Toyota GRMN Yaris 2019 Review

Things are going well for Gazoo Racing. Despite the crazy name, which tracks back to the early salesman days of Toyota’s chairman Akio Toyoda and then his dabbles in motorsport, the GR sub-brand is making solid steps towards a showroom future and a worthwhile contribution to the Japanese car-making giant.

The best pointer is a Toyota Yaris baby hatch that is seriously quick and hints at an upcoming hot hatch that will challenge the best of the breed. The Yaris GRMN is a Europe-only limited-edition, but only for now.

On the home front, almost a year since Toyota Australia’s Sean Hanley first promised serious Gazoo Racing action Down Under, the signs are promising.

The first batch of Toyota GR Supra coupes for Australia sold out in less than 30 minutes, and not just because of Baby Boomer nostalgia for the earlier members of the family.

On the motorsport front, where Gazoo Racing is building essential credibility, Toyota has just claimed back-to-back wins at Le Mans, is setting a cracking pace at the front of the World Rally Championship, and is now the comfortable leader in the Australian Rally Championship thanks to Harry Bates in a locally-developed Yaris prototype.

Toyota is spending big to put punch ahead of puff at GR and Japan might finally have a sub-brand to follow the pattern set by Mercedes-AMG, BMW M and Audi Sport.

Speaking at Le Mans, Toyota’s GR motorsport boss Shigeki Tomoyama was bullish about the GR plans, and even admitted that Toyota is considering something Gazoo for the HiLux.

There are also rumours out of Europe that the successor to the current Yaris GRMN will be seriously quick, with a rally-inspired package including four-wheel drive and a turbocharged engine with around 180kW.

Almost everyone knows the Yaris as the baby of the Toyota family. It’s a little cheeky, with its big single wiper and cute interior, but mostly sells on price, reliability and city strengths like easy parking and a light thirst.

The GR Yaris is different. A lot different. For a start, it is European-built and it’s been tweaked by experts inside Toyota as well as from Lotus. Yes, that Lotus.

The biggest difference is a supercharged 1.8-litre engine that is the work of Lotus and makes a whacking 156kW of power thanks to an Eaton supercharger, in sharp contrast to most hot hatches that go for turbocharger boost.

The extra power and torque is fed through a Torsen limited-slip differential to the front wheels, and the rest of the mechanical upgrade work runs to BBS 17-inch alloys, bigger brakes, wider tyres and hunkered-down sports suspension.

Inside, there is a backlit GR start button, sports seats, alloy pedals and a GR-branded leather wheel with a red stripe at 12 o’clock to keep you pointing in the right direction.

The key performance claim for the car is a 0-100km/h sprint in a respectable 6.4 seconds.

But the big no-no for Australia, apart from a sell-out run of only 400 cars, is a price that would translate to around $48,000.

If there is a second-generation GRMN Yaris and it’s sold in Australia, more likely sourced from Japan than Europe, it would need to come in below $30,000 to compete with the likes of the Ford Fiesta ST, Peugeot 208 GTi, Renault Clio RS and Volkswagen Polo GTI.

Earlier this month Toyota assembled a small travelling troupe of Aussies for a visit to Le Mans, where the company’s matched pair of TS050 hybrid prototypes completed the expected 1-2 rout of the world’s most famous endurance race.

There was a late puncture that cost victory for the long-time race leader, but nobody was mourning as Fernando Alonso led the winning crew to the endless trumpeting of Queen’s ‘We are the champions’ through the speakers inside the Toyota race base.

Early next day there was a transfer to Brussels to switch the GR focus from Le Mans to Spa, another classic racetrack and the objective for a there-and-back run in a small posse of funky little Yaris (or is that Yarii?) in a driving day on all sorts of roads.

First impressions are a bit underwhelming, as the Yaris only has blacked-out wheels, a small spoiler and underdone side stripes -- in the GR colours of black-white-red -- to hint at the car’s potential. But it’s better to under-promise and over-deliver in the fast-car world.

The Toyota Yaris GRMN is good from the get-go. As I hit the button it fires with a growl and I settle into the nicely-wrapped sports seats. There is no turbo whistle, just a gruff chuff-chuff from the supercharged four.

The note gets sharper from 3000 revs, when I can really feel the torque, and it pulls hard and fast to the bap-bap-bag rev-limiter. It’s best to shift at around 5000 revs, not pushing to 6000, as the torque surge carries it forward in each gear.

Thankfully, in world now over-filled with childish exhaust pyrotechnics, there are no artificial pops or bangs in the Yaris.

The wheel is nicely meaty, the pedals are well sited, but the gearshift is a bit vague. And the sat-nav, and absence of CarPlay, grates.

A bigger niggle, for someone raised on Japanese Toyota quality, is the cabin finishing work. There are mis-matches plastics, too many hard surfaces, and a general lack of the interior finesse that is always part of the deal on Brand T cars in Australia.

But that’s forgotten as I zap into the fast lane and settle to an easy 120km/h cruise, with plenty of torque on tap for hills and recovering from delays behind slower-moving traffic.

Later in the day, while we race for a train connection, my co-pilot sits effortlessly at 160km/h for more than an hour to show what the Yaris can really do.

My big enjoyment comes when we turn into a string of back-country Belgian roads, as the GRMN package adds far more depth to the Yaris.

It’s now a car that has a firm-and-grippy cornering feel, almost devoid of understeer, with nicely-weighted steering and the supercharged punch from slower corners. In quicker stuff it just sits down and does the job.

But the shortcomings of the Yaris’ basics, mostly suspension travel, means big bumps, potholes and speed humps can cause problems. There was thumping and, eventually, noisy and upsetting crash-through.

And, once or twice, times when the car scraped its nose on the ground. One car learns this lesson the hard way when a minor driving error resulted in a puncture and a return trip to Brussels on a truck.

Still, the brakes are strong, the tyres quiet -- until we hit some Aussie-style coarse-chip bitumen -- and fuel economy is surprisingly good.

We’ve already established that the current GRMN Yaris is not coming to Australia. That’s sad in a way, because it proves that GR is more than just a racing brand, but probably for the best, given the car’s flaws and fatal pricing position.

But Toyota Australia is committed to Gazoo Racing and not just with the Supra or the rally program that’s on track for an Australian title.

“If you look at our passenger car model line-up and apply a GR bent to it, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see what’s coming,” Toyota Australia spokesman Brodie Bott told carsales at the end of the drive.

“You’re going to have enhanced performance. That’s stop, start and turn. We wanted you guys to take the Yaris GRMN for a spin to get an insight into what’s planned for Australia.

“It’s not only a motorsport brand, it’s becoming a performance brand. It’s not just important to Toyota globally, but also to Toyota Australia.”

The GRMN Yaris is an impressive little toy -- way better than I expected – and not harsh or over-done. But in some ways it is like the TRD models that were spun off in Australia from the Camry and HiLux as part of a failed first attempt at a special vehicles division.

They were surprisingly good but never got the backing to get established with people who like to drive, not just slump into an appliance to be transported from A to B.

The Toyota GRMN Yaris deserves to be more shouty and more of a statement car. It’s almost invisible in traffic, even if it can leave most of that traffic behind.

As a starter car for Toyota GR, it is a good first effort and points to a promising future, not just for the Supra halo car but for others that are more affordable and more relevant to the latest generation of small-car buyers.

How much does the 2019 Toyota GRMN Yaris cost?
Price: About $48,000 (in Europe)
Available: Not in Australia
Engine: 1.8-litre supercharged four-cylinder petrol
Output: 156kW/250Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 7.5L/100km
CO2: N/A
Safety: N/A