My Yaris

[Henry G]

Hi everyone, I’m new here. I am very interested in the history and origin of my car but I don’t know where to start.
Im only 18, and saved my pennies and after looking at several boring and common first cars, I decided I really like Toyota Yaris’. So I dove deep and found one I really liked.

i bought it and insurance etc, but now I absolutely love it and want to know more. It’s a 2008 red Toyota Yaris 1.8 5dr. 

I’m from what I’ve read it is a fairly rare car. And parts aren’t abundant either, because when my back box exhaust fell off it was nearly £300 for the fix!

Anyhow, is there anyone that knows anything?

Thanks

[FROSTYBALLS]

Hello Henry -welcome to Toyota Owners Club.

The following is Toyota's media release when the 1.8 SR was launched:

https://media.toyota.co.uk/sporting-and-refined-the-new-toyota-yaris-sr/

[Bernard Foy]

Welcome to the TOC Henry, it’s a rather unusual and sporty choice for a first car. Great information by Frosty👏👏.

[Cyker]

Oooh that is rare - Not seen many 1.8 SR's in the wild! (Lots of 1.3's but less so the 1.8's!)

What's it drive like? There used to be a bit of rivalry between the Mk1 T-Sport people and the 1.8SR over who had the faster car  The T-Sport had better acceleration (Hard to beat lightness!) but the SR I think had the higher top speed.

 

[Henry G]

3 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Hello Henry -welcome to Toyota Owners Club.

The following is Toyota's media release when the 1.8 SR was launched:

https://media.toyota.co.uk/sporting-and-refined-the-new-toyota-yaris-sr/

Thanks, didn’t know I had a knee air bag ahah

[Henry G]

3 hours ago, Bernard Foy said:

Welcome to the TOC Henry, it’s a rather unusual and sporty choice for a first car. Great information by Frosty👏👏.

Yeah well my dad didn’t want me having anything below 1.6L engine. He showed me this by taking me out to look at cars, we test drove a 1.0L corsa, and he proved that it is just too much effort and you have to work the gears lots and all that stuff. He also wanted me to be able to get out into smaller spaces in traffic, as he believes it’s dangerous to have a slow car when pulling onto a main road etc. but thanks, I love my little car, it do pay the price tho, my insurance is £700 more than any of my friends 😞

[Henry G]

30 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Oooh that is rare - Not seen many 1.8 SR's in the wild! (Lots of 1.3's but less so the 1.8's!)

What's it drive like? There used to be a bit of rivalry between the Mk1 T-Sport people and the 1.8SR over who had the faster car  The T-Sport had better acceleration (Hard to beat lightness!) but the SR I think had the higher top speed.

 

Oh it’s brilliant, and yeah it is quite rare to my understanding, after some internet digging (not 100% sure on websites legitimacy) I came across a number saying there are less than 900 1.8L 5dr left in the UK. 
I checked out that information frosty sent. And I think 9.3s 0-62 is quite the understatement. Before my black box was fitted I felt like a superhero. I definitely did it in less than 8 seconds  I’m sure. Plus for a 5 speed gear box, it doesn’t get that noisy at 70mph+ 😉 if you know what I mean. But I am yet to come across another T-Sport who’s up for a traffic lights race. Although I did leave a late 2000s focus ST (I think) in the dust when we were queued up at some lights 

[Cyker]

Well it should do you well - Fun and practical! Of all the Yaris models it has the most interior space for rear passengers and those sliding rear seats are awesome; Really miss them in the Mk4 I have now!

Just keep your licence clean and the insurance should come down when you rack up some no-claims bonus!

And definitely hunt around for insurance - £700 *more* than your friends AND you have to fit a black box?? There must be better deals than that out there... when looking for my brother's first car we were comparing  my Mk1 Yaris diesel (Which I sold to him) and a Mk7 Celica 1.8 and they were both had insurance quotes of ~£1000 for him!  

That was a long time ago tho' and IIRC we were in our mid-20's at that point...!

[Henry G]

28 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Well it should do you well - Fun and practical! Of all the Yaris models it has the most interior space for rear passengers and those sliding rear seats are awesome; Really miss them in the Mk4 I have now!

Just keep your licence clean and the insurance should come down when you rack up some no-claims bonus!

And definitely hunt around for insurance - £700 *more* than your friends AND you have to fit a black box?? There must be better deals than that out there... when looking for my brother's first car we were comparing  my Mk1 Yaris diesel (Which I sold to him) and a Mk7 Celica 1.8 and they were both had insurance quotes of ~£1000 for him!  

That was a long time ago tho' and IIRC we were in our mid-20's at that point...!

