Which model is the most reliable?

[600rob]

Now, i know this will be subjective but whats everyones opinions on the best( most reliable model yaris)

 

Reason being is that my GS that i bought over 10 years ago, purely as a cheap temporary run about ended up probably the most reliable car ive ever had. The engine itself id still going strong with over 207k on the clock. The only thing that went wrong was a suspected clutch bearing failure thats rendered the gear change un-use-able. 

I figured rather than repair it i might aswell get rid, either scrap it or sell it for salvage/projcet car.

It left such a good impression that im looking at getting another yaris as a 'cheap run around' again 🙂

Shape wise, i personally only like the shape of the Mk1's and the latest model ( not sure what version its on now) everything in between looks a bit samey to me. ( plus i always fancied a mk1 t-sport)

anyway what are peoples experiences of reliability with the newer models?

if anything like the one ive had it cant be too bad

[Cyker]

I always quite liked the Mk1 too. Started off my Yaris obsession as it had so many things that no other car did that just made sense to me. I had a diesel one and it was one of the funnest cars I've had - Only the japanese could make a high-revving variable turbo diesel engine with a short-shift gearbox - All that torque in a car that weighed less than a ton made it hilarious to drive anywhere  

The Mk1s will be tricky to find in good condition now, as they are very prone to rusting in their old age, esp. the front and rear subframes. I do see some good ones around, but most have dents, odd wheels etc. They just don't command enough money to be worth repairing for most people. The exception is maybe T-Sports that are owned by enthusiasts who actually look after them, but they usually hang onto them so they're very rare and you have to have very good luck and timing to catch one when it goes on sale!

The Mk2 isn't too bad but it has this squashed been-in-a-front-end-collision look to it that I didn't like, but I have to say it easily has the best interior of the 4 generations of Yaris - The amount of internal storage bins is just ludicrous, and despite being the 2nd smallest Yaris it has the most interior passenger space, in no small thanks to the awesome rear seats, which have the most flexible setup of any of the 4 - 40/60 folding and independent sliding, tilt and fold down with a cantilever mechanism that moves the base down and forward too - The only cars with seats anywhere near that flexible are usually only in MPVs!

The Mk3 was the 'safest' - I never liked it much because it threw out all the things that drew me to the Yaris (Digital dashboard, sliding seats, excessive internal storage etc. - All gone  ), as Toyota tried to make it appeal to a wider audience. I think they succeeded there, as it doesn't have any weird stuff like having a floating dashboard in the middle of the dash, which put some people off the Mk1 and Mk2, but in doing so it lost a lot of Yarisy character. While it is definitely the most generic of the four, it's still a solid and dependable car, and the cheapest way to get a hybrid one. It also has a fixed version of the 1.33L engine, and later ones even get the 1.5L engine which is, I think, one of the first engines they put into mass production that could switch between the Atkinson/Miller-cycle used in the hybrids, and the Otto-cycle used in all normal petrol cars. In a way, it's a precursor to the one in the Mk4 hybrid...

Now, the new Mk4 is a big departure from previous Toyota design and just has the most incredibly angry-looking front of any of their cars that I can think of. I think it looks pretty badass, and am surprised most of the drivers I see in them are still the same old granny-types the other 3 had.  You'd think they'd have flocked to the Jazz Hybrid and more hooligans would be driving this, but it might be because it's so ungody expensive and the hooligans can't afford them...    The interior is... okay; More storage than the Mk3 but far less than the Mk1 and 2. Has the most cramped and awkward to get into rear passenger space of the four, but if you'rein the front you're fine. They've tried to make the materials seem more premium, but you can tell they are just your normal hardwearing jappy car plastics and board; They'll last but they'll never feel quality like e.g. german cars. The visibility is easily the worst of the 4 - The low roof line means the mirror is in the way, the A-pillars are in the way so spotting pedestrians and even on-coming trucks on roundabouts is not always guaranteed, and thanks smeg the reversing camera comes as standard as the rear visibility is so bad you'll wonder why they bothered putting in a rear window - There is literally more B and C pillar visible than there is glass, from the driver's seat! So it has a lot of compromises and shortcomings.

