Toyota Yaris GR Review 2024

The Toyota Yaris is normally seen as a sensible urban hatchback for those who appreciate a bit of style and the firm’s renowned reliability. The Toyota GR Yaris is a different beast. It charged into the market like a rabid dog and delivered a thrilling drive, great soundtrack and superb handling.

Toyota has an illustrious history in world rallying that has influenced many of its models over the years. As our Toyota GR Yaris review will show, though, this beefed-up small car is more than influenced by rallying – it is basically a rally car for the road.

Yet it also offers some everyday practicality, ensuring you can still do the commute or run to the shops, helping it to secure its place among the best hot hatches on sale today.

Its attitude starts with its athletic looks, from the deep front bumper and tell-tale GR badge to the wide wheelarches that house alloys sitting at either end of a 60mm wider track.

In fact, very little is standard about the Toyota GR Yaris, as it shares only a few body panels with the regular version.

The interior feels every bit the sports car, with deep bucket seats, an ergonomic gearstick for the manual transmission and plenty of Alcantara upholstery.

The driving position is spot-on, giving a feeling that you really are connected to the car. But there is useful tech, too, such as an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system.

With decent boot space, a back seat and good all-round visibility, it even offers the sort of practicality you would expect of a Toyota Yaris, although it’s no typical family hatchback.

The carbon fibre roof is a full 100mm lower, which adds to the sporty look, but does compromise space in the back seats slightly.

The highlight, though, is the way it drives, with the ability to thrill the enthusiastic driver at every turn. You can channel its 261PS and 390Nm through the six-speed gearbox and really relish the soundtrack of the engine.

It’s also reasonably docile around town, although it always feels as though it’s disappointed to be kept on a leash.

Each gear change is met with a satisfying sound of the mechanicals at work, followed by a rush of acceleration and a gravelly growl to match.

Its all-wheel-drive system provides inspiring grip, but the driving modes can turn it from a stable hatchback into a drifting wild thing. Fun is guaranteed.

There’s plenty of Toyota Yaris practicality on offer, despite the car’s performance characteristics.

Unlike the Ford Fiesta ST, the Toyota GR Yaris is only available as a three-door hatchback, so you have to fold the front seats forward to provide access to the rear.

Adults won’t find it that easy to clamber through and will feel decidedly cramped when they do squeeze themselves inside.

However, the materials are all good quality and the controls all fall easily to hand, especially the manual gearstick, which is perfectly positioned.

While the boot is smaller than on other Toyota Yaris models, it’ll cope with most daily needs.

Visibility is fairly good all-round, although compromised slightly by the massive C-pillar. If you ferry kids around, they will have a reasonable view out of the small side windows.

Essentially, it has all the practicality it needs to justify the Toyota Yaris badge.

The Japanese firm is well known for its quality and the Toyota GR Yaris is no exception.

There are a few hard plastics inside, but these are balanced out by soft-touch materials on the dashboard and the sporty GR Ultrasuede seats.

Everything feels well put together with a solid click to the buttons, and a quality feel to the climate controls and trim parts.

Ride over a bumpy piece of road and there will be a few rattles and squeaks, but somehow they just feel part of its rallying character.

The Toyota GR Yaris has an eight-inch touchscreen on top of the dashboard. Although far from being the latest word in technology, it is easy to use.

It provides access to a range of car settings, as well as radio and audio streaming. It’s also compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which is useful because navigation is only available as an option – and not at all if you select the Circuit Pack.

Buttons on the steering wheel aprovide access to some elements of the infotainment system, and it has Bluetooth for taking phone calls.

The Japanese company has had to stop taking orders for the Toyota GR Yaris for now, citing high demand, but it was priced between £30,165 and £33,665.

If it comes back onto the market, we expect it to be around the same figures.

This is very much a hot hatch and, while it’s going to cost less to run than some more premium performance cars, don’t expect regular Toyota Yaris economics here.

Toyota says you can get around 34mpg fuel economy on the combined cycle, but you’ll have to drive it incredibly sensibly to achieve that. Anyone who does that should probably have bought a Yaris hybrid instead.

Insurance costs are going to vary immensely, depending on age, although they are unlikely to reach the level of past rally homologation specials like the Ford Escort RS Cosworth or Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

CO2 emissions are 186g/km and, even on non-Circuit Pack versions fitted with normal Dunlop Sport rubber, spirited driving is likely to require regular replacement of tyres.

Servicing costs should be reasonabe, though, and Toyota throws in a five-year or 100,000-mile warranty.

As a rally car for the road, the Toyota GR Yaris is never going to provide the highest level of ride comfort. Nonetheless, the engineers have achieved a good balance in the suspension, to make it surprisingly comfortable in town or on longer journeys.

The driving position is excellent and it’s easy to see all four corners of the car, allowing you to place it exactly where you want, whether parking or aiming for the apex on a track.

There’s a huge amount of grip from the GR-Four all-wheel-drive system, and models equipped with the Circuit Pack get Torsen limited-slip differentials.

Driving modes can adjust the drive front to rear: 60:40 in Normal mode, 50:50 in Track mode and 30:70 to the rear in Sport. This means you can be as sensible or as sideways as you want – when the conditions are suitable, naturally.

There’s only one engine choice for the Toyota GR Yaris and it’s not one of the firm’s hybrid options. Instead, it is the most powerful three-cylinder in the world, a turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol unit developing 261PS and 390Nm of torque.

It’s paired with a superb, short-shifting, six-speed manual gearbox with maximum revs at 6,500rpm and maximum torque between 3,000-4,600rpm.

Toyota claims a 0-62mph time of 5.5 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 143mph, but the numbers don’t tell the full story of how much fun it is to rev this engine and get the most from it.

There is a message advising to avoid excessive acceleration until it has warmed up, but once it has the fun can really begin. Even the rev-matching system to replicate heel-and-toe downchanges feels just right.

This is an addictive car that loves to be driven properly. Although there is some modern tech, in many ways it’s analogue and old-school – a car that you have to really become involved with to extract the most enjoyment from. 

Toyota prides itself on safety and the Toyota GR Yaris inherits the five-star Euro NCAP rating of other Yaris models.

It has the Toyota Safety Sense package as standard, which includes adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assistance and a pre-collision system with emergency steering assist, as well as airbags and Isofix child seat points.

Most of the driving assistance systems work well, although the lane keeping technology can be a bit intrusive at times. You might be inclined to switch it off.

We can’t imagine anyone would want to use a Toyota GR Yaris for towing, but the hot hatchback isn’t legally approved to do so anyway.

Assuming the Toyota GR Yaris will return to the market with the same specifications, there should be three versions available.

The standard Toyota GR Yaris offers all the performance most people are going to need, as well as the eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system, GR Ultrasuede sports seats, a three-spoke leather wrapped sports steering wheel and a reversing camera, plus Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

If you want more tech and convenience features, the Toyota GR Yaris Convenience Pack adds a JBL eight-speaker audio system, blind-spot monitoring, head-up display, satellite navigation and additional parking sensors.

For even more performance and fun you should definitely tick the Toyota GR Yaris Circuit Pack option. This adds Torsen limited-slip differentials, lighter alloy wheels, recalibrated suspension and grippy Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres.

It’s ideal if you plan to take your Toyota GR Yaris to a track, which we highly recommend.