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Whenever I’m buying a new car, I just drop my trousers and bend over, saves an awful lot of time…

Well I came back to looking to replace my Prius as I simply don’t want to drive a larger car anymore So I again drove Excel & Design Yaris, both ‘21 plates and then ‘20 (pre facelift) Jazz and a ‘23 facelift Jazz. I considered a Polo/Fabia but the DSG potential issues put me off I really wanted to stay with Toyota but found the Yaris too small, too dark inside, too noisy and the ride too firm even in Design spec. In isolation the Yaris is a superb car but after driving it back-to-back with the Jazz I just couldn’t say no to the Jazz I have gone with the ‘23 facelift model, it’s just over a year old and is the Advance model. Apparently the brake simulator failure doesn’t affect the facelift models It comes with heated seats, heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise, lane keeping, climate control, reverse camera, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic, keyless entry etc etc. It’s similar spec wise to an Excel What surprised me the most was that it’s pretty much as quiet as my Prius even at 70 on the motorway, it rides nice and softly, the view out is superb and the space inside is amazing for such a small car. The interior quality seems almost luxury compared to the Yaris and the doors close with a nice solid sound too The Yaris, unfortunately, felt cramped and rather claustrophobic The Jazz was much happier on the motorway than the Yaris and I also think the Jazz was a bit faster to accelerate from a standstill and getting up to speed on motorway slips I really wanted to go with the Yaris to keep in the Toyota family but I know I’d always be thinking I should have got the Jazz instead 😉

Now I am old I am a fair weather biker. I regularly leave my bike connected to a trickle charger (Optimate) for 4 months or so over winter. What I have learnt is that to keep it on solidly for those 4 months reduces battery life considerably. I was replacing them every couple of years. What I do now is use a smartplug that only powers up the charger for 15-20 minutes a week. The bike always fires up and I haven't replaced the battery in almost 4 years.

Or maybe these are the new alternative to Crop Circles!

Hi again. The A/C is fixed. I was told that there was chafing in the big orange cable, as TonyHSD mentioned in a post above. It was rubbing against something. They repaired and secured it, and it was done under warranty. The A/C is working as it should, and there are no more faults.

Don't they at least have a bit of pleasant chat, buy you a couple of drinks, and a bag of chips on the way home anymore?

One thing that I am really chuffed about (and it has saved a visit to the dealer!) with this new Carista OBD-EVO adaptor is that it has given me access to the "remote start" functionality of the car in the customization section which is essential for the remote "Start Climate" to work. Guess what? Mine was set to "Off" which is why my "Start Climate" wouldn't work from the MyToyota App! It is now set to "On" thanks to the EVO and it all works fine!! That's a function that is very useful during cold winters! I like that for it to work, a pre-condition is that all the doors are locked which makes sense if you are parked in the street (I found this out when I tried it with the doors unlocked!). Even more pleased that I purchased it now!

If I could only disable the waf…wifey automated comments..

I leave them all on, I’ve seen how AI is progressing, when the robots take over I want them to look favourably on me…!

I, too, am not knocking ALL Chinese products, but until they respect international patents and stop flooding markets with cheap knock offs I will be cautious in what I buy. There is a long held belief that China plays the long game. They will undercut all a county’s domestic products to cripple the local companies, then step in to buy them cheap. That means they now control that country’s market and the prices can go up. Sound familiar?

Update: I rang a different Toyota branch than the one I usually go to, and they said to remove anything from the back passenger footwells. I had a pillow, a blanket and a load of my nephews stuff there behind his car seat. Moved it, went for a drive and the message disappeared! Turns out there's a vent there for the hybrid system! So there you go! Nearly paid £100+ for someone to move a cushion from the footwell!

That’s precisely my commute - I’m fortunate to live close to my office and it’s only a half an hour’s walk each way to and from it. It’s a great way to incorporate a bit of exercise into the working day and get some fresh air. I’ll do it come rain or shine as I definitely feel the health benefits. Reckon I’ve only driven in on 3 or 4 days in the 7 years I’ve worked there.

