2021 Toyota Yaris review: This is one of the most efficient cars on the market!

CarExpert

The all-new Toyota Yaris is here and has copped a big price increase. But, it now comes loaded with all the latest safety features and this model, the 2021 Toyota Yaris ZR Hybrid, is one of the most efficient cars on the market. Paul Maric tests out the all-new Toyota Yaris to see if it's worth the big investment.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:54 Interior: 02:39 Infotainment: 03:34 Safety Tech: 05:08 Practicality: 05:44 On the road: 08:26 Verdict: 13:43  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #review #toyota #yaris @toyotaaustralia

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.

00:01 Now, if you were thinking about rolling over your current Yaris into a new one, just steady

00:05 on for a second.

00:06 Toyota has jacked up the price of the entry-level Yaris by around $6,000.

00:10 It is a huge leap.

00:12 And this right here, the top-spec hybrid model, is actually almost as expensive as the top-spec

00:17 Corolla hybrid.

00:18 There's about $2,000 difference.

00:20 So this is priced at just over $32,000, and it competes with things like the Mazda 2,

00:26 the Suzuki Swift.

00:27 There's not really any other competitors that offer this kind of fuel economy, so it is

00:31 a little bit different to those, but it is still quite expensive for a small car.

00:35 Today we're going to do a detailed review of the Toyota Yaris ZR Hybrid.

00:39 If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes

00:42 up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and use the chapters below.

00:46 And if you haven't done so already, make sure you hit subscribe and press the bell icon

00:49 so you can find out every single time we drive a really blue car.

00:53 Okay, let's talk exterior.

00:55 Being a Yaris, you have a litany of colours to choose from.

00:59 12 colours, and all but white is an additional $500.

01:01 In fact, I love the colour palette.

01:03 They've got everything from this crazy blue to pinks and yellows.

01:06 It is literally buyer's choice.

01:08 Now down here, check out this grille.

01:10 So if you've seen our GR Yaris review, you can watch that by clicking up here.

01:14 You'll notice that it needs a big old grille for cooling.

01:17 This doesn't as much, but you can see that they have carried over that styling, and I

01:21 quite like this textured pattern that they've got on the grille, and that follows up on

01:24 the headlights there as well.

01:25 It's quite a neat looking car, and I think it will suit the demographic of the buyer,

01:30 which is likely to be someone young or perhaps someone older that's going to go for some

01:33 of these crazy colours.

01:34 Now, have a look at this logo here.

01:36 So if you've seen our other Toyota Hybrid reviews, you'll know that the blue in there

01:39 means that this is a hybrid vehicle, so that's an easy way to tell.

01:43 Over here, we have full LED headlights with LED daytime running lights.

01:47 And then we'll jump around to the side.

01:49 You have these cute little 16-inch alloy wheels.

01:52 They do look nice and small, but they do look sharp as well, so they match the rest of the

01:56 car and the design there.

01:58 So you've got that reflective chromey element on the outside, and then the darker black

02:02 on the inside there as well.

02:03 Now, the Hybrid badge on the side, so you don't forget that you're trying to save the

02:06 planet.

02:07 Indicator built into that wing mirror.

02:09 Black mirror cap along the top there.

02:11 This one also has the black roof optioned on it as well, and that follows around to

02:16 the side.

02:17 You can see that sort of colour palette continue up the top.

02:19 Come around to the rear.

02:20 You have LED taillights, and then this red strip that runs along the top.

02:24 Boot lip spoiler built into there.

02:25 Shark fin antenna as well.

02:27 One more Hybrid badge just for good measure, and then a Yaris badge tucked in along the

02:31 top there.

02:32 Another blue Toyota badge as well.

02:33 So let me know what your thoughts are in the comments section below about the design.

02:36 Do you think it will suit the demographic, or do you think they've gone a little bit

02:39 too far with it?

02:40 So we're inside the Yaris.

02:41 Let's start with what the key looks like.

02:43 Here it is here.

02:44 Pretty basic looking key.

02:45 Lock, unlock, Toyota symbol with a little bit of blue there because Hybrid, and then

02:49 blank on the back.

02:50 It's a proximity sensing key, so you just leave that in your pocket.

02:53 Grab the door handle and then hit the power button to kick things over.

02:56 Now what about styling?

02:57 Well, it looks youthful and vibrant.

03:00 You've got that big infotainment system sitting up the top there, plus this red section here.

03:04 The rest of it's sort of pretty sort of hard plastic.

