Toyota GR Yaris 2020 Review

Let’s side-step the fact that the new 2020 Toyota GR Yaris is ‘a Yaris’. For all intents and purposes, this is Toyota’s first rally homologation special since the revered Celica GT-Four that bowed out in 1999.

Indeed, what we have here is a car that apparently shares only three common parts with the garden-variety Yaris light car – its headlights, tail-lights and mirror caps.

More than that, the GR Yaris signals the return of a bona-fide performance model for the Japanese marque: “a sports car made purely by Toyota” in the words of the car-maker.

On face value, the GR Yaris that reaches Aussie showrooms this month mimics a skunkworks special – toiled over by Gazoo Racing engineers in the dimly-lit corridors of Toyota’s Japanese HQ.

Except it wasn’t. Heading up Toyota’s new World Rally Championship homologation special was none other than Toyota boss Akio Toyoda. At one point, the company took insights from rally legend Tommi Makinen.

There’s some serious firepower behind the GR Yaris. Let’s see how it transpires on the road.

We’ve written plenty already about the pricing of the 2020 Toyota GR Yaris, including the company’s vexing decision to discount the first 1000 examples to $39,950 drive-away.

However, upon speaking to those close to the project, it is clear that Toyota grossly underestimated Australian demand for the prodigious hot hatch – first by subsidising the first batches of vehicles, secondly by not ordering more of them.

Even this week, senior Toyota executives sought opinion from carsales on whether the higher-tier GR Yaris Rallye was too much to ask at $56,200 drive-away.

In any case, the regular sticker price of the GR Yaris is now set at $49,500 plus on-road costs.

Performance aside (we’ll get to the oily bits further on), the GR Yaris gets 18-inch alloy wheels, keyless entry and start, LED headlights, tail-lights and fog lights, dual-zone climate control, a reversing camera and more.

On the tech front there’s a 7.0-inch centre colour display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Bluetooth and eight-speaker audio, a 4.2-inch digital display without the otherwise analogue instrument cluster, plus a head-up display.

Also included is Toyota’s Safety Sense package, which bundles autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane keeping assist and more to almost align with the Yaris donor model.

One feature missing in the sportier GR Yaris is a centre airbag, which would automatically rule it out of a five-star ANCAP safety rating in Australia. Toyota says that due to its small volume, the GR Yaris will not be crash tested.

The GR Yaris is available in three colours – white, black and red.

Despite its rallying pedigree, the GR model misses out on a spare tyre, making do with a tyre inflation kit.

A five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty is offered with the GR Yaris. It’s also subject to six-month/10,000km servicing intervals which equates to $1560 over the first three years of ownership under the car-maker’s capped-price servicing schedule.

The 2020 Toyota GR Yaris makes 200kW of power and 370Nm of torque from a 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine and drives via a six-speed manual transmission and a unique GR-FOUR all-wheel drive system.

The latter is able to apportion torque to the front and rear axles according to which of the three driving modes you’ve selected. Normal splits 60:40 front-rear, Sport transitions to 30:70 while Track goes for an optimal 50:50 split.

These are theoretically nominal figures, according to Toyota, with the system able to apportion 100 per cent of torque to either the front or rear axle depending on individual wheel slippage.

The GR Yaris boasts a power-to-weight ratio of 156kW per tonne, a 0-100km/h acceleration time of 5.2 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 230km/h. It requires 98-octane premium unleaded in Australia.

Underpinning the GR Yaris is a mix of Toyota’s TNGA architecture. The front-end is essentially a Yaris and the rear-end is from the larger Corolla footprint.

The GR model also swaps out the donor Yaris’ torsion beam rear suspension for a more sophisticated multilink arrangement, and employs lighter-weight materials across its MacPherson strut front-end.

All that firepower requires significant braking, to which Toyota presents 356mm discs combined with four-pot callipers up front and 297mm rear discs clamped by two pistons.

For reference, the forthcoming Rallye will be differentiated from the regular GR model via an upgraded chassis with lighter, stronger 18-inch forged alloy BBS wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres, stiffer track-tuned suspension and a Torsen limited-slip differential for both the front and rear axle.

Cladding the three-door GR Yaris’ athletic internals is a bespoke bodywork comprising aluminium bonnet, doors and hatch and a carbon-fibre roof – helping achieve an outright kerb weight of 1280kg.

We checked in with one insurance insider about what the exotic panel work might mean for annual premiums and the result isn’t great – a forecasted annual cost of more than double a regular Yaris, depending on variables. That’s putting it conservatively, we’d speculate.

