Toyota Yaris 2011 Review

Name: Toyota Yaris 2011 Review
Brand: Toyota

Toyota has launched the third generation of its baby hatch.

Toyota Yaris, Local Launch
Yarra Valley, Victoria

What we liked?
>> Mid and upspec equipment levels?
>> Comfy seats, rear legroom
>> Handling package makeover

Not so much?

>> Mingy cabin storage space?
>> Engines and transmissions more adequate than fabulous?
>> Could do with shoulder room to match the legroom

OVERVIEW?

-- Yaris goes unisex... kind of?

Toyota has launched the third generation of its baby hatch after twelve very successful years as the Echo in 1999, and six years after its assumption of the Yaris name with a makeover in 2005.

What’s new? Above the platform rudiments, there’s not much that isn’t. Yes, it inherits the chassis basics and the powertrain options of the outgoing lineup, but even they’ve come in for a rework -- at least the suspension and steering.

Past the mechanicals, this is a substantial enough makeover to call new, outside and in. For the exterior, Toyota has joined the chorus of non-European makers claiming ‘Euro-inspired’ exterior styling. Here amid all-new sheet metal with more glass area, it’s most noticeable in the Peugeot-ish treatment the five-door gets around the C-pillars and the kick-back in the rear passenger windows.

Inside are new seats, more rear legroom, more kit and an overhauled dash; more conservative by design but less conservative (read: less grey) in its trim materials.

Perhaps most telling about Toyota’s intentions for this generation is the arrival of a new spec alongside the base YR, mid-spec YRS and top-end YRX. Slotting in between the five-door YRS and the (five-door only) YRX, the three door-only, manual-only ZR makes no bones about Toyota’s intentions for this Yaris: to expand its masculine appeal.

The Yaris and the Echo before it have spent a good deal of the last 12 years on top of the light car category, selling about 195,000 units since the platform arrived here. But the segment has doubled in size in a decade to about 138,000 sales a year. And with it has come a slew of competitors, all nipping each other’s heels on entry price and value.

In true Toyota style, the auto maker has pulled out all stops to keep the Yaris on top with virtually no price rises across the spec-trum, despite boosts to equipment lists and competitive option prices.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT?

-- Stable prices and equipment gains keep it competitive in a hotly contested sector
Toyota has never gone in for lowest-price-at-all-costs strategies, but the Yaris comes close. For the most part buyers get more gear for the same money, occasionally extending to more for less.

The base three-door YR stays at the important $14,990 threshold. It’s been that way for more than a decade now, since the introduction of the Echo in 1999. For that you get a 1.3-litre petrol engine with a five-speed manual, 14-inch steel wheels, trip computer, power windows and mirrors, a four-speaker audio with CD and USB inputs, voice control, Bluetooth telephony and audio streaming.

All models have seven airbags – the usual front, side and curtain plus a driver’s kneebag – along with the normal antilock brakes, stability and traction control with electronic brakeforce distribution.

Toyota has further narrowed the margin they ask for an extra two doors at this end. At $15,690, the five-door YR comes in $500 below its 2005 equivalent and $1800 below the equivalent Echo in 1999. Cruise control adds a hefty $650.

The only price hike comes with the mid-spec YRS, and then only the three-door. At $16,890 it’s up $500 on its predecessor. Toyota says this is mitigated by a boost in kit value of $850, meaning buyers come out (according to Toyota) $350 ahead. The five-door YRS retains its $17,390 sticker price – again, just $500 over the three-door.

One notch up, the YRS gets the bigger 1.5-litre engine and 15-inch steel wheels, cruise control, six-speaker audio with touchscreen controls and upgrades to the steering wheel and gearshift.

A four-speed auto transmission option adds $1600 to YR and YRS models.

The five door and auto-only YRX tops out the range at $21,390. It gets 15-inch alloys, auto headlamps, foglights and climate control. Toyota says this model is the chief beneficiary of the new value equation, gaining $2450 worth of climate control air, auto headlamps and a premium audiovisual package including a 6.1-inch touch-screen display, DivX video playback, satnav with 3D graphics, green routing and SUNA traffic info access.

The Bluetooth connectivity extends to putting messages and emails from compatible phones up on the screen, putting an end to those glances at your phone while eyes should be on the road.

