Toyota Yaris Review 2023

If you're looking for a small car you really are spoilt for choice. There's the Ford Fiesta which is great to drive, the Volkswagen Polo that is comfortable and practical and the Peugeot 208 which is stylish to the bone and also available as a pure electric car. The Toyota Yaris gets close to matching these cars in all areas while majoring on comfort and fuel economy – thanks to its suite of autonomous driving aids and petrol-electric setup. Read on for our fuell review of the Toyota Yaris.

If the Toyota Yaris was a European country it would be Sweden. Famed for being taxing on the wallet, Sweden rewards your investment by providing an excellent quality of life. 

In much the same way, the Yaris comes loaded with technology that’s expensive but ultimately makes your life better. 

Thankfully, we can drop the Swedish analogy at the Toyota Yaris’s styling because it’s pure Japanese. A jumble of creases and curves, sharp edges, with a hint of origami, bookended by a gaping grille and pair of attractively protruding tail lights. It’s a Yaris that, whisper it, looks great. 

The inside doesn’t quite match these high standards. Its slabby looking infotainment screen rises awkwardly (if practically) out the top of the dashboard, but the rest of the cabin is lovingly sculpted. You even get a thick seam of squishy plastic that’ll keep Volkswagen’s head of perceived quality trembling under their duvet. 

Volkswagen’s head of practicality – if such a job existed – would get off more lightly because, while the Yaris supermini is quite practical for its size, it’s not as spacious in the back as the Polo and it’s boot isn’t as well designed or as roomy.

That’s about where the negatives end, mind you, because the Toyota Yaris is near enough a class-leader in every other respect and it goes about it in its own unique way, just as it has with previous generations of Toyota's supermini contender. 

Take the hybrid engine, it serves up spectacular fuel economy almost irrespective of how or where you drive. Its ability to drive in silent electric power almost all the time in town makes the Yaris extremely relaxing to potter about in and it’ll take you all the way up to motorway speeds without stirring the petrol engine.

It’s at this point that Toyota Yaris pulls another trick out its sleeve – its comprehensive suite of autonomous driving aids. Bang up to date, they’ll keep the Yaris arrow straight in its lane and around curves while braking and accelerating with a deft smoothness that serves only to expose the poor quality of driving of the humans around you. 

Sure, you have to keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel, but it cuts down on fatigue and makes long motorway slogs less exhausting as a result. It makes the Yaris the small car to have if you do lots of long-distance driving. 

It's worth saving your energy because when you turn off onto an A road you realise the Toyota Yaris is actually decent fun. It grips well and steers with precision. It’s not a genuine driver's car like a Ford Fiesta but, unlike the old Yaris, it is at least playing the same sport.

And anyway, like Sweden, you sense Toyota hasn’t tried to copy anyone else – it's made things better by going its own way. So, while the Yaris isn’t the last word in dynamics or the very best in terms of practicality, it makes up for that with its smart design, relaxing drive and unnervingly good fuel economy. And we can't ignore Toyota's enviable reputation for reliability. 

It's no longer just the safe choice, instead the Toyota Yaris is a desirable car that just so happens to also be very sensible. 

Thanks to its tall seating position and large doors, it’s easy to get into the front of the Toyota Yaris. All models come with a steering wheel that moves up, down, in and out, and a driver’s seat that’s height adjustable so small and tall people can get equally happy behind the wheel. 

Not everyone will like the tall position of the driver’s seat – even in its lowest setting – but you soon get used to it and it aids visibility.

The Yaris has room inside for four adults, helped by all models coming with four passenger doors. It feels tighter in the rear seats than in a Volkswagen Polo and Hyundai i20 which can accommodate tall passengers and gives them a surprising amount of kneeroom. The Yaris is also a touch narrower than the other two although none of them are particularly comfortable five up. 

A variety of storage cubbies makes it easy to keep the cabin looking spick and span and the 286-litre boot is larger enough for several carry-on cases. That said, the boot lacks features – like the adjustable floor you get in a Polo – so you don’t get a completely flat load bay when you fold away the back seats. With the seats pushed down, there's 947 litres of cargo room.

The Yaris’ build quality isn’t peerless but you do sense Toyota wanted to inject some flair into the design rather than settling for pure functionality like in the old car.

There are some sculpted shapes to feast your eyes on – including the overdesigned interior door handles – and all but the entry level model gets a digital dashboard that keeps things looking modern, although it’s not the same as the vast one-piece screen that’s an option in the Volkswagen Polo. 

The Polo just edges the Yaris for interior quality by feeling more consistently solid – things like the flimsy glovebox and centre armrest let the Japanese car down. That said, the Toyota Yaris has a thick band of squidgy plastic that runs across the centre of the dashboard that helps raise the ambience and all models come with a Nappa-leather trimmed steering wheel that feels brilliant to hold.

All Toyota Yaris models come with a centre touchscreen infotainment system which has a seven-inch display in Icon models and an eight-inch screen in the Design and GR Sport versions. Go for the Design trim and you get an even bigger 9-inch display.

Compared to the system you get in a Volkswagen Polo, the Toyota's graphics look a little washed out, the screen isn’t quite as responsive, and its menus aren't as logically arranged, but these are all relatively minor gripes.

