the last year for Yaris. June 2020 will be the last month of production for the Yaris sedan and Yaris Hatchback for the U.S.,” according to Toyota Motor North America’s Western Communications Manager, Christine N. Henley.

The writing for Toyota’s cheapest offering was already on the wall when Toyota axed its Toyota Vitz-based Toyota Yaris Hatchback last year, among 12 other cars axed that year from other car manufacturers. With companies like Ford and Chevrolet shifting its lineup to crossover based SUVs of all sizes, small car offerings from all brands was growing smaller.

The nail for the Yaris coffin in the United States came when word leaked out in May that Toyota was cutting North America production by a 1/3 across the board through October to adjust to the Corona Virus.

According to GoodCarBadCar, the Yaris Hatchback and Sedan has enjoyed a solid couple thousand units sold a month but yearly totals were a shadow of its peak years when the Yaris first came out. The last time Yaris sales cracked 1,000 units was back in July 2019.

To rehash the Toyota Yaris Hatchback and sedan history, for one year the Yaris hatchback and sedan where sold as the Scion iA. With the demise of Scion, Scion iA soldiered on as Toyota Yaris iA and Toyota Yaris (Hatchback) before being Toyota lopped off the iA for model year 2019.

Since 2014, Mazda de Mexico Vehicle Operation began production of the Mazda2 in Salamanca, Guanajuato for North and South American market which would become the re-badged Yaris Hatch and Yaris Sedan on sale today.

The Yaris sedan and Hatch start out at an affordable $15,650 and $17,750 respectively.

Contrast that to the Corolla sedan and Hatchback at $19,825 and $20,290, thousands difference between the two.

It’s not clear how long you have to buy a Toyota Yaris or Yaris Hatchback once Toyota stops bringing them up from Mexico but presumably you won’t have long and will be left with whatever local dealers have.

If you have your eye on one, now’s the time to snag one up.

One less manual

A sub story to all this is the slow demise of manual transmissions for American consumers. According to AutoWise, there are just 42 cars you can buy with a manual transmission. And, for MY 2021 and the demise of Yaris, that’ll be just 41.

H/T – @HighMileage