Toyota Yaris review 2013
Time may have slowly abraded the reputation of Toyota’s supermini, but at the turn of the last decade the original Yaris was launched to considerable acclaim. A direct result of the Funtime concept range unveiled in 1997, the production model lived up to the pedigree, offering buyers a spacious, well made small car with playful looks, an imaginative interior and amenable driving style that was talented enough to score European Car of the Year on its way to serious sales figures.
Its success helped to gently reshape the supermini market just before BMW’s Mini arrived in 2001 to completely disassemble it.
Since then, and despite a comprehensive re-make in 2005, a phalanx of polished budget rivals have made the Yaris’s cute-as-a-button styling look as dated as the older generation of buyers who subsequently took refuge in the car’s reputation for dependability.
The latest model is intended to reverse the trend and reoccupy the ground ceded to competitors, particularly among young buyers who have so far favoured the Ford Fiesta, Volkswagen Polo and Mazda 2.
Among that esteemed company, the Yaris was the first to be offered with a hybrid powertrain, even if the accolade of the first in class went to the Honda Jazz hybrid. Still, the Yaris Hybrid offers an interesting diversion to pure petrol or diesel power.
The Toyota Yaris engine line-up is carried over wholesale from the previous model, so buyers get the choice between two petrols and one diesel. The low-powered 68bhp, three-cylinder 1.0 VVTi petrol props up the range in smooth and sonorous fashion, but the 98bhp 1.33 VVTi installed in our test car is likely to make up half the sales. A hybrid version is available with 98bhp/125lb ft, but of the conventionally-powered models, the 89bhp 1.4 D4-D diesel offers the best fuel efficiency.
Kicking off proceedings is the 1.0-litre three-pot. The pleasantly thrummy unit serves up 68bhp - and a torque figure to match - but its leisurely 15.3sec 0-62 sprint means it is left wanting when leaving the safety of slow urban traffic.
Downsized petrol engines are a natural accomplice to the supermini breed, and it’s no surprise that Toyota’s familiar 1.33-litre engine slots into the new Yaris neatly enough. The compact four-pot forgoes the current vogue for forced induction with its long-established Dual VVT-i variable valve timing system, now with minor internal revisions to boost fuel economy.
This engine can sometimes feel breathless and flimsy at very low revs – indicative of efforts made to keep the Yaris as parsimonious as possible around town – but with a maximum 92lb ft of torque available at 4000rpm and the full 98bhp at 6000rpm, it does eventually pull with some vigour, making conservative overtaking a realistic prospect.
Toyota suggests 11.7sec for the 0-62mph sprint. We all but matched that with a two-way average of 11.5sec to 60mph, which makes the car more than competitive with the equivalent Fiesta and Polo. The Yaris’s performance feels better when revving through its six gear ratios than lugging in them; dropping out of the torque-rich mid-range on an incline results in a prompt loss of momentum that can be remedied only by swift downshifts on the flimsy-feeling manual gearbox.
Nevertheless, the motor is content to cruise without much fuss. Drivers partial to an instantaneous response from their right foot will invariably find themselves in a lower gear than is strictly necessary, but that’s no different from any of the European alternatives. Equally, the engine is quite vocal at higher revs, but the 70dB we registered at 70mph is par for the course in this class.
The 1.4-litre diesel will remain a niche choice, as oil burners so often do in this class. Even so, with a 10.8sec 0-62 time claimed it is the fastest of the range by almost a second.
After the Auris, the Yaris is the second regular model to receive the hybrid treatment. But unlike the Auris, and the hybrid-only Prius, the Yaris has a 1.5-litre petrol engine rather than the more common 1.8. Unlike its key rival, the Honda Jazz Hybrid, the Yaris can run on electricity alone for short periods. With battery and engine working in unison, a 0-62mph time of 11.8sec is possible, albeit with a great deal of noise thanks to the CVT transmission. This is not a powertrain that you'll gain much pleasure from pedalling quickly despite that decent performance.
source : auto car
edmund