Toyota in the family way with a revised Yaris

Changes made but price held.....maybe

Bob Flavin

We send Bob Flavin to Dusseldorf to investigate the new Yaris, see what he thinks right here

Toyota hasn’t been resting on its laurels, the Yaris was only launched in late 2011 and it’s already gotten an overhaul, most of it cosmetic but they have been tuning under the hood and there’s a new model in the range called Lounge. Due to our crazy VRT system we won’t be getting the other model ‘Style’ which is now the top spec version but it’ll be far too expensive in Ireland at around €20k so Toyota Ireland aren’t putting it on the fleet.

Engine line up stays the same although there’s been refinements to the Co2 emissions of the 3cyl engine which means that it drops down a tax band A2 for currently €180 per year.

The hybrid version is the petrol to buy, it’s an automatic with CVT gearbox but don’t let that put you off. When you drive it normally you don’t hear much of that engine but if you push it you will hear noise and it’s not a nice noise, that said it’ll handle the daily grind around town with ease. Fuel economy is very good, Toyota claim 3.9ltrs per 100kms but I got 4.4ltrs with mixed driving and that seems realistic.

The cabin got a visual make over, the dash materials are vastly improved, there is a high class feel to everything although the seats could do with a lot more lateral support, any roundabout makes the passenger feel like they’ll fall out of the seat. Cabin noise has been vastly reduced and even at high speed the car is quiet inside.

The Aura and Luna models will get a standard radio rather than the touch screen and the price of €14,995 should remain the same as the current model. The rest of the range will get a touchscreen which works flawlessly together with the reversing camera. I’m told the prices for the Yaris are to be the same as the current model but we won’t find out for sure until Toyota release the pricelist in the coming days.

Overall I think the changes are welcome, they are things that were pointed out at the launch of the current model and through focus groups so Toyota went a bit further than a normal facelift and it’s worked, expect to see it in your showrooms in time for the build-up for 2015 sales