Almost a week with my new Yaris Cross

[Xerapin]

Hello!

I had my Toyota Yaris Cross delivered on Wednesday 12th July, I ordered the end of March so I was quite happy with that turn-around. I've already put 800 miles on it travelling up and down the country and I have to say its an excellent roamer but bang average on the motorway. Noisy, as I'd been warned so that didn't come as a surprise but it was quieter than my Hyundai i30 Diesel, marginally. I'm averaging around 60 MPG with most of that motorway driving so the hybrid engine has been on around 25% of the time. Took no time at all to get the hang of the automatic, the manual, well, I gave it a go at reading it but most of it was figuring it out as I went.

Most WTF Moment: filling it up for the first time and topping off the tank for £38, my last car would be close to £90 ..
Most Frustrating Moment: Wrangling with the Lane Assist and being screached at to 'BRAKE' because I dared be let through a blocked lane from opposing traffic xD
Most Fun: Driving around the Peak District, smooth, easy to cruise, super simple to gauge its size, and because of its build it had no issues and really enjoyed it.
Most Disappointing: The SUV Pack / plastic lining is just some cheap plasti-form stuff barely stuck on, not worth the sticker price, especially given I didn't get my mud guards (They did knock the price down for that) - the side guards/rail/step is a nice addition though, it finishes the car off nicely.

One thing I have noticed that I've never noticed before, is there are certain drivers (Cough, Audi and the Like) who really don't like being behind me. In my Hyundai i30 Diesel they'd cruise behind me, in the Yaris Cross they just HAVE to get past me, whether thats motorway, country lane, or most recently small village road. Is it the hybrid Badge or something?! I'm fairly confident I'm not driving any different, the HP are about the same (110 vs 116), I use my cruise/limiter extensively to make sure I don't need to speed. But I did that in my last car too so that's no different.

 

[CruxisCore]

Could it be that Hyundai speedo was less off or something, so you actually drove faster with that?

I didnt realize the Aygo X was lying so much, so I just set the ACC to 80 km/h (on an 80 km/h zone) and had everyone passing me. Found out i was infact only driving 75 km/h 😄 Pretty sure my older Volvo lied much less about that.

The lane assists etc take a while to get used to, but then there are just some roads where it may not work that well at all. I mostly appreciate it on my Aygo X, but if I take a certain road home (narrow road with cars parked both sides) it will always do that BRAKE screeching if I drive normally. But even then I still appreciate that feature too, since it's not one or two sundresses that have distracted me enough that momentarily I wasnt looking forward and then the car in front of me suddenly brakes. Wouldnt have been a collision either way, but one day it just might be 😄 

The fuel tanks on these are weirdly small, but it makes sense to reduce weight and cos of the hybrid system, should probably still get like 700-800 km out of it?

[Xerapin]

7 minutes ago, CruxisCore said:

Could it be that Hyundai speedo was less off or something, so you actually drove faster with that?

I read off the satnav and compare it to the speedo, theres about a 7-8% variance, so at 70mph speedo im doing closer to 66mph, at 80mph, 75mph, this was exactly the same as my hyundai so I don't think its that. I even had the same this morning on the slip road onto the M1, they over took me on a 2->1 slip road as it merged to a single road just so he could get in front of me, there was a queue so he didn't gain anything from it. The dashcams can't come quick enough...

 

9 minutes ago, CruxisCore said:

it will always do that BRAKE screeching if I drive normally. But even then I still appreciate that feature too

Hehe, yes! I have pondered turning it off, same with the LTA/STA but I've found the settings to reduce the sensitivity on it so its much more pallatable now and while I don't make a habit of looking away having that extra feature is certainly going to come in handy no doubt.

 

10 minutes ago, CruxisCore said:

should probably still get like 700-800 km out of it?

Sorry, I speak in Miles not KM, my Hyundai i30 would get 550miles, the Yaris X dashboard claims 400 miles but I don't think that takes into account the hybrid engine? As thats on between 25-40% of the time that range can be extended to match the Hyundai even without driving overly economically, so I am very happy with that!

