Perky, breezy, not too squeezy, and more than a bit of fun to poke around town.
Toyota’s Yaris has ‘city smart’ written all over it. In updated YRX trim, it comes with a bit more style and a few more goodies. Even better, in five-door hatch form, it offers surprising accessibility and interior space to complement its spirited around town driving.
These days, we’re spoiled for selection in dynamically-involving small cars. From Hyundai’s i30, to the Fiat 500, Ford Fiesta, Mitsubishi Colt and Toyota’s Yaris, each is an appealing daily commuter and more than capable on the occasional long-legged run.
Today, some of the most enticing new car releases are the tiddlers – and soon we’ll have even smaller and more exotic ones to choose from. You might not have given them a second glance a decade back, but now the better ones are quick, quiet, comfortable and surprisingly competent.
This is where the Yaris fits into things. Breezy and fun at the wheel, it’s a sensible choice for younger drivers and city commuters looking for something that won’t drain the pocket and offers modern styling and buying-value.
It is also an ideal choice as a second car for young families. It will run all week on a snort of petrol and it makes far more sense as ‘the fambly’ run-about than the bloated 4WD lard-wagons that clog school gates and push and shove clumsily around shopping centre car parks.
(Listen, I’m talking to you: save on fuel bills, buy something sensible, and enjoy driving again.)
Sure, the Yaris is not without shortcomings, but there will be few Yaris drivers who will be unhappy with their choice of wheels. We put it through its paces for a week.
Funkified interior
Since it appeared on the Echo, and now carried through to the Yaris, the most noticeable feature of the interior is the central instrument binnacle, and the bare dash in front of the driver. There are shades of the old Morris Minor in this design.
I’m not sure it’s a great idea, might be a case of form over function here, but with a little adjustment you get used to it soon enough. Sure, the clarity of the digital read-out helps as it is large and clear, and has a spooky depth to it.
The front pews, for a $22k car (as tested), are on the money – like, comfortable and supportive enough but you won’t be writing home to Mum about them. Back seat passengers come in for special treatment though as the backrests on the fold-flat, split-folding rear seat are adjustable for rake.
Overall, the interior is nicely trimmed in the well-kitted and up-spec YRX. It comes with tilt and telescopic steering column adjustment, leather-bound wheel (with audio controls), wireless power door locks, power windows, power mirrors, front passenger seat under-tray storage, six-disc in-dash CD changer (MP3 compatible), standard air-con, and ample cup holders setting off a well thought-out cabin.
That said, there are two gripes that let things down: the aircraft-grade plastic door trims look a tad down-market and the ‘long-stalk’ gear selector also feels (and looks) a bit old fashioned… it’s not like the snappy units found in the Europeans, Jazz or Mazda2 for instance.
Returning to the ‘plus side’ of the ledger, attention to safety deserves some plaudits as the Yaris YRX comes with lap-sash seat belts for five and dual air-bags as standard. It can also be optioned with front-seat side airbags, full-length curtain-shield airbags and a driver’s knee airbag.
Best of all, if considering the Yaris for family duties (and I’d recommend you do), the ingenious cabin with its Tardis-like interior space will swallow four adults comfortably - providing you’re not about to head across the Nullarbor - or two adults and former Treasurer Peter Costello’s three kids: “One for Mum, one for Dad, and one for the country.”
Sharp exterior style
It has been with us for a while now – the Yaris – but its lines still work well. The steeply curved bonnet is echoed in the forward sloping hip-line, rising to a pert ‘Peter Wabbit’ tail.
With large ‘eyes’, nicely balanced nose and cheeky lines, there is something a bit pet-like about the Yaris in hatchback form. The sedan has had a bit of a personality bypass though.
The YRX badge adds a few nice touches to the exterior. It sits on 15-inch alloy rims that fill the arches nicely and the front spoiler, fog-lamps, side skirts, and roof rear spoiler add to the on-road presence.
Ours, in bright yellow, scored a thumbs-up from the hip daughters - “Pretty neat car hey?” (or words to that effect).
2009 Holden Cruze CDX 
2010 FPV F6 E 
2010 HSV Clubsport R8 
2009 BMW 335i Sedan 
2010 BMW 120d Hatch manual (E87) 
2009 Holden Commodore SS Sportwagon
Comments
Click here to jump to Add Comment box
How do you get a picture next to your name?
Get a Gravatar. Click here to find out more.
This car has nothing on the Mazda 2
I have to agree with ZoomZoom, at least in relation to the new models. We are an average family of four and not diminutive by any length, and I was very surprised how well the new Mazda2 performed fully loaded (incl. boot) from the heart of Sydney through to our home in the Hunter Valley.
