Yaris Cross Dynamic range

[anchorman]

2 minutes ago, SinglePointSafety said:

And, really, I'm genuinely trying to be helpful - not necessarily for yourself anchorman, BobHos etc if you're experienced drivers and well-versed in car tech, but for others who might read these posts and who might be new to this and the related issues

How do you know he isn’t more knowledgeable than you?   He’s got experience of AWDs and in bad weather but despite his response to your first warning you’ve gone on with two more.  There’s already enough opposition to the AWD version from nothing more than supposition and conjecture following zero friction roller tests conducted by a Suzuki dealer.  The sheep assume that Toyota haven’t a clue what they’re doing and just follow.  When you try you’re best to warn potential owners that they might not be impressed, you do me too and I don’t need it thank you, I know exactly what I’m doing and under no illusion what so ever.  I leave the hills of Derbyshire at all times of night and often in blizzard conditions when it’s raining in Manchester 25 miles away.  Then it turns out that you’ve got one ordered and you allegedly never see snow but will fit winter tyres.  In reality then, you don’t have a clue how the car will behave in real winter conditions, you’ve only got an opinion.  The south east has just had a dollop of snow and there’s nothing to stop you getting one and then, providing you don’t treat it like a Chelsea tractor and hide from the snow, you can share your experience rather than your feeling.   If it turns out to be disappointing, fair enough.  I’ve had two hybrid AWDs with bigger rear motors but the same ratio of front to rear power and they were virtually unstoppable in deep snow so I’m expecting the same.  If I’m wrong I’ll let everyone know how right they were based on experience not conjecture.  

[SinglePointSafety]

Baytree, should have added.... I did the 'smaller wheel size all-season tyres' swap on a previous car, which also had AWD, for when I go to snowy places in mainland Europe. When I did the swap, I was so impressed with the road noise reduction and improved ride (65-section v 50-section) that I decided to store the original wheels/tyres and keep the all-seasons all year round. When I sold the car, re-fitted original wheels/tyres, sold the 3rd-party wheels with all-season tyres to someone who lives in.... northern Scotland, and recouped a fair bit of my outlay

Ordered the AWD option on the Excel because I'd read that, apart from the AWD traction benefits, the change in suspension type improves the ride. And the price difference isn't huge anyway. The car will also be driven short distances off-road, on surfaces with variable coefficients of friction, and judging by some of the vids I've seen, it looks to be more than capable of what I will ask of it (fingers crossed!). Based on those vids, not surprised that used YCs with AWD command very good prices

[BobHos]

Gentlemen it's Xmas. I didn't mean to stir up this debate.

Anyway final thought or piece of advice/warning.

Before I had scoobeydoos I used to have a job where I drove Landrovers ( 19'60's and 1970's). Used to frequently work at extremely remote places like up hills (mountains even) and felt the landrover permanent wheel drive with huge chunky tires could take me anywhere. generally they did even up sand dunes and along the seashore, etc. Unfortunately I became complacent and, one day, leaving a high up radio station about 2am I tried to turn a bend doing about 10 mph or less on a frosty morning I shot straight off the road and landed several metres down in a field. After that I realised the limitation of "winter" chunky tires which are good for getting a grip in snow, etc but only of limited capability on slidey surfaces. Don't know if winter tyres have superior qualities now wrt friction/adhesion on ice but they certainly have less contact area than on-winter tyres.

Beware.

 

Anyway I wish you all a Merry Xmas and happy trouble free motoring.

p.s. can't wait to get the new awd cross and explore its benefits and limitations. I know it won't replace my scoobys but it will be fun for me to play with and it will, I am sure, be safer for my wife. (we are both 80 in a month or two).

[anchorman]

1 hour ago, BobHos said:

Gentlemen it's Xmas. I didn't mean to stir up this debate.

Anyway final thought or piece of advice/warning.

Before I had scoobeydoos I used to have a job where I drove Landrovers ( 19'60's and 1970's). Used to frequently work at extremely remote places like up hills (mountains even) and felt the landrover permanent wheel drive with huge chunky tires could take me anywhere. generally they did even up sand dunes and along the seashore, etc. Unfortunately I became complacent and, one day, leaving a high up radio station about 2am I tried to turn a bend doing about 10 mph or less on a frosty morning I shot straight off the road and landed several metres down in a field. After that I realised the limitation of "winter" chunky tires which are good for getting a grip in snow, etc but only of limited capability on slidey surfaces. Don't know if winter tyres have superior qualities now wrt friction/adhesion on ice but they certainly have less contact area than on-winter tyres.

Beware.

 

Anyway I wish you all a Merry Xmas and happy trouble free motoring.

p.s. can't wait to get the new awd cross and explore its benefits and limitations. I know it won't replace my scoobys but it will be fun for me to play with and it will, I am sure, be safer for my wife. (we are both 80 in a month or two).