But once you're driving you won't care about any of that - There are two things that makes the Mk4 shine. One is the new platform it's built on; The previous ones were known for their roly poly handling which, while hilarious, was not very confidence inspiring. They tried to fix it in earlier Mk3s with stiffer springs and ARBs, but that just made the ride horrible so they softened it again in later ones (Or so the Mk3 owners tell me!). In the Mk4 tho', they designed handling into it from the ground up - The car is an absolute joy to drive and just feels so much more fun compared to the others and I can't articulate why. You can feel what the car is doing through the seat, as the chassis is much stiffer than in the previous models, and you can chuck it round corners like you can an Aygo, laughing your head off at how stupidly fun to drive it is (It's a Yaris forsmegssake!), but it's still somehow well damped and does a pretty good job of absorbing bumps without being all roly poly. Clearly they got some better suspension engineers in this time to balance everything, and they did a good job!

The other thing is the drive train - They fixed everything that was wrong with their hybrid drive train, and now it absolutely *hauls*. It has near-instant response to the accelerator pedal and will just go whenever you demand beans from it. Very few cars will beat it off the line, it's so responsive, and while e.g. the Aygo has surprisingly good launch, it tops out pretty quickly, while the new drivetrain in the Mk4 will just keep hauling until you let go of the accelerator. It's still noisy as heck if you pin the accelerator, but now you get some action to go with the noise. Won't be for everyone, as it's a lot more raucous than the buttery-smooth 4-cylinders, but as a former diesel person I feel right at home  

The absolute best thing is it's genuinely efficient - You don't have to drive efficiently to get good mpg, it just *is* efficient. I can drive like a jackass and still get a tank average mpg in the mid-high 70's with no effort. If I'm being more disciplined, I can get it into the low 80's! (Indicated; My calculated figures are around 7% down on average, but that's still darn good!)

It's by no means a perfect car as it has a lot of... questionable... design choices (Like, would it have killed them to make the rear doors open wider??), but it feels like they stuffed almost all the R&D money into the chassis and drivetrain, and that suits me just fine  

 

 

What? You didn't want a dissertation on the history of Yarisuesisueuees, just want to know what one was reliable? Err... well TBH they're all pretty reliable, esp. if they're looked after and get regular servicing (The achilles heel of most Toyotas is oil changes - Skimp on those and the engine won't be long for this world, but give them regular quality oil changes and the engine will likely outlive the rest of the car!)

The ones to avoid are mainly the Mk2s with the 1.33L engine - The 1.3L engine was the same bulletproof unit from the Mk1, but in 2009 they put in a new engine. Sounded great on paper - 0.03 extra displacement (Wooow so much powerrr), £30 to tax (Over £100 less than the old one!), dual VVTi (Now the Exhaust gets VVTi too!), 100HP (30+ over the old one!), but it has a terminal flaw - They used weaker piston rings to reduce friction losses, but this also reduced their ability to do what they were for, and as they aged allowed combustion gasses past and didn't wipe the oil off the bores, so they were prone to burning increasingly large amounts of oil - I experienced this first hand, with it needing a litre a month before I PX'd it, and would advise against a 1.33 Mk2 from 2009 onward unless the paperwork shows it had the dealer fixes done. The other engines are fine (Even the 1.8SR if you can find one  ), and the 2008 and earlier ones with the old 1.3L engine were generally fine too.

The Mk1s were the rustiest ones, the Mk2s less so, although as always check underneath. The Mk3 seems to have done quite well as I don't hear many rust complaints about that. The Mk4's too new, although there are 2 semi-common gripes that have popped up on this forum - Early ones can get a Hybrid System Malfunction, which apparently is due to them not tightening the damper plate enough and it slipping under specific conditions. It's scary but not actually a big problem - Mine's done this once, and I was still able to drive at 70mph with no noticeable issues. Annoyingly, despite my best efforts I haven't been able to make it do it again (I kinda want to, as there is a fix for it under warranty, but they won't do it unless they see the error! OTOH I'm kinda glad, as it's a very invasive fix, and engines are never the same again when they get taken apart like that, so if I never see it again, even better!).

