Hi there
OK nearly 400 miles in, lots of driving on mainly B roads, seems the best kind of roads to run in a car as good use of gears, different elevations and use of most of the rev range, also some town driving.
Let us focus on negative stuff as generally this car is all about how amazing it is but I like to try and be very fair.
- Most annoying thing, the car can hesitate pulling away if you just try to ease clutch out and then gently accelerate, I think its a 3 cylinder trate and not something I am used to and as such it does catch me out from time to time like when you come to a stop at a red light which then immediately changes so you release clutch same time as applying a little throttle and the car just feels a bit dead, I need to train my muscle memory that this car does not instantly rev fast with light throttle input so its safe to give a little throttle and then let clutch out, all is fine. In short always pull away with more than 1500rpm on the revs, ideally 2000-2500rpm even in just regular driving. I suspect its a combination of 3cyl and turbo, I am adapting to it and essentially driving around it.
- Interior plastics, scratch mega easy, so be very careful, I brushed the glovebox and it marked it, thankfully some cleaning has removed it but I am seeing other owners having similar issues and not getting so lucky. Treat the interior like an egg shell, it is cheap.
- Not a negative but I do want even more power.
- Steering wheel is the coldest steering wheel I have ever held, why on earth does the UK not get a heated wheel, yet Australia does, where is the sense in that!
- Visibility could be better, I am not too bothered as such by the mirror/tablet I find they don't interfere with my view but because there is no bonnet you cannot see it, but that is just me and I also think my drivers seat might be broke, it does not seem to want to adjust up or down, my guess is its on lowest setting as I cannot see the bonnet and its a lower seating position than my Abarth was so maybe a good thing also.
- The xenons are only OK, the Abarth's were better but for whatever reason it had fantastic xenons, these are about on par with the S2000 and M5, as such for night driving I do use the fog lights a lot to illuminate the more immediate pavement to the sides.
- The lane assist and stop start is annoying, if anyone comes across an option to code these out at startup be nice, I have noticed an electrical connector on the battery negative terminal, is this start/stop control does anyone know? I only ask as my Jaguar SVR was a similar connector and unplugging it permanently disabled stop/start so I no longer needed to remember to press the button.
- Be cool if the infotainment tablet screen could also display cool stuff like boost, AWD distribution, speed a bit like a GTR does, but this does not.
- The heaters are a bit weak, full front screen defrost is not that powerful.
I am literally nit picking at the above, the only thing that bothers me is the gentle pull away and the cold steering wheel, the rest is me been petty but trying to be totally honest with the car.
The good stuff, you've all seen the videos, it is all true, brakes are outstanding, grip is amazing and on the limit which is very high there is plenty of communication and it seems progressive, as long as your not full throttle, I suspect if you go full throttle just like any FWD/AWD car it could drag you off the road but the balance is fantastic, the hint of understeer is very minor and only at the limit, the sport mode does feel somewhat rear driven but at the same time it won't drift but it might let the rear step out for an instant, I have steered into it letting go twice and over corrected on both accounts as generally its not required, just turn in more the back end is very faithful. Gearbox is also fabulous and though it is much faster than a 0-60 of 5.5s suggest due to the very short gearing and lack of weight, I would like some extra power so will look at the DTUK tuning box which seems the best of them all due to them owning several Yaris themselves and also using several customer cars to fine tune and with a solid 30-40HP gain for the £450 it is great value or £599 if fitted by Toyota. I won't be touching air intake or the filter for the 1-3HP it is not worth the hassle or risk to the MAF. I will watch exhaust development closely, not for noise but just in case a certain downpipe and OPF delete or whatever its called can yield another 20HP or so safely as supposedly a few owners are reporting 330HP with a box and custom exhaust setup, but I do not want any extra noise, its lack of noise means you can thrash this car down a back road and you don't get any members of the public giving you hand jesters or looks that could kill and it really is the kind of car you want to do a full send around every corner, so its best to keep a low profile and keep the noise emitting from the exhaust to a minimum.
Also the TRD carbon interior stuff, I had my Mrs cancel it when I realised it was £400 and still not available, told him lets keep carbon to minimum as its a big expense and a never ending hole, told her if she really wants to get me a present, wait another month or two until DTUK have perfected their maps for the tuning box and then get me one of those as its something that owners are raving about and works very well, also good to wait just in case some of the engines do start popping, only one engine down so far and that is due to a money shift at the ring.
Unusual for me I have still not washed it, so in person its getting filthy, but I just want to drive it and get it run in.
Couple of pictures:
Yaris doesn't look so small.