The Echo has died out at Toyota Canada, to be replaced by the name the subcompact goes by in the rest of the world -- Yaris.

Following its debut at the Frankfurt motor show, the Yaris hatchback (in three- and five-door configurations) will turn up at the Georgian College

(Photo: Toyota Canada)

Auto Show in Barrie from September 16 to 18 and go directly to Toyota dealers across Canada this fall, well before it will go on sale in the U.S. or Europe.

No word on a replacement for the Echo Sedan, though that could come later, or not at all.

Pricing for the Yaris hatchback models will not be announced until the Yaris goes on sale, but the Echo retailed for $12,995 for the two-door model and $14,705 for the five-door. The sedan was $14,080.

Before we get to Toyota's lyrical engineering descriptions of the Yaris and the "Vibrant Clarity" design direction that informs its shape, a few hard facts.

The three-door model will be sold in CE, LE and RS trim, but the five-door in only LE and RS. As always, the equipment levels go up with the trim levels and the price, and almost as always, the "S" designation stands for sporty, though on this car efforts in that direction seem to be mostly cosmetic.

There's only one engine, a 1.5-litre inline-four that produces 106 hp at 6,000 rpm and 103 lb-ft of torque at 4,200 rpm, which goes to the front wheels through a standard five-speed manual or an optional four-speed automatic.

That may not look like much power, but Yaris is a very small car, and one of Toyota Canada's three managing directors, Tony Wearing, promises that "plenty of muscle and torque in the low to medium rpm ranges mean lively response at all speeds.

For many people, however, Yaris will be about economy from all perspectives, meaning fuel usage as well as upfront cost. On that point,

(Photo: Toyota Canada)

Toyota Canada's not ready to provide official Transport Canada fuel economy numbers, but Wearing does say consumers can expect "exceptional fuel economy."

The downsize of a small car is of course that it's light and small, and light and small can be more dangerous in a crash with a larger vehicle, as every safety organization in the world will tell you. Yaris is 3,825 mm long, 1,695 mm wide and 1,525 mm high on a wheelbase of 2,460 mm. Toyota Canada has not announced the cars' curbweights yet.

As noted above, this compact car has been carved into a shape following the tenets of "vibrant clarity," which is "a new design ethos that will infuse future vehicles with a completely original identity and emotional intensity that will be uniquely identifiable as Toyota."

The "vibrant" part involves the "forward-looking, innovative nature of the new designs, and the feeling of energy they impart to the customer." The "clarity" part "stresses the rationality in the design equation, the need to keep the design crisp and easy to interpret at a glance. Through this combination, Toyota intends to bring form and function together under the same package."