New to the lineup is the ZR – the spec tasked with expanding the Yaris’s appeal beyond young women and older buyers, towards young men. At $18,990, it’s the costliest three-door, slotting in between the five-door YRS and YRX. It shares its 1.5-litre powertrain with the YRS, but gets the butch treatment on the outside with a more aggressive front end, side skirts, a roof spoiler and tailpipe diffuser. Indoors it gets sports seats in their own fabric, a bit more flash around the wheel and shifter and the YRX’s top-notch audiovisual package.

All models come with space-saver spares.

MECHANICAL?

-- No disappointments but no surprise and delight either?
Aussie buyers can but look on in envy at the dizzying array of petrol and diesel mills, six-cog manuals and paddle shifters overseas Yaris models get.

Here, under the bonnet, things remain essentially the same, although both engines have been updated with a lighter fuel system and technologies to reduce friction and boost heat management efficiency. With help from electric power steering and a 20kg weight reduction through greater use of high-tensile steels, they’ve managed to squeeze improvements in fuel economy out of them – up to 0.4L/100km.

Past that it’s business as usual. Outputs remain unchanged, with the 63kW 1.3 good for a peak 121Nm at 4400rpm, while the 80kW 1.5 rising to 141kW at 4200rpm. No trailblazing going on in the transmission, either – the five-speed manual and four-speed auto remain largely intact.

All of which means performance is enough to meet buyer expectations for the sector, sitting in the 10-13 second vicinity for 0-100km/h, but not much else.

Fuel consumption and emissions figures are satisfactory for a lineup weighing in between 990 and 1055kg, with the 1.3 manual good for 5.7L/100km (6.3 auto) on the combined cycle, rising to 5.8 for the 1.5 (also 6.3 auto).

Toyota has retained the trusty formula of MacPherson strut front end and torsion beam rear with Yaris. The settings have been tweaked by engineers at the Toyota Technical Centre in Melbourne to make the most of the improved body rigidity. They opted for the already sharpish Euro-spec in the new electric steering box, sharpening it up a little more to reduce demands on the driver on winding roads. To help make the most of the steering, they’ve stiffened up the springs by 18 per cent in front, 26 per cent at the rear.

For the brakes, they’ve resorted to the normal formula for this segment: front discs, rear drums.

Why do so many carmakers persist with rear drums in this segment? It’s the price of global product strategy, one Toyota official told motoring.com.au at the launch.

Without the precision machining requirements for rotor discs they do cost less to produce, but there’s more to it than that. Drums are hardier and more affordable to maintain for buyers in countries with too much rain and too little money.

Put to the test on tar and dirt during the launch program, including the fraught-if-short Rob Roy Hillclimb course, they acquitted themselves well.

PACKAGING
?-- True to the Toyota formula?
Toyota’s true forte lies in well-rounded overall product for the price, and this all-important player in a fiercely competitive market segment is no exception.

This Yaris, particularly the five-door, looks markedly larger than its predecessor. That’s partly down to some slick creasework in the side metal, and also to the fact that it is larger.

Of 100mm extra length, 50mm goes into the wheelbase, and 35mm of that goes into rear legroom. This is where the Yaris truly comes into its own against competitors. Put a six-footer at the wheel and you can put another one behind them. That makes the whole car highly useable.

First thing you notice inside is the reversion to conventional dash ergonomics. No more central readout pod with its digital speedo and strip-light tacho – the main instruments have gone analogue and taken up residence in a new and conventional binnacle before the driver. They’re clear and simple, supplemented by a handy digital display taking in trip computing and fuel consumption info.

Taking up their old place in the centre, at least in the upper specs, is Toyota’s other trump card – more evidence of the company’s perceptiveness serving up what matters to buyers. A touchscreen audio/video/satnav/telephony/setup unit gives the Yaris considerable appeal over competitors, and there’s enough of it in the volume YRS to clinch buyers.

At launch, Toyota execs also intimated that part of its appeal lies in the futureproofing that goes with being able to upgrade the radio to DAB+ as the shift to digital gains momentum. And because the instrument binnacle has moved over, they’ve been able to raise the HVAC controls, making the whole centre stack more driver friendly.

