I currently own and use a six year old VW Polo Mk5 GTI with 60k miles on the clock.
I want to replace it with some sort of (similar) hybrid car.
I don't want a Prius because it is just too big for my needs; I have read reviews of the Yaris Sport but understand that it has rock-hard suspension but not the engine to match.
I do about 10,000 miles a year, mostly about town but with four or five journeys of 300(ish) miles and I have driven down to the French Alps on occasion - as a result I don't want a pure electric car - not even a Tesla!
I would appreciate any feedback from people with actual real world everyday experience of a small(ish) hybrid car -thanks in advance
Got a Lexus CT200H as a daily which is basically a very fancy Toyota Auris.
I'd look at the Auris if I were you and try and get as new as possible. Apparently they have an EGR valve which is a pain to clean as it has 4 different parts to it 3 of which are hard to get to and get out and once over 100K they can cause head gaskets to blow from overheating when clogged up. Well over 150K it starts to get ropey, stories of people doing 350K before it died, etc. But I guess it depends a lot on your ICE usage vs battery usage.
So I plan to take it to 90K or thereabouts then get rid. As a daily I wouldn't want a Yaris tbh you want something more comfortable. An auris isn't huge probably just smaller than a golf so similar size to your polo but bigger.
CT200H has a lot of spec which is why I went for that. Full leather, full memory heated seats, sat nav, really good sound system with a subwoofer in the boot, reverse camera, front and rear sensors, DAB, the list goes on and on.
An auris looks 10 times better than a prius too and the ct200h looks even better. Suspension is crap on the F Sport models with their large rims to match.
As for reliability it's pretty much bulletproof below 100K and 10 years. The Yaris is tiny it's not something I would want to even be a passenger in. As for the hybrid system toyota's is very good. It kicks in automatically all the time regardless of speed and you can use pure electric below 16 mph.
Road tax is £0, mpg is very high minimum of 45mpg usually around 55mpg which for petrol is amazing with mainly city driving in start stop traffic. It has a lot of power too in sport mode. In eco mode it feels like it has 50bhp, in standard it feels like it has 100bhp and in sport it feels like 150bhp.
So you get a lot of people complaining about them being underpowered who used them solely in eco mode.
The CVT is noisey but only when you put your foot to the floor. otherwise you don't really hear it at all.
I suppose the yaris will have a lot of negatives compared to a CT200h but hybrids are great for city cars. I even used it for a 300+ mile trip to London and it was fine on cruise control regularly using the battery along with the engine.
I think Hyundai's plug in hybrid may be a bit better for longer journeys though you also have the negative of having to charge it up yourself by plugging it in.
I think going from a polo to a yaris would be a downgrade. Going to an auris would be a much better buy.