Though I have to disagree with The Insider where you quote the Hyundai i30 as a class competitor amongst other light cars. Size, price, equipment and power-wise, the i30 is a more direct competitor in the small class with Ford Focus, Mazda3, Mitsubishi Lancer and Toyota Corolla.
Our favourite in this class is the Mazda2 as well Andrew, hence we gave the 3-door version a gong this year in our ‘Best Drive- Best Value’ awards.
I think you’ve got The Insider on the i30 there as well. We all like it when he stuffs up, it gives us more ammo for poking fun at him on our test drives! Thanks for that - well done
The Yaris is more preferable in my books anytime. The Mazda too may be abit more credible in the dynamics side of thing but the exterior is far from great, besides who notices the difference when you drive a car like those. Who is going to put their foot down flat around the city? well the majority of the time
In regards to Style & Dynamics the Mazda 2 does have the Yaris beat but keep in mind that you will have to endure the extremelly sub par quality of the interior after a brief test drive I found the door trims were easily scuffed by a brief encounter with the heel of ones shoe, a complete lack of interior cloth trim on the doors, the cloth headlining was easily pulled loose at the joint close to the windscreen & the deal breaker was the awful sound system which my add is completely integrated which means a major headache in upgrading to aftermarket head units when necessary. I’m quite surprised in this day & age the base model Neo still comes with non colourcoded door handles/mirrors a word of warning the 2 comes with only a temporary spare when the yaris comes with a full size spare.
How does that ugly mineshaft instrument binnacle pass ADRs Mini had to swap the speedo/tacho around to pass.I think it would be a deal breaker for me.
I think the Lemon yellow hue is turning people off. Actually doesnt look too bad, bit small for a family Andrew.
I am currently looking at the Yaris 1.5 either manual or auto, but still feel the auto boxes are not so good on small cars inder 2 litre, I have had the 1.3 Echo three door for 5 years now, hate the space saver wheel, they should be banned in Australia as they have never passed the normal safty check. the ECHO 1.3 manual has been a mixed blessing, cheap to run, but very flustrating to drive especially on a long trip, I like the 130i but still scared to by a Korean Car.
Yo Dave, in manual or auto the 1.5 litre Yaris is a pretty appealing little chariot. None of these modern autos drag the guts out of small cars the way they used to (strewth they used to be crook though).
On the second point there about the i30: I wouldn’t be spooked by the Korean-build… if you’re considering a choice between the two, the i30 is worth a serious eyeball.
The Insider
The interior designer must be on drug or something because the interior is horribly designed.
I rented one for the weekend while away in Canberra. I found the “commendable” sound levels to be actually quite high, the booming from the road in particular. And the door skins “clanged” each time i closed the door (3 door).
The car had about 40,000km on it. Maybe it was the cheap tyres chosen by Hertz. Was my experience a one-off? Not sure. Am i spoilt normally, hardly. I found it 95% as loud as my girlfriends Excel, which is to say, enough to have to turn the stereo up a bit.
Yo M2C, good comment, keep ‘em coming because we want these kinds of discussions and the driving impressions of readers. (We don’t pretend to be the repositories of all knowledge here.)
Gotta agree that tyres can be a critical factor here. But the interesting thing about ‘noise’ levels (as opposed to ‘harshness’) is that many of us react differently to different frequencies.
Some are more bothered by the higher-pitched ‘wind shear’ from the tyres, others from the lower pitch set off by the ‘drumming’ of the tyres and the resonance through the body of the car.
How we react to them can depend on what frequencies we hear better or ‘tune into’ more. So, while we probably can all agree if something is just freakin’ noisy (or spookily quiet), our reactions to the subtleties of a car’s NVH can be a personal thing.
My neighbour, Old Shit-on-the-liver, used to be an acoustic engineer for Holden. He can blather on for hours (as long as we keep the flow of red happening) about the efforts manufacturers go to looking for resonances and tuning them ‘out’.
We gave the Yaris a good country run (around 500 highway ks) and came away with a pretty good impression of what is reasonably inexpensive transport. Not sure whether the YRX has any extra sound-deadening, but it does have different wheels and tyres. We also, I should concede, had some luggage in the hatch (which can dampen and quieten things).
Where is it relative to the sector? The wombats that inhabit the TMR burrow put the YRX as better than average for NVH.
But, like all reviews, there is always some subjectivity in any opinion (What were the roads and conditions like? How many were in the car? How much luggage?… and so forth).
The Insider