The Good Old Yaris - everyone has one!

Seems anyone who is anyone has a Yaris in this country..........why? Because of the sheer engine power? No.....The stunning good looks? uh-uh.........Yes that's right, it's the bottom of the line, cheapest rental car an Ex-pat living and working in Bahrain can get their hands on. Pure class.

There are a huge number of these little 1.3L zooming around and while it goes just fine for a non-petrol head like me, sometimes it would be nice to have just a tiny bit more pick-up to get out of those classic Bahraini intersection situations. Of which there are many on a daily basis. Driving here is still a buzz, especially if you're the passenger and have no control.............

At our temporary accommodation as us newbies were picking up our rentals it felt that everyone had a white Yaris, the line up downstairs in the carpark was impressive. Then some of us rebelled (or got lucky) and got Olive coloured ones, although some people just had to copy my style; then others went wild by obtaining blue ones - this where the diversity in the Yaris colour selection ends I believe. Now while my little wonder car might be labelled 'Olive' I prefer to call it 'dust' coloured as the paint work matches the ever present dust perfectly, you would hardly know it was dirty.....

....until you brushed up against it in your dark work suit or in fact tried to open the door and ended up with a filthy hand. Looking at it today I will have to give in and get it cleaned, mostly because I can't see out the windows - which just makes my passengers a tad on the nervous side.....

PS the photo was taken just after its last clean - this photo no longer resembles the car parked outside on the road