[TonyHSD]

Thanks for sharing your experience, an interesting read indeed 👍

For the drivers behind its not the hybrid Badge but how smooth and linear these cars drives because of their unique power train. It is so easy is to maintain constant speed with them while with standard cars it requires skills. 
This is the major difference and the reason why other drivers can’t follow up. You can notice with time the electric cars are just fine and those drivers follow up without getting mad at you. Only perhaps some Tesla drivers who now are replacing the typical bmw style behaviour but these are unstoppable anyway. 
Another example on a motorway after speed restriction end me and the car next to me in the other lane both accelerating to gain higher speed and the difference is obvious , the other car pulls away with a lot of noise and shift shocks from revving the engine and changing gears while my car keep rpm at constant pace and speed goes up more linear after both of us reach the same cruising speed he is only a car ahead of me, so pretty much not a major difference, perhaps 1 second faster but at the cost of more fuel burned, noise and pollution. Hybrid wins imo. I just relax and enjoy smooth and peaceful ride. 👌

[Yugguy1970]

To a lot of uneducated drivers "hybrid" still means "slow".  

[Xerapin]

41 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

You can notice with time the electric cars are just fine and those drivers follow up without getting mad at you.

OOh, I hadn't thought about this, especially with it being an automatic, cruising to a stop and go again is actually a pleasure without having to faff with the clutch and the gearbox too. I still can't get my head around the lack of the gear change lunge either, I Experienced that this morning. Coming off a roundabout to a slip road on the inside lane and cruised 0-40 smoothlyh and the car next to me went through 2 gears and bounced back/forth each time while I just smoothly went into the first lane so maybe that is part of it after all, good shout hah.

[CruxisCore]

I think having adaptive cruise does a lot. I'm much more contempt driving behind someone a little slower when the car makes it smooth for me. In my old Volvo when I had cruise set at something, I would rather overtake than drop the cruise speed myself or have to see effort to watch the distance. That might be part of it, since most of those german fancy brands dont give out adaptive cruise like free candy, unlike the japanese

[Primus1]

I was going to post a review of mine but you beat me to it 😁, anyhoo, what I’ve found so far I like, a lot, I was initially worried about the noise, especially as my wife’s aunt and uncle test drove one and said as much, but they’re used to Mercedes and Land Rover, with conventional auto gearboxes and four cylinder engines, I don’t think it’s too bad I’m getting used to it, but I’ve already changed my driving style although I don’t hoon about anyway, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a manual car , I like the smoothness of the hybrid it’s soooo much easier in traffic, there’s a few things I’m trying to get to grips with ( another thread coming) , I’m quite surprised by the radio, coming from a B&O equipped car I wasn’t expecting much but it’s not too bad, ( not that I’m down wiv da kids with my bangin sounds) , the horn though, wtf, I won’t be blasting anyone that cuts me up or pulls out on me, it’s a bit like mr humphreys…” I’m free””, when you use it, not that a good driver should need to., 

[Cyker]

I must say I've become a lot more tolerant of slow cars in mine too - I think it's because the engine turns off and it feels like you're driving for free   It's like a win-win situation all the time in the car!!  

 

2 hours ago, Yugguy1970 said:

To a lot of uneducated drivers "hybrid" still means "slow".  

I'm doing my best to educate other drivers about this  

The car isn't fast, but it's quick - There ain't many who can beat it off the line!! And it's so satisfying when someone's tailgating you in a slow part, then it changes to NSL and you just leave them behind because you can access 90% of the car's power immediately while they have to wait for their engines to wind up  

 

re. noise at speed, I find the engine generates very little noise at any speed - Even at 70mph, it'll hold 2000rpm when cruising which is lower than even my old diesel Mk1!

