Recently I tested the Toyota Yaris YR 5 door hatch, which is the base model, with an automatic transmission. When it comes to buying your first car, there are a few options that immediately pop into your head. The type of cars that are aimed at a young audience and the Toyota Yaris is certainly one of them. With a range of 8 different Yaris cars, there is one to fit almost everyone.
With a range of 10 gloss colours, including a ‘Cosmopolitan’ pink and ‘Celestial Blue’, the Yaris is an attractive car on first impression. It boasts an overall sleek design and compact design with contoured lines. This entry model does however miss out on the alloy wheels. It’s not all about looks though. Once you start driving the Yaris you find that it does lack power, as to be expected from a small car. The Yaris produces 63kW of power at 6000rpm and 121Nm of torque at 4400rpm. Unlike other similar cars, there is not an incredibly noticeable lag in the acceleration and it’s somewhat lack of power is forgotten when you get used to driving it. An upside of this is the Yaris has a low fuel consumption of around 6 to 6.5L/100km.
Once inside the seat room is rather standard and as usual it can sit 5, however it would be slightly squishy for anyone over the age of 15. The bucket cloth seats are rather comfortable with manual height, slide and recline adjustment for the driver, excluding height for the passenger. The center houses air conditioning controls and simple 4 speaker audio system that has AM & FM radio, single CD slot, Bluetooth and is MP3 compatible.
Steering wheel mounted controls are also standard for convenience. When in the drivers seat a low level fuel warning, selected gear, tachometer and trip computer are all in easy sight, however the luxury of cruise control is optional and definitely worth getting if you are going to be doing a reasonable amount of freeway driving. Storage is reasonable with 5 cup holders, a center console and glove box. The boot will fit your shopping and a weekend trip, but it is not the car to take away on a longer holiday.
Safety and security have not been compromised when creating this entrance model. The Toyota Yaris has a 5 star ANCAP safety rating. The Yaris is equipped with ABS, EBD, BA, TRC, VSC, front, side, rear and knee airbags and also pretensioners and force limiters on the front and passenger seat belts. The Yaris is secured by an engine immobiliser, central locking, a remote fuel flap release and a cargo cover to ensure no luggage causes damage in the cabin in the event of an accident.
Overall, the Toyota Yaris range is so extensive, there is a car for nearly anyone. Toyota is a reliable and trusted brand by Australian’s and the Yaris range proves why. The entire range carries as 5 star ANCAP rating and even in the basic YR model, there is still Bluetooth and MP3 compatibility, reasonable boot space, a good fuel consumption and most importantly, a reasonable price.
I can’t believe they did away with the things that made the car unique such as the dual gloveboxes. Though the dahs had a tendency to drip water (condensation) into the radio from the aircon vents above it which wasn’t too clever.