Somebody older than me!   That’s a new one.  
 

There’s always a similar reaction when someone mentions Cross AWDs.  All experts and not a one ever been near one let alone experienced enough in the AWD capabilities to make an objective assessment.   They’re alright though.   I can tell stories of LRs myself but none of them happy.  I was watching an episode of jack Ryan earlier and they were looking for a bad guy in a Series III.  Obviously dead easy.  He’ll be lay under it at the side of the road, just follow the trail of oil!   

[BobHos]

26 minutes ago, anchorman said:

Somebody older than me!   That’s a new one.  
 

There’s always a similar reaction when someone mentions Cross AWDs.  All experts and not a one ever been near one let alone experienced enough in the AWD capabilities to make an objective assessment.   They’re alright though.   I can tell stories of LRs myself but none of them happy.  I was watching an episode of Jack Ryan earlier and they were looking for a bad guy in a Series III.  Obviously dead easy.  He’ll be lay under it at the side of the road, just follow the trail of oil!   

Sorry guys didn't really want to be posting anymore. Too much Xmas pud. wine and couple of nice drams.

Last post I said "on" -winter tyres when I should have said "none"-winter tyres.

 

Anyway, totally irrelevant, but just wanted to tell you about 38 years ago I got my first scooby - a special edition "celebre". It was a flying machine and such a joy to drive. Wife stopped accompanying me when I couldn't drive less than 90mph or more. Anyway one day I was driving down a one way country road and hit an almost ninety degree right hand bend that I should never have got round. The scooby just purred round the bend and I have rarely experienced anything like that. Since then I have been hooked on scooby's. They certainly have had it right with low C of G boxer engine and really smart awd. I miss my scoobey's but at my time of life I need to play around with more "docile beasts" like, hopefully, the Yaris Cross AWD.

Goodnight and atb Bob

[SinglePointSafety]

My neighbour has a Jolly Green Giant LWB Landie, complete with chunky M+S tyres, which he's re-built himself (an ongoing pastime it seems). He's pretty proud of his off-road skills and says his 'Traction Control System' is his skill and anticipation when engaging the various 4WD features, such as the diff locks. We were discussing full-up BEVs and their TCSs, which have to be pretty fast-acting and sophisticated to handle the instant power/torque (easier to control for a car with electric motors) especially needed with the dual-motor AWD variants. Which got us talking about the Yaris AWD....

Yes, the Yaris AWD 'fails' the roller test, I'd guess because of the rear motor's limited power. But in more real-life conditions, my neighbour reckons the sophisticated TCS might well perform beyond expectations. Another bonus is that the software which controls the AWD is - in principal - upgradeable, although I have no idea if Toyota have included that capability

And BobHoss, my neighbour is also a huge Subaru fan! 

[IT Troll]

For a long time, AWD was only available on the Dynamic, but it is now available on other models.

As Baytree said, most options are available on both, but there are a couple of exclusives. Heated steering and powered boot are exclusive to the Excel. The Dynamic gets the bi-tone paint finishes and front & rear under-run trim.

The seat fabric and standard wheels are also different between to two models.

The parking sensors are the biggest thing missing from the Dynamic  model; but these can be added through the Advanced Safety Pack. In addition to proximity sensing this also adds automatic braking, blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic detection.

[Bob66]

42 minutes ago, IT Troll said:

For a long time, AWD was only available on the Dynamic, but it is now available on other models.

As Baytree said, most options are available on both, but there are a couple of exclusives. Heated steering and powered boot are exclusive to the Excel. The Dynamic gets the bi-tone paint finishes and front & rear under-run trim.

The seat fabric and standard wheels are also different between to two models.

The parking sensors are the biggest thing missing from the Dynamic  model; but these can be added through the Advanced Safety Pack. In addition to proximity sensing this also adds automatic braking, blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic detection.

I'm almost sure the AWD is only available on the Excel grade now.

The Dynamic grade has been deleted.

[SinglePointSafety]

Toyota configurator does indeed only show AWD on the Excel grade - but in the past the configurator has lagged reality: we ordered our AWD Excel when it was only available on the dealer's system, no AWD appeared on the configurator at that time

[IT Troll]

Ah, fair enough. I assumed the more expensive GR Sport would also have it as an option as it has kind of replaced the Dynamic.

[SinglePointSafety]

On 12/26/2022 at 11:14 PM, IT Troll said:

I assumed the more expensive GR Sport would also have it as an option as it has kind of replaced the Dynamic

A reasonable assumption: in Australia, AWD is available on every trim level - except, strangely, GR Sport (at the moment). It's possible that your dealer might know if GRS AWD is planned for the UK market

[anchorman]

There are some changes to the suspension and damping.  That would need to be developed into the multi link rear suspension so there’s development work involved.