03:07 The top stuff up here is nice and soft, but the rest is fairly scratchy.

03:10 And what about your touch points?

03:11 Well, you don't have a centre armrest, but you do have this material along the door.

03:15 It's pretty firm though.

03:16 Now how hard are these surfaces?

03:18 Well, we've tested them with our durometer.

03:20 If you want to see how this car compares to other cars that we've tested before, just

03:23 use the link in the description below.

03:25 Now, what about build quality?

03:26 Well, it all feels pretty solid.

03:28 There's not much to complain about.

03:29 There is a bit of flex in that centre section, but for the most part, this all feels okay.

03:34 Let's talk infotainment.

03:35 So the Yaris comes with a 7-inch infotainment system.

03:39 It's a colour touchscreen with shortcut buttons either side.

03:42 If you want to see a detailed review of this, you can click up here.

03:45 Today, I'll just give you a brief overview.

03:47 So it looks a bit out of place, doesn't it?

03:49 7 inches, it could really just take up that entire screen, but it's condensed into the

03:53 centre there, which is a little bit strange.

03:55 But anyway, you do get inbuilt satellite navigation.

03:58 You get AM/FM, DAB plus digital radio.

04:02 And then in terms of smartphone mirroring, you have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

04:06 Both require a cable though, so there's no wireless setup here.

04:09 Now I'll show you what Android Auto looks like first.

04:12 There it is there.

04:13 So full screen integration.

04:15 And then you have fairly decent speed as well, not too laggy.

04:19 Let's have a look at Apple CarPlay.

04:20 Now the full screen integration, we'll have a look at the menu there.

04:23 That's fairly fast and responsive as well.

04:26 Now this also comes with voice recognition using the button on the steering wheel.

04:30 You can just prompt the car directly, or if you have your smartphone connected with a

04:33 cable, it will allow you to send commands through your phone.

04:37 Now there is also a screen ahead of the driver.

04:39 That includes your trip computer, information about what the hybrid system is doing, music

04:44 selection, navigation, etc, etc.

04:47 It's only a small screen, but it gives you all the information you need.

04:50 And then it's paired with a head-up display that delivers everything else that you're

04:54 looking for.

04:55 In addition to that, you have a six-speaker sound system.

04:57 And then on the connectivity front, it's a little bit disappointing because you have

04:59 one USB point, and that's going to be used when you do plug in your smartphone for mirroring.

05:04 And then a 12-volt outlet hidden away down here.

05:06 You won't find any wireless phone charging.

05:08 Let's talk safety.

05:09 You get autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection.

05:13 You have a lane-keeping assistant, a lane departure warning, radar cruise control, blind

05:18 spot monitoring built into those wing mirrors, rear cross-traffic alert.

05:22 And I think this is pretty cool.

05:24 You have an airbag in the centre, so that prevents the two front passengers colliding

05:28 with each other.

05:29 And then in terms of the sensors, you have front and rear parking sensors and a reverse

05:33 view camera.

05:34 Let's have a look at what that looks like.

05:35 There it is there.

05:36 Okay, so it's a reasonable camera.

05:37 You've got guidelines, and then you can adjust the amount of zoom you have on that lens,

05:41 and you can also get rid of those guidelines as well.

05:43 Okay, let's talk practicality.

05:45 We'll start with storage and phone storage.

05:47 So you've got a slot up the front here that you can pop your phone, but again, no wireless

05:51 phone charging, and you can store it in the cup holders as well if you want.

05:55 Now in terms of cup holders, coffee cup lives in there, but you'll notice that it doesn't

06:00 sit on the bottom, so it makes it a little bit tricky to pull out without spilling your

06:04 coffee everywhere.

06:05 Then in terms of bottles, they easily fit into those cup holders, and you also have

06:09 storage inside the doors.

06:11 But what's actually really cool here, despite the fact this car is so small, you can actually

06:14 fit a full-size drink bottle in the doors as well.

06:17 And you've also got storage for a bottle up the back there.

06:20 Now you've got this slot up the top here.

06:22 It's not gripped, so I don't know that you'd put your phone there, but it gives you an

06:24 idea of how big it is.

06:26 Another trinket tray there, and then you have a glove box too, decent size.

06:29 You can fit a bottle in there as well.

06:31 So in terms of comfort, you have single zone automatic climate control, no headed seats

06:35 or anything like that.

06:36 Now in terms of the seats, have a look at this.

