The new Toyota Yaris is now officially here in South Africa and comes with a completely new design. Toyota has improved almost everything on the vehicle to ensure that it out-does the current Yaris, which was itself, a very successful car.

New Toyota Yaris gets pretty facelift

The styling has been changed to be more bold and strong, while still maintaining a sporty look. Toyota notes how the styling has been made more ‘masculine’ to directly appeal to young male drivers. The new Yaris is the first vehicle in Toyota’s lineup to feature the new face of the brand. This face includes: a protruding nose with slim horizontal headlights and unusual headlamp eyebrows. The radiator grille resembles a ‘smile’ along with an ‘open-mouth’ deep lower air intake combine to give the vehicle a wide stance.

In place of traditional windscreen wipers, the new Yaris has just a single wiper. This wiper includes a wet-arm system, which sprays the washer fluid along the blades base.

The inside of the new Toyota Yaris has been styled around the notion of ‘fun to drive’. This is represented by sportier instrument panels, which are in analogue format now, and have been moved directly in front of the driver. The Horizontal lines of the dashboard give the interior a generous width, which has been increased by 30mm. There is also a soft-padded dash section with matching upper door panels which give the vehicle a more upmarket feel.

Improved Engines

The new Toyota Yaris is still available as a 1.0 litre or 1.3 litre petrol engines but both have been improved. The engines have been designed with Toyota Optimal Drive, which is a series of engineering as well as design implementations that have improved the fuel consumption figures of the car.

The 3-cylinder 1.0 VVT-I petrol engine comes with a 5-speed manual transmission and generates 51 kW at 6000rpm and a max torque of 93 Nm. It is able to complete 0-100km/h in 15.3 seconds and its fuel consumption clocks in at just 5.1 litres/100km at a combined cycle.

The 1.3 litre Dual VVT-I engine has been completely redesigned which has resulted in a power increase of 16% when compared to the previous version. This engine pushes out 73 kW at 6000rpm and has a max torque of 125 Nm at 4000rpm. 0-100km/h takes 11.7 seconds while the combined cycle fuel consumption comes in at 5.6 litres/100km. The 1.3 litre variants come with a 6-speed manual transmission.

The new Toyota Yaris comes with a host of safety features, including up to 7 airbags as well as Toyota’s WIL (whiplash injury lessening) technology. This technology is featured in the seats of the car and will support the head and body simultaneously, in an effort to reduce whiplash in the event of an accident.

New Toyota Yaris – Price

Toyota Yaris 1.0 Xi 3-door – R124 000

Toyota Yaris 1.0 Xr 5-door – R157 900

Toyota Yaris 1.3 Xi 3-door – R157 000

Toyota Yaris 1.3 Xr 5-door – R200 600