Yeah I was annoyed when my mates were getting insured for like half the price of mine. But then I found out why, bunch of them lied about things here and there, no voluntary excess and stuff. I have all the add-ons, premiums, £500 voluntary excess and 8k miles on the quote. Which is why it’s so expensive, but my next years quote is half of what it is now, with no black box. Plus I’m rewarded for good driving, so it’s mainly a survival tac tic for getting my second years of insurance as cheap as possible 

[Cyker]

Good man; Never worth falsifying things - If they get caught out they'll be paying a lot more in event of an accident!!

Top tip: If your mum and/or grandma has a clean licence put them on as named drivers - Often knocks a good chunk off in my experience, but only if they have clean licences and no recorded insurance claims.

Don't put your dad on tho', that seems to just make it go up  

[Big_D]

Welcome Henry. Sounds like you got a good one there

[Henry G]

2 hours ago, Cyker said:

Good man; Never worth falsifying things - If they get caught out they'll be paying a lot more in event of an accident!!

Top tip: If your mum and/or grandma has a clean licence put them on as named drivers - Often knocks a good chunk off in my experience, but only if they have clean licences and no recorded insurance claims.

Don't put your dad on tho', that seems to just make it go up  

Hahah, yeah my mum is a named driver, 51 with a clean license. Well that’s what she tells me at least… as far as I know it’s clean let’s put it that way 😂😂. Yeah my dad isn’t going anywhere near it, his first car was a bright orange Valiant Charger (!Removed! hoonigan grew up in Nzl)

well my insurance is set and paid, so I guess it’s just a waiting game until my renewal date comes around

[Bernard Foy]

1 hour ago, Henry G said:

Hahah, yeah my mum is a named driver, 51 with a clean license. Well that’s what she tells me at least… as far as I know it’s clean let’s put it that way 😂😂. Yeah my dad isn’t going anywhere near it, his first car was a bright orange Valiant Charger (!Removed! hoonigan grew up in Nzl)

well my insurance is set and paid, so I guess it’s just a waiting game until my renewal date comes around

It’ll come soon enough Henry, no need to wait 🤫👍

[RUToyota]

Welcome Henry...nice find.!

[davidif]

19 hours ago, Henry G said:

Hi everyone, I’m new here. I am very interested in the history and origin of my car but I don’t know where to start.
Im only 18, and saved my pennies and after looking at several boring and common first cars, I decided I really like Toyota Yaris’. So I dove deep and found one I really liked.

i bought it and insurance etc, but now I absolutely love it and want to know more. It’s a 2008 red Toyota Yaris 1.8 5dr. 

I’m from what I’ve read it is a fairly rare car. And parts aren’t abundant either, because when my back box exhaust fell off it was nearly £300 for the fix!

Anyhow, is there anyone that knows anything?

Thanks

What a splendid first car!

[Bernard Foy]

13 minutes ago, davidif said:

What a splendid first car!

I reckon Henry has been saving more than his pennies for to be able to afford an admirable first car like that one he has 🤣😂👍

[Cyker]

I think most of the pennies went on the insurance!!!  

You can pick up some really nice performance cars for not a lot of money, but if you've got no NCB and are younger than 24 the insurance quotes are bowel clenching!

Had an apprentice join us some years ago - had just passed his test and bought a Ford Focus. We were just comparing insurance quotes in the office when he came in, and we asked him how much his was as we figured it would be astronomical "Yeah it's quite high, £700" he said - I thought that was surprisingly good as mine was 600 a year at the time. Turns out he meant a month   For a Ford Focus!!! Not even an ST or anything!!

 

[Henry G]

33 minutes ago, Cyker said:

I think most of the pennies went on the insurance!!!  

You can pick up some really nice performance cars for not a lot of money, but if you've got no NCB and are younger than 24 the insurance quotes are bowel clenching!

Had an apprentice join us some years ago - had just passed his test and bought a Ford Focus. We were just comparing insurance quotes in the office when he came in, and we asked him how much his was as we figured it would be astronomical "Yeah it's quite high, £700" he said - I thought that was surprisingly good as mine was 600 a year at the time. Turns out he meant a month   For a Ford Focus!!! Not even an ST or anything!!

 

£700 a month!!! Nah that can’t be true. Mines only 1.9k a year

[Bernard Foy]

1 hour ago, Henry G said:

£700 a month!!! Nah that can’t be true. Mines only 1.9k a year

Well Henry, if you want to have fun, you gotta pay the mon.🤣😂👏

[Cyker]

If I remember right the main things counting against him were that it was turbo-charged and he was 17 and I don't think black-boxes were a thing (Or if they were he refused to insure with one). Apparently this is not a good combination of things when looking for car insurance!  

That generation of Fords tend to be higher to insure than Toyotas anyway as, apparently, they're fantastically easy to steal  

[FROSTYBALLS]

Moved to the Yaris club.

[Hybrid21]

One of the few things that become better as you get older is car insurance cost 😃

Iain