Toyota GR Yaris
GOODBYE
£29,995 OTR/£34,375 as tested/£396pcm
WHY IT’S HERE
Does this hot hatch genuinely channel the spirit of the WRC?
DRIVER
Ollie Marriage
I DIDN’T SO MUCH LIVE WITH THE GR YARIS AS CONSUME IT IN HITS. And over the past eight months, I’ve realised that’s what our experience of performance cars should be. Intoxicating spikes of drama and excitement that briefly punctuate extended periods of duller, more ordinary behaviour.
Name me one sports car, weighing more than a tonne and costing less than six figures, that isn’t trying to be multi-dimensional. They all are, aren’t they? They want to be your one-stop driving shop. And so they’re compromised. And as soon as you allow compromise to creep in, the first thing to suffer is the stuff you wanted the car to be good at originally.
But not the Yaris. It’s a hot hatch, therefore the default daily package. But the hatch bit of that job? It was no Golf GTI. Tiny boot, cramped and awkward to access back seats. I also never relished doing distance. The car’s demeanour was “I’ll do this, but I really can’t be arsed”.
But at doing the job it was designed for? Outstanding. Utterly joyous. The little 1.6-litre three was a genuinely gutsy, exciting, punchy motor. And nothing went to waste. Not one horsepower, not one scrap of traction.
Nothing went wrong or fell off, although a sacrificial pheasant resulted in a £244 fix for a new fog light and undertray. It wore OZ Rally Racings for a while. But not as long as I expected. It looked terrific, but I was surprised how much the ride deteriorated, how much heavier the car felt on the road.
Plenty of people keep telling me it needs more power, but eight months on I still don’t find myself agreeing. They also claim it’s expensive. But I don’t think there’s another car sub-£100,000 that has more charisma, is stronger willed or more eager to show you a good time. For a bespoke motorsport project that’s received a bit of road gloss you’re looking down the barrel of a bargain. This is up there with the best cars I’ve ever run. It got under my skin. I’m gutted it’s gone.