Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £8,985 to £14,155
Lots of space, terrific dashboard design and instruments, much crisper to drive than old model, looks cool.
Smallest-engine version has a clunky ride, rear shelf is cheap and nasty.
The Yaris is one of the most practical, usable superminis of all, and characterful with it.
Superminis are growing, along with the size and aspirations of their occupants. This trend started with the Renault Clio, but others like the Fiat Punto and Peugeot 207 have followed suit. The Toyota Yaris has gone the same way - a process encouraged by the arrival of the Aygo as Toyota's entry-level model. The Yaris has grown 110mm in length, 35mm in width, 30mm in height and 90mm in wheelbase over the old one, and Toyota claims it's the roomiest supermini of all (though the closely-related Daihatsu Sirion does run it close).
Various Toyota design studios across the world made proposals for this Yaris - which, as before, will be sold in Japan as the Vitz - with the ED2 studio in Nice, getting the nod. So there's a degree of Frenchness about the Yaris, which will be made for the European market in Valenciennes.
Its smallest engine is a 1.0-litre, 67bhp unit, as before, but with one cylinder fewer (making three). This Polish-built engine is also used in the Aygo/Peugeot 107/Citroen C1 and is the lightest car engine in current production.
Two more petrol engine are offered, a Daihatsu-supplied 1.3-litre, variably valve-timed motor from the previous Yaris, making 87bhp, and a 1.8-litre 131bhp engine offered in the flagship SR trim level only.
A 1.4-litre D-4D turbodiesel completes the line-up, it manages 88bhp and 140lb ft of torque. The 1.3-litre petrol and 1.4-litre diesel are offered with a choice of five-speed manual or clutchless sequential transmissions - the largest and smallest petrols are manual only.
The new shape is recognisably Yaris but rounder and more inflated, with a very cab-forward look and a snub nose incorporating one of the biggest bumper/grille mouldings ever seen. Inside we find a sliding rear seat, as before, and a central instrument pack whose digital symbols are viewed via a mirror, also as before. But Toyota claims big quality strides with the new car, plus a stiffer structure and crisper driving responses - never the old car's strong point.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Toyota Yaris
wrote on 23 10 2007
wrote on 11 11 2006
wrote on 04 08 2006