For anyone interested in all things OBDII for the Carista or Hybrid Assistant apps, there is a whopping 32% off on Amazon at the moment on the top-of-the-range Carista OBD-EVO dongle here that brings the price down from the RRP of £64.99 to £44.19 Anyone who has followed my posts about Hybrid Assistant etc, will know that I have consistently recommended the OBDLink LX adaptor (as do the HA team) but today I received one of the above OBD-EVO adaptors and I can now say, after directly comparing them, that this new Carista adaptor is actually faster at scanning than the OBDLink LX (you can see this in real time in Hybrid Assistant) and, like the latter, it also has a low-power sleep mode so it can be left plugged in all the time. £20.80 off is a great deal so if you were thinking of getting an OBDII scanner, grab it while you can! Here is a link to the relevant HA page...

Dealers employees in uk majority of them are simply clowns working in a circus 🎪 🤡 No matter customers attitude, the sales person should be polite, understanding and trying to help and last but not least honest. These people are anything but all above, plus they don’t understand nothing about cars, their talk is often laughable and they make themselves fools. The whole auto industry is totally broken, the service departments too. Upselling unnecessary products and services, pushing parts replacement but skipping on important maintenance procedures, selling cars that are totally unsuitable for the customers needs and use, and the list goes on. On top of that all car brands are suffering the worst sales numbers of all time. The whole world car manufacturers and dealers are closing down because of the stupid idea of bevs and the current high prices of new and used cars. Very few can afford to buy a car and very few actually need to buy a car. And at the end unless you desperately need a car to drive for work you will be better off without any because there are no good times for private cars ownership ahead . And finally if you have any car particularly a Toyota hybrid ( best cars right now) don’t need to buy another, especially those 2-3 year’s newer, they only look slightly different but will deliver absolutely same experience.

Just natural cycles of the planet, a planet that is over populated & trying it's best to kill of some humans. These heating & cooling cycles will continue long after the last humans left on planet Earth have died. The net zero agenda is basically just for business & government to make money.

That’s interesting. Having test driven numerous brands and cars before deciding on the CH-R, I found the Toyota to have the best balance of refinement and build quality. The Honda HR-V (a competitor for the CH-R but not the Yaris, that would be the Jazz) had a lovely interior - I’m a Honda fan having owned a few - but the drive was disappointing with a noisy engine and general lack of refinement. The Skoda range was a massive disappointment for me, given the host of positive reviews. The Kamiq was a dreadful drive, with a horrendous and hesitant DSG gearbox. The Scala was better, with a more refined feel, but again the gearbox was terrible. I personally thought the interiors were ‘robust’ but uninspiring with far more hard plastics than in the Toyota. In comparison, the VW Golf almost got my money and it just shows how the VAG brands differentiate as it was a fabulous drive. In the end I just preferred the CH-R, but only just. Reliability fears in the back of my mind were the ultimate decision maker, as I had a Tiguan back in 2009/10 with one of the infamous ‘exploding’ DSG gearboxes…and a host of other problems. The only comparable car that I felt was ‘superior’ to the CH-R was the Volvo XC40. It was a contender, but ended up quite a bit more expensive and I didn’t want to break the £40k barrier. I think the key here for the original poster is comparing like with like. The Yaris Cross is a Jazz CrossStar rival, not an HR-V rival. The Corolla - to me at least - should be compared with the Civic and Golf. My advice would be to take your time and drive lots of cars from different marques. I drove about fifteen over three months, some more than once. The differences could be quite unexpected too. I hated the VW T-Roc but loved the Golf. The Skodas were noticeably behind despite the underpinnings being similar. Audi were nice but, to my judgement, not worth the extra over the VW options, and the big VAG surprise were the SEAT range…although they shot themselves in the foot with a lack of availability for what I wanted. The key for me was to know in advance what I prioritised most and assess the options accordingly. I didn’t need practicality, but build quality and reliability were very important. I wanted a refined drive, but without spending more than my self-imposed limit. There were certain items of equipment I had to have, and others I wasn’t bothered about. With that list I was able to assess each option after the drive, and I added a ‘showstopper’ comment for any cars I just wouldn’t consider for some reason. The Skodas earned that for their DSG gearboxes, but no other car had a showstopper for me. It ended up very close and there were four or five options that would have been perfectly acceptable.

