This Might Be The Baddest-Ass Toyota Echo Around

Remember the Toyota Echo? In other parts of the world, they were the first generation of the Yaris, and in still other places they were known as the comical-sounding Platz. Because it sounds like plotz. And perhaps you’ll consider plotzing like I did when I show you this Echo I happened to see, which, thanks to the inspired and unexpected addition of a big bull bar, may be the most badass Echo still buzzing down the streets of this great and complex nation of ours.

Before I get into talking about this particular Echo, it’s worth talking Echoes themselves, because they were interesting little cars. The Echo, which shared most of its mechanicals with the Scions xA and xB and the Toyota WiLL Vi, was built between 1999 and 2005, and was part of a plan by Toyota to recruit more young buyers to the brand, much like what Toyota was hoping their Scion sub-brand would do in 2003.

And, like Scion, the Echo seemed to do the opposite of what their builders wanted, attracting older buyers instead of younger ones, but those older buyers were very loyal and appreciative of this little car’s charms.

Here’s some commercials that show how desperately Toyota wanted The Youths to buy some Echos:

Those swirly colors, that birds-eye-view photography angle, once a MySpace selfie staple, those were all how one tried to lure kids into spending their money in the early 2000s.

This next commercial featured the famous Arecibo Radio Telescope, which, as you likely remember, was what pretty much everyone under 30 who was looking for a cheap car in America was obsessed with:

The Echo had a pretty novel design, being unusually tall for its length, giving it a kind of endearing, cartoonish look.

There was a coupé version as well as a four-door, and I always thought these had a friendly sort of charm. Maybe that’s why when I saw an Echo – a rare site to see at all these days – on the road wearing a full bull bar bumper setup, it caught my attention.

It looks either like a geeky kid wearing an unfortunate orthodontic headgear or a scrappy pug armored up and ready for a fight. Personally, I love the dichotomy of this chubby little subcompact wearing that huge add-on bumper setup. It feels just a bit unhinged, in a good way.

Oh, and as an aside, look how nicely this character line defines the amber reflector area of the side marker lamp:

That’s just a nice little touch.

So, what is this person doing with their echo that they need it fitted with such a battering ram? Did they, like me, smack into too many deer? Because I considered what a bull bar might look like on my Pao after I hit a second deer in the car:

I didn’t do it, though, but this Echo owner certainly did. That bull bar on the Echo has big rubberized push bars/bumper guards, which makes me wonder if this car may be used to move things around somewhere? Or maybe the owner just likes sending shopping carts skittering around parking lots at wild speeds, like pinballs, just for fun.

There are a few dents in that Echo’s hood that suggest maybe there were some, uh, incidents, that brought this on.

Maybe they’re tired of hitting deer. Or hoping to hit more deer. I hope it’s just deer at least. Or tired of being intimidated by bigger cars. Maybe this little Echo is just ready to take on whatever the world throws at it, and it equipped accordingly, with substantial front-end protection and one lone cyclopean yellow foglamp?

Whatever the reason, I think it makes this Echo look and feel pretty badass, and I salute you, armored Echo driver!