06:38 So yes, they are cloth and not leather, but I actually quite like this design.

06:41 It's textured up the top here, a lot of different colours, just looks really nice and cool.

06:45 It's very different to what you'd normally expect to see, and they're really comfy seats

06:48 as well, so they hug you in nicely.

06:50 It is also worth noting that despite this being the top spec model and being really

06:54 expensive for what it is, there's no electric seat adjustment, it's all fully manual.

06:57 The steering wheel is a great size, it sits perfectly in the hands, and then all of these

07:01 controls are easy to reach.

07:03 OK, we're in the back seat of the Yaris.

07:05 It is very compact back here.

07:08 As you'd expect, it is a small car, so my knees are well and truly into that seat.

07:13 Keep in mind I do have my seat quite far back, but it shows you how little room you have.

07:17 Plenty of toe room though, which is great, and headroom is OK.

07:20 You get a matte pocket at the back of the passenger seat, but not the driver's seat.

07:23 There's no USB sockets, no air vents or anything like that, there's no centre arm rest, but

07:27 you can pop your bottle inside the door if you need to.

07:30 Speaking of the door, it's all quite scratchy as well over here.

07:34 There's no real soft materials in the back here, so it is a little bit gloomy, but you

07:38 do get two ISOFIX points on the outboard seats, and that same textured material carries onto

07:43 the back here as well.

07:44 OK, cargo space.

07:45 So small car, small boot.

07:48 How small though?

07:49 So we are talking 270 litres, it's actually down on the last one in terms of cargo space.

07:55 We at Toyota did that with the Corolla as well, but anyway, you've got two levels to

07:58 this boot, you've got this one here and then underneath here you have another sub-level,

08:02 then underneath that you have a space saver spare tyre.

08:06 Now the question is, is it going to fit our bag and our luggage?

08:10 I think it will.

08:12 Yes it does, there you go.

08:13 Now if you do need more room though, you can drop that second row, you can also remove

08:18 the cargo blinds, so quick push of that drops that, and then quick push of that drops that.

08:23 If your passenger seat's not in the way, you will have a flat load floor.

08:27 OK, we're on the road in the Yaris.

08:30 Now this is the hybrid, which means there's two powertrains.

08:33 You've got the standard internal combustion engine and then you also have a hybrid drivetrain.

08:38 So the internal combustion side is a 1.5-litre, three-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol

08:43 engine.

08:44 It makes 67 kilowatts of power and 120 newton metres of torque.

08:48 So it's a teeny tiny engine, but it is backed up by that hybrid drivetrain, and that uses

08:53 an electric motor that produces 59 kilowatts of power and 141 newton metres of torque.

08:59 Now these can operate either independently or together, and then when they do operate

09:03 together, you get a combined power output of 85 kilowatts of power, and that means that

09:08 when you are plodding along, it can run entirely on electric, and that's powered by a 0.8 kilowatt

09:14 hour lithium-ion battery that is absolutely tiny.

09:17 As a comparison, something like my Tesla Model 3 for example has just under 80 kilowatt hours,

09:22 so its battery is very small, but when it is running off the battery, it can run on

09:26 EV power alone, and that means that the internal combustion engine is entirely switched off,

09:31 or alternatively it can run as a series hybrid where the internal combustion engine and that

09:36 electric motor combine to give you a little bit more of a push.

09:40 When it is in EV-only mode, it is pretty slow, and then once you start getting into the throttle,

09:44 it will kick on the petrol engine, but if you plant your foot and get both of them going,

09:49 it's actually pretty peppy.

09:50 It gets up and moves pretty nicely.

09:52 It's not too slow, and it doesn't feel like you're going to be stuck and holding up traffic

09:55 as you try and move along.

09:56 All of that power and torque is sent through a continuously variable transmission, so that's

10:02 the type that effectively has an infinite number of gear ratios, and you can tell it's

10:06 a CVT because when you punch it, it just makes a whole lot of noise and doesn't sound like

10:11 it's changing through gears.

10:13 To help you understand what's actually going on though, you have a head-up display in front

10:16 of the driver.

10:17 As you roll out of the throttle, it comes up to say that it's charging.

10:20 As you lean on the throttle, it stays within an initial eco-band, which is just the electric

10:26 motor running, powered by the battery.

10:27 Then when you go beyond the eco-band, it kicks on the petrol engine, and then if you go full

10:33 throttle, it goes into power mode, where it gives you everything that it possibly can.