Where it gets raucous is under (heavy) acceleration - I've had to retrain myself to not drive like a manual driver, where you pick a gear then plant it and wait for the engine to wind up, but instead just push the accelerator as much as I want to accelerate.

It takes a LOT of getting used to, as the instant full torque and power is very addictive, but I'm slowly learning to accelerate like a normal car by modulating the accelerator, and the car is much quieter - The 3-pot only really gets obnoxiously loud if you push it past 3000rpm, but dipping 1-2 blocks into the 'Power' bit of the power bar is enough to accelerate fairly briskly without it getting too noisy.

I save pushing all 5 blocks for when I'm overtaking or when I'm on a hoon     But the car can get quite thirsty when you're getting up to that 6000rpm line!   

[Roy124]

Sunday I was following a car but didn't like his driving style dictating what I could do.  He was a couple of mph slower and braking anticipation all wrong.

Straight road appeared,  floored the pedal and released as I reached 60 as I passed him.  The engine was running for seconds only until the EV took over and I settled to +2mph over his.  The rest of the queue followed him.

 

[Yugguy1970]

The Yaris is proper nippy off the line because of the instant electric application and torque.  Next year's with the increased output should be even better,

All the hybrids are noisy on full acceleration but tbh this helps avoid the pointless acceleration which I'd already been conscious of now we have hybrids.

That said, if you do need them to go, they go and quite nicely.

[TonyHSD]

I don’t know if “hybrid means slow”, perhaps yes for many , but I know that small means fast 👌
Quite few of the Toyota cars that fly around and overtake me with a marginal speed difference are Aygo’s and Yarises including X’s of both 🏁🏎
Joke on the side now I can point another reason why some  drivers with standard cars will dislike staying behind you and follow your lead. 
The reason is regenerative braking. 
When you drive normally and you anticipate the road ahead living a good distance to the front vehicle you won’t use the actual brakes at all until the very last moment, it’s kind of like one pedal drive on bev.
However the following car behind and inpatient driver in who is just about few inches behind will get easily ****** off quickly and blame you for your brake lights not working, you may get even a beeps too. They simply can’t control their cars because their cars drives differently and to follow you correctly require patience, skills and to maintain safe distance, they fail on all 3 factors and prefer to overtake at any price. 

[Xerapin]

4 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

The reason is regenerative braking. 

And here was I wondering if it's because I got a *red* car and it just elicited rage lmao, that's another plausible explanation though. I haven't driven around at night on it so I haven't noticed how much the brakes do go on with the regenerative breaking yet. I Definitely feel it pull more as it slows a you say, you don't get the 'glide' you would if you dropped the clutch on an ICE but that was to be expected.

 

21 hours ago, Cyker said:

The car isn't fast, but it's quick - There ain't many who can beat it off the line!!

This is the fun part though. People who do see hybrid and assume slow you can zip round. Once you accept the grumble at high revs that is xD

 

21 hours ago, Primus1 said:

the horn though, wtf, I won’t be blasting anyone that cuts me up or pulls out on me

omg my hyundai had a pathetic horn, more like a squeak, i've not tried this one yet.. now im not sure I want too lmao.

[Primus1]

2 hours ago, Xerapin said:

And here was I wondering if it's because I got a *red* car and it just elicited rage lmao, that's another plausible explanation though. I haven't driven around at night on it so I haven't noticed how much the brakes do go on with the regenerative breaking yet. I Definitely feel it pull more as it slows a you say, you don't get the 'glide' you would if you dropped the clutch on an ICE but that was to be expected.

 

This is the fun part though. People who do see hybrid and assume slow you can zip round. Once you accept the grumble at high revs that is xD

 

omg my hyundai had a pathetic horn, more like a squeak, i've not tried this one yet.. now im not sure I want too lmao.

Try it somewhere away from civilisation…😀

[Roy124]

2 hours ago, Primus1 said:

haven't driven around at night on it so I haven't noticed how much the brakes do go on with the regenerative breaking yet

They don't.  It is exactly as if you lift off in an ICE.  The ICE engine slows down and the car brakes without the use of a foot  brake.

