Car: Toyota Yaris 1.4-litre D-4D range
Prices: £12,065 - £13,805 – on the road
Insurance Group: 4E
Emissions: 109g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 10.7s / Max Speed 109mph
Fuel Consumption: (urban) 55.4mpg / (extra urban) 78.5mpg / (combined) 67.3mpg
Safety: ABS with brake assist, twin front and side airbags, curtain airbags, driver’s knee airbag.
Dimensions: Length/Width/Height mm 3785/1695/1530
ECONOMY CLASSIC?
Our Rating: 7.6 / 10
Can the Yaris D-4D diesel supermini get Toyota back on top in its sector? Steve Ghosley reports
Toyota’s latest Yaris is much bigger and more substantial than the model it replaced. The Japanese see the Yaris as very much an inspirational vehicle for thirty to forty year olds and moved it significantly up market in its latest guise, leaving the smaller Aygo to mop up the budget end of the supermini spectrum. The latest tweaks smarten-up the styling but, wisely, Toyota has retained and improved the all-aluminium 1.4-litre D-4D diesel engine that has proved a firm favourite with buyers.
The Yaris has never been one of the more striking superminis to look at but its compact curves are easy enough on the eye. The latest models blend the front bumper and bonnet more seamlessly than before while also incorporating protection mouldings designed to take the financial sting out of minor parking knocks. The front spoiler has also been lowered slightly giving a fractionally sportier look and together with a flatter design for the dirty side of the car, this helps aerodynamics, further improving efficiency.
Toyota’s exemplary build quality is evident in the Yaris cabin and you’ll search in vain for shoddily assembled trim components. The problem is that instances of design flare are similarly hard to come by in the rather bland cabin environment. The controls are sensibly positioned and extremely easy to get to grips with but with rival superminis offering some highly intelligent and charismatic interior designs, the Yaris falls a little short. It’s a shame because the car does the hard work so effectively.
Interior space is another thorny issue, a product of the Toyota being a noticeably smaller car than the latest crop of super-sized superminis. It’s over 16cm shorter than the latest Ford Fiesta and while this has its advantages when parking, it’s less beneficial when it comes to fitting four passengers and their luggage inside. The boot is 272-litres compared to 295 in the Ford but Toyota’s impressive EasyFlat rear seats split 60:40, fold and slide bringing a useful degree of versatility and up to 477-litres of space.
The improvements to the 1.4-litre D-4D diesel engine centre around its efficiency. It uses advanced common-rail injection technology giving increased power and better fuel economy. This has resulted in an engine that delivers 89bhp at 3,800rpm with torque of 205Nm available at 1,800rpm. The sprint from 0 to 62mph is achieved in 10.7 seconds going on to a top speed of 109mph. You won’t be spending too much time at the pumps either as this Yaris returns a very healthy 68.9 mpg in the combined cycle while emitting only 109g/km of CO2.
Standard fit is a clever 6-speed manual gearbox with a higher than usual 6th gear to boost fuel economy on higher speed runs. Toyota has also paid attention to smoothing out the shifting action, reducing noise and bringing improved feel to the clutch pedal. The 1.0-litre engine gets a five speed manual but the other option is Toyota’s MultiMode robotised gearbox which is available with the two larger engines. This can be set to allow manual shifts via the gear lever and steering wheel paddles or to take care of the cog swapping itself. There’s also a sportier mode which produces faster automatic changes.
The Yaris trim level hierarchy currently runs from T2 to TR and T Spirit but the 1.4-litre D-4D drivetrain can’t be matched to the basic T2 trim level. That makes TR the entry point and at this level buyers get 15" alloy wheels, a six-speaker stereo with MP3 compatibility and an AUX port, air-conditioning, body-coloured mirrors and a good line-up of safety kit. All Yaris models have ABS brakes with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution and Brake Assist, twin front airbags and side airbags. VSC stability control is only available as an option.
Move up to the T-Spirit model and you also get automatic air-conditioning, keyless entry, keyless start and Bluetooth compatibility. The TR model is predicted to be the most popular with Toyota envisaging that 68% of sales will go its way.
All Yaris models benefit from Toyota’s Optimal Drive Techno
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