The extra length has also paid off in an extra 12 litres of cargo space, now a handy 286 litres. And thanks to the space-saver spare, they’ve been able to fit a useful hidey-hole layer about 250mm deep underfloor.

Irritations are generally minor. While there’s plenty of room lengthwise, put a couple of big blokes in the front and they’re bumping elbows a bit. And despite Toyota’s claims of a couple of dozen storage and nic-nac areas, they’re not that handy. The glovebox is smaller inside than the lid suggests; there’s no centre storage box and the door pockets are miserly.

While Toyota has gone the way of so many in resorting to hard plastics for the facia, many will rejoice in being rid of the grey of old. The new dash heads into a predominance of black with contrast colours, and it’s not a bad thing.

SAFETY
?-- Seven airbags keep five-star EuroNCAP
Part of the rationale for the Yaris' seat makeover was whiplash protection; it’s a side-effect here as with many other cars built with that in mind that they’re also exceptionally comfortable.

The Yaris has received a five-star EuroNCAP rating and all models across the new lineup come with the same safety package. The airbag count has gone to seven with the addition of a driver’s kneebag. Underneath, is the usual panoply of primary safety electronics: stability-cum-traction control and antilock brakes with brake assist and electronic brakeforce distribution.

The boffins have put thought into less obvious things, too, such as the raising of the centre stack controls and putting phone messages on screen. All of these help keep eyes on the road while twiddling knobs staying connected.

COMPETITORS
-- It’s not hard to see why they’ve done this?
The Yaris is up against fare from most of the world’s canniest carmakers. There’s the current class winner, the Mazda2, and its sibling-under-the-skin, the Ford Fiesta. Then there’s Honda’s Jazz, Volkswagen’s Polo, the Nissan Micra (at least at the high-spec end), Hyundai’s i20 and new Accent, and the new Rio from Kia -- the marque that seems unable to put a foot wrong at the moment.

Yaris currently owns a healthy 13 per cent of the segment – mid this year it was a hair’s breadth ahead of the Mazda, and with this update it’s no major stretch to open up a bit of lead again.

Hyundai’s Getz led until being discontinued earlier this year; it has yet to regain full traction with the i20 and the Accent, but the former is already at number three and the latter is only a couple of months old.

With more jockeying and jostling for position going on here than the Melbourne Cup, buyers will do well to shop around here.

ON THE ROAD
-- Has the segment's measure?
It was useful spending a couple of days after the launch program in an outgoing model three-door renter. Something very clear from driving the two back-to-back is just how different the driving position is. They’ve dropped the steering column angle just a few degrees but after the new one, the old one felt positively truck-like.

The new front seats are of decent proportion – even, unusually, in the cushion – and decently side-bolstered. I’d like to be able to get down a bit lower, but it’s easy to find a driving position with the right recline and leg length, although it would have been nice if they’d extended the telescopic steering column down to the YR; everyone else gets it.

Ergonomics are well sorted although early days with the touchscreen system can give rise to a few expletives. But that’s just as much the case in $200K cars as it is in the $20K Yaris. Indeed, to Toyota’s credit, it’s easier to operate than many costlier systems boasting nothing more in the way of function.

Overall Yaris is a well-sorted package -- competent and thoughtful, if unexciting. The electric steering is a palpable improvement over its predecessor, nicely weighted and reasonably sharp on turn-in, if not overly communicative. There’s plenty of margin in this chassis for a bit more beef under the bonnet.

We had the chance to push it over some decent dirt roads with tight, nicely cambered corners where it proved easy and quite enjoyable. The stiffer chassis and taut suspension pay dividends; if there was a problem it lay in a tendency to plough into corners at times, but this was always manageable.

Yaris Mk3 is no Cooper S on the road, but I wonder if there isn’t enough about it, particularly in five-door or ZR form to snatch a glance from the odd MINI Ray buyer. By our reckoning, a useable back seat, a flash AV package and ten grand in the bank is pretty compelling stuff.

Even if Toyota’s not aiming that high, it’s a reasonably sure thing the new Yaris has its segment’s measure. It combines a little surface excitement with a pleasant, quiet cabin environment and an undemanding, occasionally enjoyable drive. An exact match with Toyota's corporate template?

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Toyota Yaris 2011 Review

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