Yaris Hybrid Steering Wheel

[Berisford]

Steering wheel, with all the radio/telephone buttons, is yours backlit at night?

I was disappointed to find it apparently (could be faulty?) not illuminated, another little niggle to add to my list of Toyota shortcomings.........

BJ Nottingham.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Not sure if they're illuminated or not, but if something like that is a niggle to be added to a compiled list, then one has to ask the question why you don't just sell the car? If it's causing you that much heartache, then life's too short. Go buy something else.

[korat102]

They should be backlit when the headlights are on, I think. If they're like the Prius, they're quite faint and if you have the brightness for the instruments turned down, you may not see the backlighting at all on the steering wheel.

This was all based on my 2nd gen Prius of course, I've never driven a Yaris so bear in mind that everything I've typed might be complete rubbish :)

[timberwolf]

Sigh, they are not illuminated on the Yaris Hybrid. Please use the search if you do not believe me.

They should be backlit when the headlights are on, I think. If they're like the Prius, they're quite faint and if you have the brightness for the instruments turned down, you may not see the backlighting at all on the steering wheel.

This was all based on my 2nd gen Prius of course, I've never driven a Yaris so bear in mind that everything I've typed might be complete rubbish :)

[korat102]

Sigh, they are not illuminated on the Yaris Hybrid. Please use the search if you do not believe me.

They should be backlit when the headlights are on, I think. If they're like the Prius, they're quite faint and if you have the brightness for the instruments turned down, you may not see the backlighting at all on the steering wheel.

This was all based on my 2nd gen Prius of course, I've never driven a Yaris so bear in mind that everything I've typed might be complete rubbish :)

I believe you. I believe everything you tell me...

As it happened, I did do a search and got conflicting information...just seems strange to not have illuminated controls on a modern vehicle.

Anyway...moving on... :)

[Berisford]

.........ah, thanks for that advice Grumpy Cabbie,........your name will also go on the list!

Seriously though, like Phil mentions above, in a modern vehicle, especially one with such a nice and good looking steering wheel, it's poor..........and as for my list, it's simply a collection of shortcomings / niggles that I've picked up on in the last month. Things that perhaps only the most anally retentive type would notice / look for on a test drive.

Just a few things from my drive yesterday;Trip computer full of crap useless info, why no avg MPG for the current journey?, a goodly amount of little storage spaces/bins but nowhere ideal/suitable for sunglasses or £1 coins, no hook in the boot for hanging a carrier bag, dashboard reflection and the current topic, no illumination on the steering wheel controls.

The Yaris range has a poor reputation in the motoring press generally. I'm convinced they'd (the journalists) would be even more critical if any of 'em actually spent any time in one!

The Yaris is a nice, good looking, competent small motor, but the men from Toyota never actually lived with it before signing it off.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Where Toyota provide illumination to steering wheel controls, they tend to be illuminated when the sidelights/headlights are on, and are actually quite subtly illuminated - the steering wheel doesn't look like you're holding a christmas tree.

From a previous topic on another club, I don't think the steering wheel controls do illuminate on the Yaris Hybrid - http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/151640-auris-hsd-steering-wheel/?hl=%2Bbacklit+%2Bcontrols#entry1290618

[Berisford]

Apologies to all, in my search I missed the topic on the same subject from last year. I'd post the link but I find that 'copy & paste' is not allowed.............

Reading through the original comments, to illuminate or not illuminate, I see, surprise, surprise, the Toyota 'high ground' wins!

Start the car, I'll get my coat...................

[korat102]

Yes, well, some people believe that a car should have one go-louder pedal and precisely one steering wheel and nothing else. Personally, I like my creature comforts...

[timberwolf]

I've no problem with your original complaint Berisford - I think it is justified for the cost of the car - and it is in my opinion a manufacturer/distributor sneaky cost cutting that we don't find out about until after purchase. I do moan about the misinformation that followed your post probably because I can easily recall there being previous threads, and it just causes confusion later.

[FROSTYBALLS]

The topic that was raised last year: http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/148129-yaris-hybrid-steering-wheel-switches/?hl=%20yaris%20%20steering%20%20wheel%20%20controls

[Grumpy Cabbie]

.........ah, thanks for that advice Grumpy Cabbie,........your name will also go on the list!