Sport bucket seats and meaty steering wheel aside, there are a few tell-tale signs you’re sitting in something that isn’t a garden-variety Yaris. In fact, we counted about a dozen Gazoo Racing logos dotted throughout the go-fast Toyota GR Yaris as a precursor to its performance.

Cabin fit-out feels relatively well acquitted otherwise: the 7.0-inch screen and matching 4.2-inch digital display in the instrument cluster cover the basics, though you’d expect a bit more given the outlay.

Hard-wearing plastics adorn most of the visible contact areas, and the cabin feels well put together with the exception of a dodgy passenger grab rail on our particular test car.

That said, there is much bigger oversight at play inside the cabin. The GR Yaris’ front bucket seats are too high-set for this correspondent’s tastes – a bit like the Ford Focus RS – which leaves you feeling as though you’re sitting on top of the cabin rather than inside it.

Otherwise, the three-door layout is commensurate with a regular three-door runabout sans rear air-vents: there’s a couple of charging points (USB and 12V), a 141-litre boot and split-folding rear seats that liberate up to 737 litres’ worth of space (read: enough room to carry four spare wheels to a track day).

If you have any reservations about the performance of the Toyota GR Yaris’ three-cylinder powerplant, put your mind at ease. It’s a bloody cracker.

Upon pressing the GR Yaris-themed starter button, the diminutive three-pot thrums to life with a muted tenor, but it soon changes its tune.

Officially, the GR Yaris claims a 0-100km/h time of 5.2sec. But what the advertised power and torque figures don’t relay is the immediacy of the three-cylinder’s response. Although peak torque doesn’t materialise until 3000rpm, the turbo-triple bursts into life with great enthusiasm at any opportunity upon burying your right foot.

There’s a smooth wave of go-forward cleanly delivered to the ground with barely any semblance of delay. And best of all, the three-cylinder is free-revving all the way to its 7000rpm cut-out.

The entire climb to the crescendo is accentuated by artificial sound piped into the cabin. It makes for a satisfying, character-filled experience that amplifies the smile-factor significantly.

In favouring the solitary six-speed manual transmission, Toyota has given the shrinking hatchback performance market a genuinely engaging option; one that enamours with its involvement and rewards driver skills.

It’s a marvellous match for the engine, providing a terrific spread of ratios that allow it to stretch its legs on a mountain pass yet reap the benefits of the available torque.

Similarly, the GR Yaris reminds you what a well-sorted performance car should deliver in terms of feel and feedback.

From the mechanical premise of its short-throw manual, the alacrity of its electrically-assisted steering or the chassis’ acute responses to the road beneath, the small elements conspire to create a truly tactile and visceral driving experience.

These elements are augmented by a natural front-to-rear balance that encourages you to attack the corners, at which point the GR shows off its playful side. Lift-off oversteer and liveliness under heavy braking are all par for the course here – and we love it.

Limiting the dynamic experience in some ways, however, is the selection of Dunlop SP Sport Maxx rubber. The tyres feel good in ordinary conveyance but limit the GR’s front-end purchase and its overall grip on a winding mountain pass. Even more so when we attack a closed road course later in the day.

Otherwise, there are only a handful of instances where the GR suffers from inside wheel spin, while its brakes hold up to all the punishment we can throw at them with no fade or smoking.

Whatever Toyota is cooking up with the hotter GR Rallye ought to be good to justify its pricing premium, because a premium set of tyres is about all we’d change on the ‘regular’ version.

That the GR does so without the hard-edged progress of similarly-minded performance hatches is redeeming. In fact, other than ever-present road noise, the ride and handling balance is quite liveable.

Firm, but not disconcertingly so.

For its small performance-oriented foibles, the 2020 Toyota GR Yaris is a remarkably sound hot hatch that delivers authentic driver thrills.

That it is able to do so in an era of increasingly tightening emissions and safety requirements – and, let’s be honest, red tape – is a huge achievement by Toyota.

The GR Yaris is a car worth celebrating. In these increasingly uncertain times, it is simply a fun car to drive – a throwback to when driving a performance car was just that.

How much does the 2020 Toyota GR Yaris cost?
Price: $49,500 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 200kW/370Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 7.6L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 172g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested

Related: Toyota GR Yaris 2020 International Review
Related: Toyota GR Yaris Rallye priced at $55K
Related: Hot Toyota GR Yaris is a sell-out – again
Related: Toyota GR Yaris starts under $40K
Related: Five reasons the Toyota GR Yaris will smash its rivals