A row of conventional buttons that run down the screen’s edges make it easy to flick between menus, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are fitted as standard so you can use your phone’s map and music apps on the car’s big screen. Most drivers will use their smartphone's sat-nav app, but the Excel trim come with cloud-based navigation included with its larger screen set-up.

The infotainment screen also keeps you in the loop with what's going on with the hybrid engine, telling you how power's being divvied out, as well as giving you incremental fuel economy figures and an economy score at the end of each trip.

The Toyota Yaris range starts at a noticeably higher price point than the Hyundai i20 or Volkswagen Polo. However, all Yaris models come with hybrid power as standard, which goes a long way to explaining why the entry level Icon model costs from £22,125.

The next version of the Yaris is the Design model, which gets going at £23,185. Following that are the Excel and GR Sport models, which both cost £25,085 but take the Toyota supermini in different directions – one favouring luxury appointments, while the other takes a sport approach.

Toyota offers several optional packs to add to the Yaris, but not all are available on every trim level, so you have to box a bit clever if you want certain features on your car such as parking sensors. It's also worth remembering the Yaris can enjoy a warranty of up to 10 years and 100,000 miles if you keep the car serviced within the Toyota dealer network.

There are slim savings to be had when buying a new Toyota Yaris, or you could have a two-year old version from £17,000 with around 35,000 miles on the clock.

The Toyota Yaris is only available with one engine – a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol-electric hybrid that is very cheap to run.

The most fuel-efficient versions are the Icon and Design trims that can achieve an official combined consumption of 68.8mpg. The Excel comes in at 65.6mpg, with the GR Sport registering 64.1mpg. It means any Yaris is easily capable of a real-world 60mpg in mixed driving conditions.

The Yaris isn’t the cheapest small car to insure but it won't break the bank. The Icon trim sits in Group 13, while the other three higher trim versions move up to Group 14.

With carbon dioxide emissions ranging between 91- and 112g/km depending on trim and wheel size, you'll pay annual road tax in the first year between £165 and £210. In following years, that comes out at £180 for all models.

The Toyota Yaris doesn’t drive with the verve of a Ford Fiesta or strike a perfect balance between comfort and fun handling quite like the Volkswagen Polo, but it gets closer than any Yaris has before it.

It’s only when you get close to its limits that it feels a little nose heavy and the constant engine drone caused by the CVT gearbox never encourages you to drive beyond eight tenths.

That doesn’t really matter though because the Toyota’s miles ahead of the competition in areas that will likely be more relevant to you. Areas like comfort. That hybrid engine might exist to provide low emissions and excellent fuel economy, but it also means the Toyota runs on electric power much of the time – making it quieter than a luxury saloon at lower speeds. 

Factor in the light controls and standard rearview camera and you have one accomplished city slicker.

Hit the motorway and the Yaris has another trick up its sleeve – it’s standard autonomous driving aids, which do an excellent job of accelerating, steering and braking the car for you. As a result, you no longer need to dread intercity hikes and it helps take your mind off the Toyota’s occasionally taught ride.

The Toyota Yaris only comes with one engine and gearbox combination – a 116PS 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol that’s boosted by two electric motors and feeds power through a CVT automatic gearbox.

The hybridisation in this latest model goes well beyond what the old car could do. Around town it will drive on electric almost all of the time and it has enough juice to get you up to motorway speeds for short bursts. It helps the Toyota returns 60mpg in more or less all conditions.

And it’s far from slow. It’ll whisk you from 0-62mph in a respectable 9.7 seconds and tops out at 108mph. That said, while the CVT gearbox makes the Yaris as easy to drive as a supersized dodgem, there’s a level of disconnect between pressing the accelerator pedal and actually accelerating that makes the Toyota less engaging than a competitor with a conventional auto or, naturally, a manual gearbox.

The Toyota Yaris scored five stars when it was crash-tested by Euro NCAP in 2020.

Its autonomous driving aids make it very safe on the motorway. Plus, you get automatic emergency brakes that detect cars, pedestrians and cyclists, plus auto-dipping headlights, and a system that can send your location to the emergency services after an accident.

Whether you're hauling a trailer with or without brakes fitted, the maximum a Toyota Yaris can tow is 450kg.

Toyota starts off the Yaris with the Icon trim, which comes with 16-inch alloy wheels, a host of safety kit, and reversing camera. There are also automatic headlights and heated door mirrors, rain-sensing wipers, and a height adjustable driver’s seat. Air conditioning is included, along with DAB radio and a 7-inch infotainment touchscreen that works with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Next in line is the Design trim with its different alloy wheel design, LED daytime running lights, rear privacy glass, and electric windows for the back doors. A larger 8-inch infotainment screen is standard for the Design model.

At this point, Toyota splits the Yaris between the opulent Excel and athletic-looking GR Sport models. The GR Sport comes on 18-inch alloys and is fitted with sports suspension. Inside, the passenger seat has height adjustment and there’s dual zone air con, as well as leather-bound three-spoke steering wheel. The GR Sport also has keyless entry and ignition.

Go down the luxury route with the Excel and you find it riding on 17-inch alloy wheels. It gains rear cross traffic alert, blind spot monitor, and all-round parking sensors for added safety. Grey fabric and synthetic leather cover the seats, while the infotainment uses a 9-inch touchscreen with integrated sat-nav.