Seriously though, like Phil mentions above, in a modern vehicle, especially one with such a nice and good looking steering wheel, it's poor..........and as for my list, it's simply a collection of shortcomings / niggles that I've picked up on in the last month. Things that perhaps only the most anally retentive type would notice / look for on a test drive.

Just a few things from my drive yesterday;Trip computer full of crap useless info, why no avg MPG for the current journey?, a goodly amount of little storage spaces/bins but nowhere ideal/suitable for sunglasses or £1 coins, no hook in the boot for hanging a carrier bag, dashboard reflection and the current topic, no illumination on the steering wheel controls.

The Yaris range has a poor reputation in the motoring press generally. I'm convinced they'd (the journalists) would be even more critical if any of 'em actually spent any time in one!

The Yaris is a nice, good looking, competent small motor, but the men from Toyota never actually lived with it before signing it off.

Grumpy by name, grumpy by nature :)

Get a Prius. It appears we get better fuel economy than the Yaris HSD, at least according to the numerous threads.

We also have illuminated steering wheel controls, the touch tracer thing (which is a big useless gimmick), a really cool place to keep your sun glasses and your coins and even your credit card shaped office carpark entry cards.

The Yaris is a ten grand car at which it excels but with the added cost of the hybrid system and you're into big money and higher expectations. I only found out on this forum that you can still buy a Vauxhall Insignia for £16.5k or a Yaris HSD for £15.5. OK you don't get the economy with the Insignia but you do get a lot more car for the money. I fear Toyota charging a premium for their hybrids is raising expectation over and above what people actually get. When you consider the official price for my Prius in 2009 was £18k and an Insignia or Mondeo back then was still about £16k, you can now see how far out of kilter Toyota hybrid prices have become.

The sums back in 2009 were only just viable for me to buy a hybrid. Now they don't make financial sense at all. Nice cars, comfortable cars, easy to drive cars. But one needs to think hard about whether the extra thousands are worth paying.

[FROSTYBALLS]

I disagree that the Yaris gets poor reviews in the motoring press. Yes, depending on what you read it isn't as good as say the VW Polo (a new Polo is due out next year) or the Ford Fiesta, but the current version acquits itself fairly well.

For example

What Car gives the Yaris 3 out of 5 stars - same as the Vauxhall Corsa, Seat Ibiza, Skoda Fabia, Peugeot 208, Fiat Punto, Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20, Kia Rio, MG 3, and better than the Citroen C3, Mazda 2, Nissan Micra and Alfa Romeo Mito.

Parkers rates the Yaris 3.5 stars out of 5.

Honest John rates the Yaris 4 stars out of 5.

Autocar rates the Yaris 4 stars out of 5.

Which? gave the Yaris a Best Buy score of 80% and placed it third in the Best Buys for Superminis behind the Honda Jazz Hybrid (82%), Honda Jazz (815), and ahead of the Audi A1 (78%).

The Yaris Hybrid came fifth in the Best Buys for Superminis with a score of 77%.

Other Best Buys for Superminis which scored lower than the Yaris/Yaris Hybrid were:

Seat Ibiza, Suzuki Swift, 2013 Nissan Note (76%),

Mazda 2, Mini, Skoda Fabia, Suzuki Splash and BMW i3 (75%).

[SK100]

.........ah, thanks for that advice Grumpy Cabbie,........your name will also go on the list!

Seriously though, like Phil mentions above, in a modern vehicle, especially one with such a nice and good looking steering wheel, it's poor..........and as for my list, it's simply a collection of shortcomings / niggles that I've picked up on in the last month. Things that perhaps only the most anally retentive type would notice / look for on a test drive.

Just a few things from my drive yesterday;Trip computer full of crap useless info, why no avg MPG for the current journey?, a goodly amount of little storage spaces/bins but nowhere ideal/suitable for sunglasses or £1 coins, no hook in the boot for hanging a carrier bag, dashboard reflection and the current topic, no illumination on the steering wheel controls.

The Yaris range has a poor reputation in the motoring press generally. I'm convinced they'd (the journalists) would be even more critical if any of 'em actually spent any time in one!

The Yaris is a nice, good looking, competent small motor, but the men from Toyota never actually lived with it before signing it off.

Grumpy by name, grumpy by nature :)

Get a Prius. It appears we get better fuel economy than the Yaris HSD, at least according to the numerous threads.

