Toyota Yaris

Fourth-generation Yaris ups its scale and sporting quotient, but to what effect? Having been with us for almost 25 years, the Toyota Yaris headed back to its roots for its fourth generation.The French-built small hatchback is Toyota’s biggest-selling individual model in Europe, and that’s no mean feat given the ever-increasing number of SUVs taking over the market. Like the Toyota C-HR crossover, the esteemed Toyota Prius and the popular Toyota Corolla hatchback, this generation of Yaris sits on the brand’s TNGA-B platform. A completely new design came with the platform change, reimagining the supermini on a clean sheet of paper.As you might have noticed, the result looks more like the original Yaris of 1999 than either of the subsequent generations. And like its showroom siblings, it’s a modern Toyota that comes with a choice of two petrol-electric hybrid powertrains.For years, the Yaris’ biggest selling points have been its efficiency and safety credentials, but this time the brand has directed more attention to its performance, handling and general driver appeal. This is a car described in the same suspiciously catchy terms as the original Yaris was, one distinguished by “big small” characteristics both static and dynamic. Consider that an attempt to sweep away some of the memory of the Yaris’s awkward-looking teenage years, if you will.But whether you think such labelling is meaningful or not, now’s our chance to explore the Toyota Yaris’s qualities and characteristics in detail. Now then; let’s find out all about what this smaller, meaner, stiffer and more modern Toyota Yaris is all about. The Toyota Yaris line-up at a glanceThe Yaris line-up has been slightly adjusted for 2024: Icon, Design, Excel and GR Sport all remain, and now topping the range is the new Premiere Edition. Lower specifications are fitted with Toyota’s familiar 116bhp 1.5-litre hybrid powertrain, but in a bid to offer more dynamic appeal, the GR Sport and Premiere Edition get a 129bhp version of the same engine.  Starting prices are steeper than the supermini norm as a result, but the pay-off is appealingly low CO2 emissions and competitive efficiency. VERSIONPOWER1.5 Petrol Hybrid116bhp1.5 Petrol Hybrid128bhp