Yaris Hybrid Launches To Uk Media

[RelaxedDrive]

Just noticed this:

http://blog.toyota.co.uk/yaris-hybrid-launches-to-uk-media

[cuius]

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/toyota/yaris/first-drives/first-drive-review-toyota-yaris-hybrid

[johalareewi]

Some strange bits in the autocar review...

Trying Eco mode once is enough; it saps power too much and makes acceleration either a painfully slow or painfully noisy experience (usually both), as the hybrid system doesn't like to be revved.

But all this is undermined by the CVT gearbox; you're not likely to be able to enjoy a burst of acceleration as there's a constant drone from the transmission.

the Prius's hybrid system almost effortlessly and silently blends all the components that go into the hybrid drivetrain (save for the CVT), in the Yaris Hybrid you're continually made audibly aware that under the bonnet is not your average small turbodiesel engine.

Looks like the writer hasn't realised there isn't a CVT gearbox.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Looks like the writer hasn't realised there isn't a CVT gearbox.

Or how he manages to get the engine to scream all the time. You seriously have to be flooring it all the time for that to happen. Saying that, it's one of the more positive reviews out there for a hybrid.

Despite the Yaris hsd being the cheapest hybrid, it's still a lot of money for what is just a Yaris. Still, it's the most economical non plug in car on the market with the lowest CO2. And with automatic transmission. The naysayers will have a harder time 'dissing' this hybrid.

Being a smaller car it might be more reliable than my Prius as smaller cars dont get as much hammer.

[johalareewi]

Despite the Yaris hsd being the cheapest hybrid, it's still a lot of money for what is just a Yaris.

True. You can get the bottom of the range Yaris for £10,635 and still get great economy. But if you want an automatic Yaris with 5 doors, the price goes up to £14,435 (TR) or £15,775 (Tspirit) so £14,995 for a T3 Hybrid Yaris isn't bad.

http://www.toyota.co.uk/bv/UK_car_prices/pdf/Current_NewCarPrices.pdf?1=2&a=1&id=Pricelist&zone=Zone+Prices&sr=Mall

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Despite the Yaris hsd being the cheapest hybrid, it's still a lot of money for what is just a Yaris.

True. You can get the bottom of the range Yaris for £10,635 and still get great economy. But if you want an automatic Yaris with 5 doors, the price goes up to £14,435 (TR) or £15,775 (Tspirit) so £14,995 for a T3 Hybrid Yaris isn't bad.

http://www.toyota.co...+Prices&sr=Mall

Aha I hear you. There isn't much in it there at all.

[Sagitar]

Looks like the writer hasn't realised there isn't a CVT gearbox.

Being a smaller car it might be more reliable than my Prius as smaller cars dont get as much hammer.

I really don't understand how you come to that conclusion.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I really don't understand how you come to that conclusion.

By really generalising. Most smaller cars will either be second cars or commuter vehicles. Larger vehicles are more flexible and therefore as well as being second cars and commuter vehicles, they are also much more likely to be work horses such as a taxi or a rep mobile or because they're larger and thus generally more comfortable, they'll be used on longer, harder trips.

As I said I'm generalising but I've based this on my personal experience even excluding the taxi work. The big car is main car and the small car gets less use.

Show me the Yaris forums where many many owners are putting on 30,000+ miles per annum and I'll show you more Prius, Passat, Mondeo forums where that's the case. More miles is generally a harsher life.

[Sagitar]

I really don't understand how you come to that conclusion.

By really generalising. Most smaller cars will either be second cars or commuter vehicles. Larger vehicles are more flexible and therefore as well as being second cars and commuter vehicles, they are also much more likely to be work horses such as a taxi or a rep mobile or because they're larger and thus generally more comfortable, they'll be used on longer, harder trips.

As I said I'm generalising but I've based this on my personal experience even excluding the taxi work. The big car is main car and the small car gets less use.

Show me the Yaris forums where many many owners are putting on 30,000+ miles per annum and I'll show you more Prius, Passat, Mondeo forums where that's the case. More miles is generally a harsher life.

Then we will have to agree to disagree because it is certainly not part of my personal experience, nor does it accord with the life and maintenance figures that we produced for our fleet when I was a director of a company with more than 300 reps on the road.

I guess it was your use of the word "hammer" that threw me. The Prius is the lowest powered car that I have driven in many a long year and I feel much more on edge when driving it up a hill at 70 than I ever did in a car with twice the engine power or more.

