First report: Toyota Yaris long-term review

There’s always a sense of anticipation when a new car joins our long-term fleet, and this Toyota Yaris is no exception. However, your correspondent’s personal feelings about the coming few months are a little mixed, for reasons we’ll get into shortly.

First, the context. The Yaris has long been established as a strong small car contender, and received a facelift earlier this year. Updates included a new, more powerful 130hp powertrain option, which sits alongside the existing 116hp version in the range, and perhaps more significantly than the horsepower figure, also offers a 30% increase in torque. The Yaris also gained a new infotainment set-up, with a 12.3in driver display and a 10.5in central infotainment touchscreen, as well as updates to its package of safety systems.

So, why the mixed reaction to this Yaris’s arrival? Well, on the plus side, having spent the past 18 months apologising for very rarely charging various plug-in hybrid long-termers, it’s something of a relief that the Yaris has no plug. Instead, it’s a conventional hybrid – the new and more powerful of the two options listed above, pairing a 91hp petrol engine with a 62kW electric motor. This means that it should be a lot more realistic for my on-test fuel consumption to get close to the official figure – something which has been borne out on some initial drives, with figures over 70mpg having been glimpsed on the trip computer. Toyota has been the car industry’s biggest advocate for conventional hybrids over the past few years, highlighting their benefits to those such as myself without access to home charging, and so far findings are indeed positive – I wouldn’t anticipate being able to achieve such impressive economy with either a conventional petrol or diesel car, or a non-plugged-in PHEV as I ran previously.

As for my reservations about the Yaris, these basically fall into two areas. Firstly, I noted often with my previous long-termer how difficult it seemed to be for people to accept a Vauxhall Astra that cost over £40,000. Well, now we have a proposition that’s probably at least as tough if not more so – a Toyota Yaris that costs nearly £29,000. Admittedly, this is the range-topping Premiere Edition model, which comes with goodies such as an eight-speaker JBL premium audio system, a head-up display, and a smart bi-tone metallic paint finish. But there’s no getting around it, this is an expensive small car.

My other cause for concern is that when I reviewed the updated Yaris at its launch a few months ago, there were quite a few niggles. These included an annoying speed limit warning system which was too slow to react when limits changed, and what I considered unsuccessful efforts by Toyota to remove the droning engine note associated with CVT gearboxes, which instead seemed to deliver a loud rumbling engine note when accelerating, like a bad impression of a 1960s muscle car. I also thought the ride was firmer than it should have been for a non-hot hatch, although in fairness I haven’t noticed this so much in my initial drives with our long-termer – the Toyota perhaps benefitting by comparison with the sporty Vauxhall Astra GSE I drove previously. I did also note on that previous test that the Yaris was easy to drive around town, and in some ways, I felt like I enjoyed my time at the wheel more than I was expecting to, without being able to put my finger exactly on why. Of course, this is just the sort of puzzle that my extended time with the Yaris over the next few months should help with solving.

Standard equipment: LED headlights, DRLs, fog lights, rear lights, and indicators, acoustic windscreen, rear privacy glass, rear diffuser, auto-dimming rear view mirror, power adjustable heated and auto retracting door mirrors, leather gear lever and steering wheel trim with red stitching, front sports seats, 12.3in driver display, 10.5in infotainment touchscreen, cloud-based sat-nav, voice control, eight-speaker JBL premium audio system, Toyota Safety Sense package, reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors, intelligent clearance sonar with automatic braking, lane departure assist, blind spot monitor and safe exit assist.