[Cyker]

Yeah, the only cars that trigger the brake lights when you lift off are EVs with 1-pedal driving turned on.

The off-accelerator regen in the hybrids is very well judged and is very similar to 4th/3rd gear engine braking in a manual car - It slows the car but not excessively or dangerously quickly.

It made the transition very comfortable for me, as I didn't need to change my coasting strategy from my previous manual cars because it was so similar.

My friend's Auris hybrid feels very different - It feels like it has much less default engine braking/regen and will coast much further than my Yaris if you lift-off from the accelerator!

 

[anchorman]

On 7/18/2023 at 6:10 PM, Primus1 said:

I was going to post a review of mine but you beat me to it 😁, anyhoo, what I’ve found so far I like, a lot, I was initially worried about the noise, especially as my wife’s aunt and uncle test drove one and said as much, but they’re used to Mercedes and Land Rover, with conventional auto gearboxes and four cylinder engines, I don’t think it’s too bad I’m getting used to it, but I’ve already changed my driving style although I don’t hoon about anyway, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a manual car , I like the smoothness of the hybrid it’s soooo much easier in traffic, there’s a few things I’m trying to get to grips with ( another thread coming) , I’m quite surprised by the radio, coming from a B&O equipped car I wasn’t expecting much but it’s not too bad, ( not that I’m down wiv da kids with my bangin sounds) , the horn though, wtf, I won’t be blasting anyone that cuts me up or pulls out on me, it’s a bit like mr humphreys…” I’m free””, when you use it, not that a good driver should need to., 

The front bumper needs to come off but it’s easy and you can fit a decent pair of horns.

[Primus1]

Maybe a future project, but I’m not pulling a four day old car apart 😄

[Hybrid21]

Can't remember the last time I used my horn 🙂

[anchorman]

2 hours ago, Primus1 said:

Maybe a future project, but I’m not pulling a four day old car apart 😄

That old!  I had mine apart the day it got home 😉.  
 

1 hour ago, Hybrid21 said:

Can't remember the last time I used my horn 🙂

I drive into central Manchester for my job.  It is isn’t used on the offence, it’s used in defence and it’s saved me on a number of times. 

[CruxisCore]

3 minutes ago, anchorman said:

That old!  I had mine apart the day it got home 😉.  
 

I drive into central Manchester for my job.  It is isn’t used on the offence, it’s used in defence and it’s saved me on a number of times. 

I've usually had the principle that I'm not gonna live/work anywhere where I have to pay for parking. But reading this, I think I will extend it with "or anywhere where I have to regularly use the horn" 😄

 

[anchorman]

1 minute ago, CruxisCore said:

I've usually had the principle that I'm not gonna live/work anywhere where I have to pay for parking. But reading this, I think I will extend it with "or anywhere where I have to regularly use the horn" 😄

 

Honestly, there are no rules down there.  They turn left out of the right lane and right out of the left without warning.  Luckily, they don’t know the rules for bus lanes and out of hours I usually get them to myself.  You’d think it was mined the way they avoid them 🤪

[Xerapin]

I think I've used it twice in 10 years of driving, and both of those were around Bradford.. I did accidently press it this morning though, its got such an adorable 'peep' ahaha.

[anchorman]

3 minutes ago, Xerapin said:

I think I've used it twice in 10 years of driving, and both of those were around Bradford.. I did accidently press it this morning though, its got such an adorable 'peep' ahaha.

It’s cute.  There is a second sounder tucked up under the left side wing and the other day I was showing a friend how to unlock the car with the sub key. Both the regular and the second sound together with the alarm and I can confirm that together they are impressively loud.  

[Roy124]

23 hours ago, Yugguy1970 said:

Next year's with the increased output should be even better,

 Just ordered next year's model. The salesman said it had a later generation hybrid that was 15% more efficient.  Presumably fuel efficiency could translate to greater performance.

We shall see.