I have traded big cars at 40,000 miles plus with never a visit to the garage other than for normal servicing and our record on reps cars was such that we traded them much sooner because the maintenance and repair costs started to rise when they got much beyond 25,000.

If it is only mileage that you are talking about then comparing like with like seems reasonable. I would expect a 3.5 litre car with 40,000 miles on the clock to be generally in better shape than a 1.8 litre with the same mileage.

To me, "hammer" implies a mode of driving and is more about the driver than the car. I see all sizes and shapes of car being driven at 70+ on motorways and I would be surprised if the biguns were not less stressed than the littleuns while doing it.

[Cyker]

Yeah, but if it's mostly motorway miles and the engine isn't been thrashed to death it's not so bad; Esp. with diesel engines, if the car has spent its entire life in stop-start traffic then it's going to be pretty buggered!

(Of course, if you mean 30,000 miles of city driving then... ugh... yeeah...)

I rack up a fair amount of miles on my ikle Yaris as a travelling IT tech person; The Yaris has enough space for all my crap and is MUCH easier to park than a larger car.

But as you say, most of the high-milers need more space so bigger cars.

I've always said that a small car makes more sense for a hybrid tho'; Hybrid's will reap the most benefit in town driving, and in town small cars win (Lighter, easier to park, fits through narrow roads better etc.), although the Mk3 is pretty damned fat for a small car (I swear it's not far off an Auris! Still, at least it isn't a Polo...That thing is bigger than a lot of Golfs! )

I do hope Toyota haven't reined in the engine too much tho'; One nice thing about the eCVT is that it is doesn't use crappy friction belts like a normal CVT so it should be able to take the full torque from the electric motor.

The Mk3 is a lot heavier than my Mk1 so it really needs the extra torque to make it fun to drive as opposed to a chore.

I still think it looks really ugly tho'... do people seriously think the front looks good?! It looks like it was designed by a chav-ricer to me!

[cuius]

A positive review:

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road-tests/toyota/toyota-yaris-hybrid/?

[Teemu]

Good review

http://www.girlracer.co.uk/motoring/road-tests/13016-toyota-yaris-hybrid-first-drive.html

[johalareewi]

Honest John says the HSD Yaris has a traditional automatic shift lever instead of the Auris/Prius joystick. The picture looks like it too but how does that work in an HSD?

[timberwolf]

I imagine it is left in position that the owner selects, such that the driver selects D thats where the level will remain, I wouldn't think that they would try to make it spring back to an unselected position like the Prius joystick.

[Seamaster73]

It's another example of Toyota de-weird-ifying the hybrid range (cf the dash layout in the gen 3 Prius versus the gen 2).

They know they'll sell more if they feel less alien to Joe Punter.

[Red diesel]

I really don't understand how you come to that conclusion.

By really generalising. Most smaller cars will either be second cars or commuter vehicles. Larger vehicles are more flexible and therefore as well as being second cars and commuter vehicles, they are also much more likely to be work horses such as a taxi or a rep mobile or because they're larger and thus generally more comfortable, they'll be used on longer, harder trips.

As I said I'm generalising but I've based this on my personal experience even excluding the taxi work. The big car is main car and the small car gets less use.

Show me the Yaris forums where many many owners are putting on 30,000+ miles per annum and I'll show you more Prius, Passat, Mondeo forums where that's the case. More miles is generally a harsher life.

I think that higher miles doesn't necessarly mean a harsher life - the key factor is what sort of driving the high miles was clocked up on. We have just changed 4 x 4s to one thats 9 years newer but has the same (if not a little more) miles on it. But the newer one feels like its just run in - wheras the old one was :censor: from driving around the farm etc.

And if you offered me an ex ambulance service paramedic car thingy with 50,000 miles and the same car even with a sales rep drive with 120,000 miles - id have the 120,000 mile ex rep car thanks.

Taxis get a hard life generally but a lot of high mileage cars get driven on motorways in top gear at 70 odd miles an hour, a nice life for a car tbh

if its well serviced of course

all imo

Red diesel

[timberwolf]

It's another example of Toyota de-weird-ifying the hybrid range (cf the dash layout in the gen 3 Prius versus the gen 2).

They know they'll sell more if they feel less alien to Joe Punter.

How depressing. How many people buying a Hybrid have never driven an automatic before, I reckon the number will be quite high, so why bother making the selector work the same way as a conventional automatic when most people haven't any experience of one?

I think the last Gen 3 revision brought back the display.