Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £9,325 to £13,805
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.
Space is the key to the Yaris's score here. Subjectively, there's more legroom in the back than in any rival and five adults can fit comfortably, helped by the flat rear floor.
The boot is quite commodious, too, although it doesn't look so promising until you realise there's a false floor with a big space underneath. That floor is level with the rear seats when the latter are folded, simply achieved with one pull of a lever thanks to the Easy-Flat system. This causes the cushion to move forward and down as the backrest folds forward to meet it. The rear seats can also, separately (they are split 60-40), slide over a 100mm travel and recline by up to 10 degrees. Headroom is plentiful under the high roof.
Storage space is increasingly a problem in modern cars, but the Yaris scores well with three gloveboxes on the dashboard (not that big, admittedly) and useful pockets either side of the centre stack. There are square pull-out cupholders, too. Less useful is the optional keyless entry system (standard in TSpirit models) with an ignition button: it's a fiddly system, demanding a set routine with foot on the clutch and brake, and no real time-saving or convenience over a traditional remote control central locking system and key. It's particularly frustrating in the diesel model, where you have to wait for the ignition coils to warm up before ignition - press the button a second time and the system has to reboot.
As for comfort on the move, engine and wind noise are low, the seats feel good and rear passengers have a better view out than you might expect, given the high rear waistline. And if you're driving the 1.3, you'll be impressed with the ride, which is smooth, level and quiet over bumps. Control of big body movements is much better than in the previous Yaris and there's a confident suppleness lacking before - all of these attributes the corollary (to coin a Toyota-ish word) of the stiffer bodyshell. But the D4-D is lumpier under-tyre and you're more aware of that heavier nose thudding into potholes. That one is still better than the 1.0, though, whose light nose skitters and clonks over poor surfaces, the result (says Toyota) of the engineers' keenness to give all three Yarises similar agility.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Toyota Yaris
wrote on 27 02 2009
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