Toyota Yaris review

Even superminis aren’t what we’d call ‘cheap’ these days, but then some people in the Top Gear office can remember when a Mars bar was 10p, so it’s all relative. As far as the Yaris goes, you’re looking at a spread from just under £20k to a smidge over £24k.

Kicking things off at the bottom of the new Yaris range is the base spec ‘Icon’ trim which starts at £21,080. Even that’s decently equipped inside, though, with a seven-inch touchscreen, reversing cameras and both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility – something that’s extremely welcome thanks to Toyota’s persistence with outdated graphics for its standard services.

Above that is ‘Design’ trim, which would set you back £22,140 and brings the larger eight-inch touchscreen but retains the fabric upholstery. The combined cloth and faux leather seats on the top spec GR Sport and Excel trims (both fully loaded at £24,040) are ludicrously soft though, and the steering wheel is smaller and far more tactile than before. 

The Design trim at just over £22,140 looks like good value, though, so it’s the one we’d go for. Available options include a Tech Pack, a City Pack, a panoramic roof and metallic paint: pick whichever of those take your fancy, but there’s little point in lathering the car with leather, really.

There are other good things to consider when laying out the cash, too. All new hybrid-only Yaris versions come with Toyota’s five-year/100,000-mile warranty and if previous generations are anything to go by it should be supremely reliable, and it’ll be safe. In fact, Toyota is claiming that it was “engineered to be the world’s safest compact car". Quite the tagline.

To justify that, whichever trim level you go for you’ll get Toyota Safety Sense – a system that includes a pre-collision warning, lane trace assist, adaptive cruise control, road sign assist, emergency steering assist and automatic full beams. It is a little intrusive sometimes in everyday driving, but there’s no doubt you’d be thankful for their inclusion when necessary. 

Another thing to note is that this is the first Toyota to be equipped with centre airbags, which help prevent the driver and the passenger colliding with each other if the car is ever in a side impact. Clever.