Toyota Yaris Review 2026

If you're looking for a small car you really are spoilt for choice. There's the Volkswagen Polo that is comfortable and practical, and the Peugeot 208 that 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 ease-of-use fuel economy, thanks to its suite of autonomous driving aids and petrol-electric setup. Read on for our full 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 out the top of the dashboard, but the rest of the cabin is lovingly sculpted. You even get a thick seam of squishy plastic on the dashboard that’ll keep Volkswagen’s head of perceived quality – if such a job exists – trembling under their duvet. 

Volkswagen’s head of practicality – pretty sure we've made that up, too – would get off more lightly because, while the Yaris 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 its work in its own unique way, just as previous generations of Toyota's small hatchback have. 

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 mode almost all of 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 if battery level allows.

And 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. 

And 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 (may it rest in peace) 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, a relaxing driving and unnervingly good fuel economy. We can't ignore Toyota's enviable reputation for reliability, either, and you also get a warranty that could last you ten years if you get your car serviced at a Toyota main dealer.

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. 

The Toyota Yaris doesn’t quite strike the same fine balance between comfort and fun as the Volkswagen Polo, but it gets closer than any Yaris has before it.

It feels impressively tidy and assured for the vast majority of the time, and it’s only when you get close to its handling limits that it starts to feel a little nose-heavy. That said, the engine drone caused by the CVT gearbox when you approach those limits means you'll likely never drive it like that anyway.

Comfort-wise, the suspension is a little on the firm side, but it still does a pretty good job of isolating you from bumps and potholes. The Yaris is also a very easy car to drive, with light controls, and a standard automatic gearbox. And while that hybrid powertrain might exist to provide low emissions and excellent fuel economy, it also means that the Toyota runs on electric power much of the time at lower urban speeds, making it quieter than some luxury saloons in that environment.

Hit the motorway and the Yaris has another trick up its sleeve: its 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.

Initially, the Toyota Yaris came with only one engine and gearbox combination: 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine boosted by two electric motors to give a total of 116PS, with the power fed through a CVT automatic gearbox.

Around town, it will drive on electric propulsion almost all of the time, and it has enough juice to get you up to motorway speeds for short bursts. It helps the Toyota return around 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 disconnection between pressing the accelerator pedal and actually accelerating that makes the Toyota less engaging than a competitor with a conventional auto' or a manual gearbox.

When the Yaris was facelifted in 2024, a second powertrain became available. It was exactly the same setup as the 116PS powertrain, but with total power hiked to 130PS. This was standard on the range-topping GR Sport and Premiere Edition trim levels, and was later applied to the Excel version as well.

Predictably, though, it doesn't feel all that much different. It sprints from 0-62mph half a second quicker, but it's top speed is identical, as is its general character. 

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.

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, although the Yaris is still fine. 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 that Toyota wanted to inject some flair into the design rather than settling for pure functionality like in previous iterations of the Yaris.

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 as impressive 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 lid 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. In early cars, it was a 7.0-inch display in Icon models and an 8.0-inch screen in the Design and GR Sport versions. Go for the Excel trim, and you got an even bigger 9.0-inch display. When the car was facelifted in 2024, the 9.0-inch screen became standard on the Icon and Design models, while Excel and GR Sport got a larger 10.25-inch screen, along with wireless phone charging.

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 wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are fitted as standard so you can use your phone’s mapping and music apps on the car’s big screen.

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. The entry-level Icon version starts at around £24,000, while prices rise to upwards of £30,000 at the very top of the range. Do bear in mind, though, that all versions of the Yaris come with a sophisticated hybrid drivetrain, which goes at least some way to explaining its high-ish price. So does the generous level of standard equipment, plus a warranty that could last up to ten years or 100,000 miles if you get your car serviced annually within Toyota's dealer network.

As usual, though, some tremendous savings can be made by turning to the used car market. The cheapest Yarises of this latest generation can be had for around £13,000, but these will be early examples with very high mileage. You don't have to pay too much more - around £14,000 or so - for a younger example with a much lower mileage of around 45,000 miles. That's a big saving, and Toyota's exemplary reputation for reliability - plus that warranty - means you should have no qualms about buying used.

The Toyota Yaris is only available as a petrol-electric hybrid, and thankfully, it's very cheap to run.

Lower-end versions with the less powerful 116PS hybrid system and smaller wheels are capable of returning between 57.6mpg and 70.6mpg according to the official WLTP tests, while the higher-end versions, with their larger wheels and uprated 130PS powertrain, are capable of between 65.6mpg and 67.2mpg. Whatever the case, the car should be capable of a real-world average of around 60mpg without you having to try too hard.

The Yaris isn’t the cheapest small car to insure but it won't break the bank. The cheapest versions to cover sit in Group 13, while the priciest ones sit in Group 16. In terms of VED road tax, you'll pay the same flat rate as all other cars regardless of fuel type. That's currently charged at £195 per year. The car's pricing is such that no version will be liable for the expensive luxury car surcharge.

Toyota starts off the Yaris range with the Toyota Yaris Icon trim, which comes with:

• 16-inch alloy wheels
• reversing camera
• automatic headlights and wipers
• heated door mirrors with power adjustment
• automatic air conditioning
• DAB radio
• infotainment touchscreen
• Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• adaptive cruise control

Next in line is the Toyota Yaris Design trim with:

• different 16-inch alloy wheel design
• LED daytime running lights,
• rear privacy glass
• electric windows for the back doors (later made standard throughout the range)

At this point, Toyota splits the Yaris range between the opulent Excel model and the athletic-looking GR Sport model. 

The Toyota Yaris GR Sport has:

• 18-inch alloys
• sports suspension
• front passenger seat has height adjustment
• dual zone air-con
• keyless entry and ignition

Go down the luxury route with the Toyota Yaris Excel and you'll get:

• 17-inch alloy wheels
• rear cross traffic alert
• blind spot monitor
• all-round parking sensors
• grey fabric and synthetic leather upholstery

When the car was facelifted in 2024, a new range-topping Premiere Edition trim level became available, but it wasn't long before this was withdrawn.