Yeap bros, i understand and i agree with your recommendations. I like honda city and mazda 2 but this is my first car, and my parents, specially my dad, insist me to get a vios, reason, better resale value and lower maintenance cost.
I had no choice, he made the booking for me, and personally i borrowed first down payment from my dad, thats why need to follow his order.
But different people have different perspective, for me its pretty decent alrdy, use it for work and it is a new car compared to my 20+ years old Honda CRV, which breaks down monthly constantly and i had to fix it very time costing 500-1k.
My relatives drive vios for plenty of years, and i know that first gen vios is really durable than recent gens.. not sure what happened to the 3rd gen.
Theres no prefect car, i mean other brand car sure got problem too. Most importantly is how we drive and taking care of the car.
Hope it serves me well.
I'm driving Toyota Vios 1st Generation for the past 11 years and so far good durability and save petrol for long run. The only thing that being change is engine mounting, throttle body and fuel filter. All is running perfectly and quiet ride.