And see some angry reviews about the price of the 12v battery replacement, questions about their safety etc 😛 you can never please everybody. I'm certain that tuning the charging algorithm and sticking to Yuasa would be more than enough to solve the issue.

Well would you believe it, fitted a new none return valve for £4.12 and the water shoots over the car now, result.

Regarding Toyota interior quality, I’ve owned my new CH-R for just over a month now - my first Toyota - and I’m very impressed with the overall quality of both materials and fit and finish. Time will tell whether it starts to rattle as it ages but so far, having come from three Lexus in a row, I think it compares very favourably. I should add that I originally thought my downsize from the Lexus would see me buying a Yaris Cross, but I personally found the interior quality of that model far less impressive.

Wow now that's a drive thro

If you are buying 4 then Goodyear Vector 4Seasons G3 for your car are currently ~£80 fully fitted from National Tyre with a 20% discount code. Michelin CC2s are ~£130

Would take forever to get through the self-checkout😆

Any business can sell an item at whatever price they so chose. That price can be different for each transaction. A business can also refuse to sell any item to a customer. However the business model of a car retailer is different to a supermarket selling food and groceries. There is sufficient information around the internet relating to car buying negotiations and discounts it is for the buyer to do their homework. Like others on this thread I use Carwow and Drivethedeal to get the best price and use those to negotiate with. When selling I use Motorway valuation as a starting point (far higher than WBAC) and usually sell privately at an even higher price. Haven’t traded in for years. If you don’t put the effort in, you won’t get the deals.

We used to gather around a 50 watt lightbulb during the winter, if it was really cold, my dad would switch it on..

As the current C-HR is solely built in Turkey, perhaps the cup holders are designed for Turkish Delight.

We bought our Yaris new and the two guys we dealt with at the dealership couldn't have been better- it was an excellent experience all round.

I just leave them all on, it doesn’t bother me at all if the car wants to bong at me i just ignore it. I’d rather not waste my life getting irate at something that eventually everyone will have to get used to.

I was originally quated similar on my first to me service 27000 miles.... Oddly after that at my present dealers my brake pad have grown in thickness after another 50,000 miles... I think a little up-selling is going on here.

OK so we're going off topic here slightly, as all forums do of course! I test drove the Corolla, liked it but wondered where the £35,000 asking price had gone into it because it's good but not THAT good. All things considered, I'm sticking with the Yaris. Might swap out the 17" rims for some 16's if I can find a decent set.

Yes agreed Colin, but 99% of Toyota members here won't know what we are talking about or have any idea how to do it. Even with my IT experience I've decided against - it's not worth the effort. Let's invest our time & effort into obtaining better 12V batteries, awareness and safe trickle charging.

They don’t like it up em…!

I think we're all doomed, doomed I tell ye. Not a very comprehensive answer I know, and not addressing any of the serious issues presented here. But it works for me to take the easy way out of the complex thinking required to analyse the problems beyond my understanding. And trying to articulate any answers that make sense. So I reiterate, we're all doomed.🫣

So many issues are piling up: post office closures, tax hikes, rising council taxes, a broken NHS and care sector, and crumbling infrastructure. Farmers are paid not to grow crops, inheritance law changes may lead many to lose their farms, and schools are literally falling apart. Motoring costs are at an all-time high, crime is out of control, and we have a police service focused on ‘woke’ issues rather than serious crime. Migration is unchecked, and the cost of living is soaring. Meanwhile, a four-day work week is becoming the norm, manufacturing is dwindling, and energy costs are the highest they’ve ever been. Politicians accept freebies, pubs and high street shops are closing at record rates, and public services are failing. We’ve seen cover-ups from institutions like the church on abuse issues that have spanned centuries. And now, some politicians can’t even define basic concepts like what a woman is. All of this is just a glimpse of what has been broken by politicians who, over time, have systematically eroded the core of our country. And here we are 68 million people and rising, being dictated by a few who couldn’t be trusted to run a bath.🤬 .