10:37 So this is kind of an incentive to drive steady and to drive nice and gently, because you

10:43 always want to keep it within the eco-band.

10:45 Being a teeny tiny hybrid, fuel economy is really impressive in this, and Toyota claims

10:50 an official number of 3.3 litres per 100km.

10:54 That is barely anything.

10:55 In terms of the figure we're achieving, we're sitting on 3.6, so it's pretty much bang on

11:00 exactly where you need to be.

11:02 That's with fairly sensible driving.

11:03 If you do get stuck into it, that'll go a little higher, but at the end of the day,

11:06 I've found with Toyota's hybrids, you can pretty much thrash them, and they barely ever

11:10 use any fuel.

11:11 In terms of other drive modes, you have an eco mode, you have a normal mode, and then

11:15 a power mode.

11:16 Power mode simply sharpens everything up, so instead of having to go full throttle to

11:20 get 100% of power and torque, you only really have to go halfway down the throttle travel

11:25 and it starts delivering everything.

11:27 So it doesn't give you any extra power, it just gives you the impression you have more

11:31 power, because it's reaching that upper limit earlier.

11:34 There is another drive mode here.

11:35 If you go into B, it starts increasing the regeneration intensity, so that as you roll

11:41 out of the throttle, you are getting more energy plumbed back into those batteries,

11:44 but it also does something curious, and I don't know exactly how this works, but when

11:48 the engine is off, if I roll out of the throttle, I can hear it come back on and it sounds like

11:53 it's actually doing engine braking in addition to the regen, so you are slowing down and

11:58 recouping as much energy as you can without using any fuel.

12:02 So Toyota doesn't quote a 0-100 time, but I thought we'd record it anyway just to see

12:06 how quick it is.

12:08 [engine noise]

12:18 Let's talk road noise.

12:19 So we're out on a country road at the moment, it's course chip, it's pretty quiet in here,

12:23 there isn't a great deal of noise coming into the cabin.

12:25 There is a little bit of wind noise about those wing mirrors, but for the most part

12:29 it's fairly pleasant.

12:30 OK, right, this is probably the thing I like the most about this car.

12:33 It is just so nice and smooth, I've found with a lot of new Toyotas lately, they've

12:38 absolutely nailed the ride.

12:39 They've just made it so that it's not overly soft, not overly firm, but it suits all types

12:44 of road conditions and you just feel nice and relaxed inside the car.

12:47 In terms of steering feel, it's a pretty loose steering rack, so you don't have to put a

12:52 great deal of effort into making the car turn, and that's especially helpful at low speeds

12:56 when it comes to parking.

12:58 This is fairly straightforward to slot into a park, but made even easier due to that light

13:02 steering.

13:03 The steering feel is also good.

13:04 Often with these hybrids, as you transition from a regen mode into the mechanical brakes

13:09 working, you can feel a bit of a shunt, but they've sorted that out.

13:12 Toyota has so much experience when it comes to hybrids that it really is a non-event,

13:16 it just works as it should.

13:18 Let's talk turning circle, so 10.2 metres, that is a very, very tight turning circle,

13:23 means you can pretty much just do a U-turn on the spot.

13:26 As you can imagine, visibility is fantastic, you can clearly see out the front there.

13:31 The wing mirrors are pretty small, so, I don't know, they could be a little bit bigger, but

13:36 you do have blind spot monitoring built into them, and then visibility out the rear is

13:39 okay.

13:40 It's kind of impinged by those seat backs, they get in the way of things sometimes.

13:44 So the Toyota Yaris ZR Hybrid, there's actually nothing wrong with this.

13:48 The hybrid drivetrain's fantastic, it uses barely any fuel, and for the type of person

13:53 that needs a small car, it has enough room for them.

13:56 But the problem is the price.

13:57 I mean, it is just far too expensive for what it is, especially when you consider that it

14:01 is within earshot of a Corolla.

14:03 You're probably just better off getting a Corolla Hybrid, because you're getting more

14:06 car for the money, and it's only about $2,000 extra.

14:08 So let me know in the comments section below, do you reckon Toyota has overdone it with

14:12 the pricing?

14:13 Did you buy one?

14:14 Are you actually paying the price that they're asking, or is that just a recommended retail

14:17 price?

14:18 Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

14:20 If you did enjoy this review, make sure you hit like and share it, and don't forget to

14:23 subscribe and press the bell icon as well.

14:26 That's going to tell you every single time we drive something new, but until next time,

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