2009 Toyota Yaris adds 2 doors but still comes up short

— -- Toyota's small Yaris is selling well enough to deserve more investment, so the Japanese automaker's added a four-door hatchback and hopes it'll account for one-third the total sales.

The other models are a conventional four-door sedan and a two-door hatchback.

In auto-industry parlance, the hatch is a door, so a four-door hatchback is called a "five-door" and a two-door hatch is a "three-door."

The new five-door is a welcome addition to the Yaris line, if for no other reason than it's a hatchback that actually has reasonable access to the tiny car's back seat.

The five-door brings another development — lots of standard features, at least judged by the yardstick for subcompacts: Anti-lock brakes, air conditioning, automatic transmission and other uptown items are baked into this model.

Perhaps not surprising, then, the price seems a tad stiff for such a small guy: about $14,000 to start. The test car was a well-furnished "S" model, and its sticker was $17,515. That'd about buy you a nice version of the Focus SES coupe reviewed last week (Test Drive, March 6).

Of course, the very different Focus and Yaris are unlikely to compete — to be "cross-shopped," as the car guys say. The point is that if you objectively look around at what seventeen-five gets, you see more appealing alternatives than a tricked-out Yaris S five-door. Top of mind: A Nissan Versa (Test Drive, Feb. 27) offers a substantially bigger interior and nicer handling. The Focus SES coupe, to flog that horse, is roomier, sweet to drive and has a more upmarket feel. Ford says a version of the Focus four-door sedan as sporty and lively as the coupe is coming for 2010.

• Room. Quite a lot for a subcompact that's only a few inches longer than a Mini Cooper. The rear seat, despite specifications that would take it off many shopping lists, easily fit adults.

The test car had an options package that included a rear seat different from the standard one-piece folding bench. It was split 60/40, and each side could slide fore-aft, recline and fold flat separately. That helps tailor the car for your mix of people and cargo. Good thing, because there's not much room for cargo behind the back seat.