Recently changed stock Toyo Proxy 46R (shocking in wet) to Goodyear 4 Seasons Gen 3 225/55/19 99V and the car feels sure footed in all conditions / roads I drive on (lots of country lanes, covered in mud and leaves, ungritted in winter). This is on RAV4 2022 fwd.

My comment is: Let the ECU do what its programmed to do. Your car is the result of over two decades of R&D by Toyota and it knows best. It is expected that during the colder months it will behave a little differently and that fuel consumption will increase slightly. The ICE needs to be warmed up and so does the cabin. As long as you're not seeing more than a 10% increase in fuel consumption everything is fine. And a 20% increase wouldn't be out of order if you're based in the far north of Europe.

Depending on what the ICE is coming on to do, for accelaration it isn't to bad but when battery charging I have noticed it is quite loud. As has been said there are a few mentions on here (and on youtube reviews) about how harsh it sounds. Kev

People tend to think that AC is only for use in summer when in fact it is very useful in winter too. It acts like a dehumidifier, dries the air and clears the windscreen far more quickly when it's on.

Don’t know if I’m elderly at 62! oh maybe I am 🤣 Unfortunately the sale fell through, long story However I’ve just reserved another facelift ‘23 Jazz. This one comes with a service plan up to 2028 which will save about £1,300’ish over the next 4 years This one is from a Honda dealer whereas the previous was from an independent Just hope all goes smoothly and I will get my new car on Friday

Who are the prime movers in being so quick to shut schools? Surely it isn’t the kids - don’t they love snow in the same way as we did? Is it the parents - too lazy to clear snow in order to use the car? Or is it the teachers - always ready for a freebie and an extra lie-in? Whimps! I remember getting up to snowdrifts half way up the doors. And no heated house to get up to. Morning wash was done at the kitchen sink, with the gas stove on and its door open to get some warmth. Then there was some snow clearing to do before you could get away from the house. Snow ploughs overnight, accompanied by workmen hand-shovelling a grit and salt mixture on the main roads in town. And it took at lot more then to stop public transport drivers. Then we were off to school as usual. After all that, at the start of early evening, there were we kids playing in the snow. And finally going home with the “hot-aches” and wet clothing which was hung on a clothes horse in front of the fire to dry, and we went to bed with a hot water bottle. Sleeping ready to start it all over the next day. Tell you what! I wouldn’t swap my time for what today’s kids call a life!

This is probably the wrong place to ask as everyone on here is old and has forgotten the fun of modifying your car (I kiiiid I kiiid don't hurt me ) But seriously, performance air filters do smeg-all unless they accompany changes that require more air. Mostly they just let more dirt into the engine. (Higher flow == worse filtration) The best mods for the Aygo has always been to improve the suspension and handling. The Aygo's not a particularly powerful car but it's very light and can corner better than most modern cars simply because it doesn't weigh literal tons. There was a big modding scene for the Aygo (There was even a supercharger kit from Blitz! ) and one of our old forum members even put in a cage and stiffened his up so much it would cock a wheel when cornering in the Toyota Sprint Series But that was a while ago and alas a lot of the parts can be tricky to get hold of now.

Also worth noting that if it does snow and you're stuck, turning off the traction control may help since you can regulate the power to the wheels rather than the computer cutting it due to wheel spin.

And on that note I firmly believe that the Italians should pay me thousands of pounds and give me an apology because the Romans stole my ancestors land and made slaves of them.

I'm aware that there may be disability involved. If not, though, 1.8 miles is a wonderful distance for commuting on foot: 30 minutes each way is just far enough to support good health without expending too much time or energy on top of a busy day at work. And infinite mpg! 🙂

I was called 'plain speaking' by a car salesman a few years ago, for telling him in no uncertain terms right at the start that I just wanted to buy the car, No HP, no paint protection, no upholstery treatment, no service plan, no GAP insurance, no extended warranty etc. I think he wanted to say something more rude, but 'plain speaking' was what he settled for 😆 I tend to buy cars online now wherever possible as car salesmen really wind me up!

KITKAT as it always wants me to take a break...........

