The heavily-revised 2025 Toyota GR Yaris will come to market with even more power, plus the convenience of an 8-speed automatic transmission. Here are the early details!

The GR Yaris marked the start of a new performance era at Toyota. With a fiery 3-cylinder engine, remarkable chassis and suspension, the GR Yaris proved you could have a road-legal rally car in your driveway.

It had major flaw that stopped it becoming an all-time great. It was offered solely with a manual gearbox and while enthusiasts loved the engagement, the reality is that the majority of customers favour towards the convenience and ease of use of an automatic or dual-clutch transmission. Don’t believe us? Go look at how many manual-equipped performance cars are offered these days…

Toyota is well aware of what the market does and doesn’t want, and the updated GR Yaris will be offered with a two-pedal setup. According to Japanese publication BestCarWeb, the 2025 Toyota GR Yaris production will begin as early as January 2024 and the updates will be significant.

The big change can be found in the powertrain department, with an 8-speed automatic and higher power outputs. The updated GR Yaris will feature the same engine outputs of its bigger GR Corolla brother and that’s rated at 221 kW and 370 Nm. As it stands, the GR Yaris is rated at 198 kW and 360 Nm.

The addition of the 8-speed automatic will make quite a difference for those craving something fast without the compromise of having to work a sporty clutch in gridlock traffic. BestCarWeb says there’ll be gearshift paddles on the steering wheel.

Don’t expect much to change in the visual department, other than revised bumpers and headlights. Perhaps we’ll see the three-exhaust setup from the GR Corolla and the Toyota engineers have likely tweaked the suspension and brakes based on customer feedback. The cabin is likely to gain the all-digital dashboard straight from the GR Corolla too. Perhaps it’ll resemble the outrageous Toyota GR Yaris GRMN that was a Japan-only special?

When will the 2025 Toyota GR Yaris be revealed?

As a reminder, the GR Yaris was launched in South Africa back in the middle of 2021. We predict we’ll see a reveal of this new automatic-equipped model before the end of 2023.

Buy a Toyota GR Yaris on Cars.co.za