This is NOT a big deal, but it occurred to me that I should mention it.
My car had about 140,000 miles on it and I was about ready for a new one. I like Toyotas and I wanted good mileage, and I checked Consumer Reports and, for me, the choice sort of came down to a $14,000 Echo or a $22,000 Prius. A colleague at work owns _two_ Echoes and likes them.
But... I had recently run across this item in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title=List_of_commercial_failures&oldid=12519168
"List of commercial failures: Toyota Echo - Sales of the US version of the Yaris subcompact car fell from 50,000 in 2000 to just 3400 in 2004. Sales in Canada of both the sedan and hatchback versions remain strong." The referenced article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Vitz , says:
"The initial year of almost 50,000 sales was promising, but after the Echo sold just half that many for 2003, the product was no longer stocked at dealerships. Sales for much of 2004 have reached just 3,593, with another year of production left before the product is replaced."
So... I crossed the Echo off my mental list.
I remember my wife saying to me at one point "Weren't you thinking about the Echo" and replying "Well, I was, but I guess it was a big flop and is probably not even available this year."
As I started to get more serious about the car-shopping process I did a little more checking.
As nearly as I can tell, that statement is just plain wrong. Consumer Reports said nothing about the product being replaced. As of 2005 a local Toyota dealer had them in stock, and other dealers were advertising them. There were no firesale prices to get rid of them. There is a 2005 Toyota Echo website at www.toyota.com/echo/ and a review at http://cars.about.com/od/2001/fr/ 05_echo_tst.htm that gives no hint of it being replaced or not stocked.
I removed the item from the Flops article and left a query on the talk page, so far unanswered. (I suppose I should do something in the Toyota Vitz article too).
I'm 99% sure it's misinformation. (Possibly a result of confusion between the sedan and hatchback models?)
It's not like it ruined my life or even affected my buying decision. Hey, it was really the Prius I wanted, anyway. Having the Echo still available just meant I needed to work harder to find a rationalization for the Prius.
But it does give me pause to realize that a little tidbit of Wikipedian misinformation actually got past my BS filter and lodged itself in my brain, even if only briefly.
How many bits of Wikipedian misinformation have gotten past my BS filter and _stuck,_ I wonder?
Oh, well, in my life I'm sure I've absorbed quite a bit of misinformation (it's dangerous to go swimming for thirty minutes after you eat... you need to drink 64 ounces of water every day... suntans are healthy... the continents don't drift...). A little bit more can't hurt.