The other is the 12v Battery draining out; I still don't really understand why the Mk4 hybrid seems more prone to this than other Toyotas; It seems to be a mix of a bad batch of batteries (Possibly due to being left to drain during the pandemic - This causes permanent capacity loss with car batteries, and just draining to 0% a few times and left there for a bit is enough to wreck most car batteries), and people not using the car enough (Hybrids don't have alternators, so you can't take them on a run to charge the battery; They just need to be left on for long enough so the DC-DC converter has enough time to stuff power into it. Toyota advise 30 minutes minimum.). I drive mine a lot so I haven't experienced this problem, and I don't expect to until the Battery reaches the end of its normal service life.

If you made it this far, congratulations! Hopefully your eyes aren't bleeding too much.  

[FROSTYBALLS]

2 minutes ago, Cyker said:

If you made it this far, congratulations!

Well it did take 3 days ........ 

Do you actually like the Yaris?

[Cyker]

Maybe a teeny weeny teeeeeeny weeeeey bit. I'm not obsessed with them or anything. Nope. Not at all. 

(BTW are forum stars still a thing? You should award yourself one if you actually did read through all that  )

[TonyHSD]

Haha, I just liked Cyker’s comment because I know he is the one to answer about Yaris mk4 or mk1 😉 

Then I came back and read backwards, and agree, he is right. 
Here is my 2 cents, look for mk1 replacement but also get a quote for repair of your car. If your doesn’t have rust and it’s in good shape generally might be a good idea to get it fix and get out of it another few years instead of buying another old example, then jump to mk4 and you will be better. 
If you want to jump to mk4 now there is a rare opportunity to buy a great example from a member but you will need around £20k, not bad for a 23 reg car . 

[Eddie G]

12 hours ago, Cyker said:

Maybe a teeny weeny teeeeeeny weeeeey bit. I'm not obsessed with them or anything. Nope. Not at all. 

(BTW are forum stars still a thing? You should award yourself one if you actually did read through all that  )

Still love the MK1 the best, bloke has one a couple streets over from me needs a headlight buff but still looking canny even the red colour hasn't gone too pink 🙈 my second ever car after a well handling Ford Fiesta until the power steering went along with a couple of other things, zero problems with any Toyota's I've had since touch wood.

[Eddie G]

14 hours ago, 600rob said:

Now, i know this will be subjective but whats everyones opinions on the best( most reliable model yaris)

 

Reason being is that my GS that i bought over 10 years ago, purely as a cheap temporary run about ended up probably the most reliable car ive ever had. The engine itself id still going strong with over 207k on the clock. The only thing that went wrong was a suspected clutch bearing failure thats rendered the gear change un-use-able. 

I figured rather than repair it i might aswell get rid, either scrap it or sell it for salvage/projcet car.

It left such a good impression that im looking at getting another yaris as a 'cheap run around' again 🙂

Shape wise, i personally only like the shape of the Mk1's and the latest model ( not sure what version its on now) everything in between looks a bit samey to me. ( plus i always fancied a mk1 t-sport)

anyway what are peoples experiences of reliability with the newer models?

if anything like the one ive had it cant be too bad

Like Cyker said stay away from the 1.33 underpowed it is as well 1.5 far better and if you do low miles a year 12v Battery problems come happen? apart from that can't go far wrong with a Yaris.

[600rob]

On 8/10/2023 at 10:44 PM, Cyker said:

What? You didn't want a dissertation on the history of Yarisuesisueuees

You know what? that was really interesting. 1st class marks to that man!

I actually forgot what my original post was about for a minute! 🙂

great post and cheers for all the info

[YarisHybrid2016]

As far as I know, you can't go wrong with any of them.

My Gen.3 is at 100k and not skipped a beat.

[MarkBUK]

The only way to tell which version is most reliable is 20 years down the line when there are examples of each with 250-500k on the clock. An alternative approach would be to say that Toyotas are generally pretty durable, and the recent introduction of a 10 year warranty signals that the company does not expect that to change any time soon. So I'd say buy the latest you can afford, on the basis that there's more life left in it than in an older example.

[TonyHSD]

17 minutes ago, MarkBUK said:

The only way to tell which version is most reliable is 20 years down the line when there are examples of each with 250-500k on the clock. An alternative approach would be to say that Toyotas are generally pretty durable, and the recent introduction of a 10 year warranty signals that the company does not expect that to change any time soon. So I'd say buy the latest you can afford, on the basis that there's more life left in it than in an older example.

Very well said 👌