We also have illuminated steering wheel controls, the touch tracer thing (which is a big useless gimmick), a really cool place to keep your sun glasses and your coins and even your credit card shaped office carpark entry cards.

The Yaris is a ten grand car at which it excels but with the added cost of the hybrid system and you're into big money and higher expectations. I only found out on this forum that you can still buy a Vauxhall Insignia for £16.5k or a Yaris HSD for £15.5. OK you don't get the economy with the Insignia but you do get a lot more car for the money. I fear Toyota charging a premium for their hybrids is raising expectation over and above what people actually get. When you consider the official price for my Prius in 2009 was £18k and an Insignia or Mondeo back then was still about £16k, you can now see how far out of kilter Toyota hybrid prices have become.

The sums back in 2009 were only just viable for me to buy a hybrid. Now they don't make financial sense at all. Nice cars, comfortable cars, easy to drive cars. But one needs to think hard about whether the extra thousands are worth paying.

I guess it's all a matter of personal choice. I've got a Yaris Hybrid and I wouldn't swap it for a Prius as I much prefer smaller cars. And something like the Insignia is just huge. Whilst I agree that it would be nice for the Yaris steering controls to be illuminated, you do get a lot of equipment including cruise control, blue-tooth audio/phone, dual zone climate control, etc. Re the OP's comment about the trip computer, there is the facility to get average MPG for the current journey (it's available via the touch-screen display if you press "Update" at the start of a journey), but it is slightly annoying that you can't have both current journey MPG and continuous MPG for averages over multiple journeys at the same time - it's one or the other. As for the price of the Yaris Hybrid, it's pretty much the same as you would pay for a Fiesta that gets a similar level of fuel economy. The difference being that the Fiesta would need to be a diesel manual in order to get anywhere near the same MPG figures (cheapest Fiesta 1.6 diesel starts at around £14,800, cheapest Yaris Hybrid starts at £15,600).

[FROSTYBALLS]

Other considerations could be garage space - width rather than length, with sufficient space not to have to live in the car once garaged (ie to be able to get out).

I can get my Auris into the garage width-wise with an inch to spare between the mirror and the garage door post on either side, open the driver's door and get out.

Previously we've had cars like a Mazda Premacy and Nissan Primeras in our garages, but now, car width is one of the deciding factors for us. Cars like the Insignia, Avensis or Mondeo just wouldn't fit.

[SK100]

I disagree that the Yaris gets poor reviews in the motoring press. Yes, depending on what you read it isn't as good as say the VW Polo (a new Polo is due out next year) or the Ford Fiesta, but the current version acquits itself fairly well.

For example

What Car gives the Yaris 3 out of 5 stars - same as the Vauxhall Corsa, Seat Ibiza, Skoda Fabia, Peugeot 208, Fiat Punto, Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20, Kia Rio, MG 3, and better than the Citroen C3, Mazda 2, Nissan Micra and Alfa Romeo Mito.

Parkers rates the Yaris 3.5 stars out of 5.

Honest John rates the Yaris 4 stars out of 5.

Autocar rates the Yaris 4 stars out of 5.

Which? gave the Yaris a Best Buy score of 80% and placed it third in the Best Buys for Superminis behind the Honda Jazz Hybrid (82%), Honda Jazz (815), and ahead of the Audi A1 (78%).

The Yaris Hybrid came fifth in the Best Buys for Superminis with a score of 77%.

Other Best Buys for Superminis which scored lower than the Yaris/Yaris Hybrid were:

Seat Ibiza, Suzuki Swift, 2013 Nissan Note (76%),

Mazda 2, Mini, Skoda Fabia, Suzuki Splash and BMW i3 (75%).

Also, don't necessarily believe what you read in the motoring press! Before I bought my Yaris Hybrid earlier this year, I read reviews in Autocar, Auto Express, and Car Magazine amongst others. Most of them were quite negative - in particular, pretty much all the reviews went on about how noisy the e-CVT is when accelerating, and how poor the fuel economy is. It's just not the case - I have never owned a quieter or more fuel economical car than the Yaris, and I can only conclude that writers from the main car mags only know how to drive cars with throttle pedal to the floor, rather than driving each car as it was intended to be used. There also seems to be a pretty strong bias towards VW Group cars in all of the main car mags. Only Honest John seemed to rate the Yaris hybrid highly.