I feel compelled to defend it. My fiance got one and I drive it from time to time, and I must say, it's really nice for a sub-compact car. And then it really does get around 40 mpg! Here's to performance for economy's sake.
As for the looks, I have a theory that anyone with Photoshop could help me out with. Take a side view of the Echo sedan and a same-side view of the Lexus GS and squish the GS horizontally until they're the same length, then look at them side by side. Now, I'm not saying the Echo is a Lexus orphan or anything, but it does seem to share quite a few design traits, skewed though they may be...