Toyota Yaris GR Sport – Review
By Liam Bird
“Is that the quick one?” asked the bloke who works across the road from me. “Is it the GR?”
“Hmm… Err… Well… It is, and it isn’t, I suppose”. I answered “This one’s the GR Sport…”
You could easily forgive such confusion. You see, what we have here is a Toyota Yaris GR Sport. The quick one, to which my neighbour was alluding to, or at least I think he was alluding to, is the Toyota GR Yaris (also known as the Yaris GR Four). To the casual lunchtime observer both Yaris GR Sport and GR Yaris no doubt look very similar. And to be fair, I have previously parked a GR Yaris in the very same spot that I’d just parked the Yaris GR Sport in; both cars were finished in white too. There are however, some significant differences.
“Quite muscular”
Toyota has gone to great lengths to make the Yaris GR Sport look like the GR Yaris, (and to no doubt make it appeal to those of you who probably couldn’t insure a GR Yaris no matter how hard they tried); black mesh grille, front fog lights rear diffuser, arch-filling 18 inch multi-spoke alloys, near-opaque rear privacy glass, they put in an appearance, as does the Yaris’s already quite muscular, squat, stance. Inside you’ll find deeper bolstered sports seats, drilled aluminium pedals, a steering wheel wrapped in perforated leather, podded digital instruments, red stitching, and the all-important GR badging on the seats. But… did you notice the extra doors?
The easiest way to tell a Yaris GR Sports from a GR Yaris (do try to keep up at the back) is that the GR Sport is a five door, whereas the GR is very much three door only.
“Conservative”
The GR Yaris was/is a WRC aimed homologation special that packs four-wheel drive, a brilliantly slick six-speed gearbox, a carbon fibre roof, aluminium rather than steel body panels, and the world’s smallest, lightest, and most powerful three-cylinder engine: it produces 257bhp, from only 1,618cc. Capable of 0-62 in 5.5 seconds, the GR Yaris – GR incidentally stands for Gazoo Racing – you could say, is very much the quick one.
The Yaris GR Sport on the other hand, isn’t.
That’s not to say the Yaris GR Sport is slow. Nevertheless, I’m sure we’ll all concede that a 0-62mph of 9.2 seconds, and a top speed (where permitted) of 109mph are indeed somewhat conservative. Like all Yaris, the front-wheel drive-only GR Sport is powered by a three cylinder engine, but in this case it displaces 1,490cc and produces a more modest 129bhp.
That said, that’s the kind of power and performance hot hatches used to have, and whereas the likes of a Peugeot 205 GTi or a Renault Clio 16V would struggle to better 38 miles-per-gallon, Toyota say the Yaris GR Sport will deliver 67.2. The Yaris’s self-charging hybrid system means most low speed stuff, manoeuvring, short journeys across town etc. is done on electricity alone.
“Over-taut suspension”
After having spent a week driving the Yaris GR Sport on a mix of all types of UK roads and surfaces, I’ve certainly no complaints at all about its economy; try as I might, fuel consumption never dropped below 55mpg. Instead, my grumbles are aimed towards what I can only describe as its frustrating lack of involvement.
If only Toyota had have given the Yaris GR Sport a manual gearbox (can such things be done in a self-charging hybrid?). I can put-up with the wind noise, and I can live with hard plastics used in the virtually all-black interior. And once away from the worst of UK B-Road surfaces I’m just about willing to forgive the slightly over-taut suspension and jiggly ride too – I’m sure those 215/40R18 tyres play their part in that. But, when faced with a series of bends, or upon driving down a favourite road, I couldn’t help it: I genuinely missed being able to change gear. I found myself reaching out, on more than a few occasions, for a gear stick that simply wasn’t there. Toyota gave their little Sport a CVT transmission; they didn’t even fit paddle shifters.
I knew before I booked it that the Yaris GR Sport wasn’t the “quick one”. However, and in my defence, Toyota did deliberately make it look like a hot-hatch – albeit, by today’s standards, merely a mild one. In all honesty, it really is a very likeable little car.
But – and perhaps this is partly because I’ve driven a GR Yaris, not to mention my more than my fair share of proper old-school hot-hatches – I can’t help feeling that it could have been, perhaps should’ve been, so much more.
Toyota Yaris GR Sport 129bhp
Engine: 1,490 cc 3-Cyl 12 valve, turbo-charged, petrol
Transmission: e-CVT. Front-wheel drive
Power: 129 bhp @ 5,500 rpm
Torque: 88.5 lbft at 3,600 rpm
0-62 Mph: 9.2 Seconds
Max Speed: 109 mph
CO2: 96g/km (WLTP combined)
MPG: 65.4 – 67.3 (WLTP combined)
Kerb Weight: 1,145 kg
Price: from £28,805 OTR
Liam Bird first stepped into automotive journalism in 2009, and since then has gone on to write motoring-related content for numerous titles. A former approved driving instructor – he also holds a motorcycle, and a HGV licence – Liam is a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers and, despite being born on the other side of the border, is treasurer of The Welsh Motoring Writers. He lives in the South Shropshire Marches with his partner Rebecca, her VW Up!, and his ever increasing collection of cars both large and small. When he’s not writing, more often than not, Liam can be found test-driving something worryingly expensive.
@bird_liam