I’m afraid that I have to agree with this opinion. Roman Britain was much warmer than it is now, and vineyards were planted by the Romans. When I was in my teens, at this time of year there were millions of homes burning coal, and domestic gas was extracted from coal and far dirtier than the gas we use today. Most commercial vehicles were diesel (Derv), and the pumps at fuel stations were surrounded by thick tarry spillages. Ordinary petrol driven motorcars were low powered and gave 30mpg or less, and exhaust fumes were a normality. If anything is causing the present CO2 imbalance, it is the expansion of people across the globe, the destruction of million of acres of forestry, and thousands of airliners pumping exhaust gases into the upper atmosphere 24/7. Current reusable energy isn’t making any deep inroads to change things, and in the UK the only pathetic blame is on the motorcar. As forkingabout has said, “These heating and cooling cycles will continue long after the last humans left on the planet have died” - just as happened long before early Man managed to climb up onto two feet.

Like wise, I keep them all on

Four months is a long time. What I have written below are just my thoughts based on my experience in electronics rather than definitive answers. All chargers are not created equal (and don't ask me what I would recommend because I haven't bought one in over 40 years) but I would not be happy leaving a battery on charge that length of time unattended. What if the charger failed or delivered to high a voltage etc. Without knowing what to recommend I would suggest you first look to chargers specifically made and marketed for vehicles that are laid up over the winter (for several months in other words). I suspect an older style 'linear' type power supply with mains transformer and regulator would be more trustworthy than a modern cheaper SMPS (switching type) but this is something I haven't researched. You need little current capability for this function, just a few hundred milliamps at most... even for a Toyota with all these 12 volt battery issues 🙂 If the 'maintenance charge' voltage is to high it will damage the battery. You possibly need a charger that can cycle on and off in response to the terminal voltage of the battery rather than a 24/7 charge regime. Classic cars that off road for long periods, they might be the people to ask. Is there any real reason why the battery can not be isolated for this length of time. Would the hybrid battery suffer? Lets see what the others think.

PMQ on BBC Politics Live gives a good indication of how insolent politicians are. At the dispatch box, a difficult question is always avoided - instead a repeated speel of what they [think] they have achieved, or a scurrilous rant is aimed at the opposing party. We all know what happens when two trains approach each other on the same rail track and that is exactly what happens with political decisions. They simply let disasters take their course and changing direction in time is just not in their make-up - blaming the “other side” is seen as a valid way to clear their conscience (what conscience? , I here you ask!).

I'd vote for that! Successive government have shown they're terrible at long term planning, instead preferring to squabble and one-up each other. Having a cross-party or even non-aligned permanent section to deal with long term projects and critical core infrastructure in a fair, neutral and far-sighted way would save so much wasted effort and money. I didn't think it was unnecessary and is one of the few things I thought was a good idea at the time - The problem is we're currently a bit like the USA - Have a big deficit so have to keep borrowing more money to fill the gap. However, part of the reason for this is we borrowed so much so we're having to pay bazillions in interest which we are effectively borrowing more money to pay it off which increases the interest which means we need to borrow more and so on. The USA are deeply in this death spiral and are basically ****ed at this point - I'm pretty sure China will technically own the whole country in the mid-to-far future as a good chunk of those loans can be traced back to there. This is quite a common problem in a lot of countries except the very sensible ones (e.g. Norway). However, I am aware of one country that was in that death spiral but got out of it - Canada. They endured 2 decades of pain and suffering under austerity to greatly reduce their debt and it paid off, mostly. Our government at the time thought this a good idea and started working on bringing down that debt, thinking we could endure it. However, a) they were wrong and b) They're idiots; They didn't consider how dependent a lot of people in this country are on welfare, and when we'd started clawing back a good chunk of the debt, some of them apparently forgot why we were doing this and went Oooh we've freed up all this money cutting back on public services, schools, NHS etc., lets waste it on something else! And then covid hit. So because of bad luck and incompetence we're instead suffering from the downsides of austerity without getting any of the benefits. We have two choices - Try again, or just keep increasing our borrowing limit like the US do every year. Both have pros and cons, mainly one is more painful short term and the other long term, but everyone involved needs to pick one or the other and stick with it - Flip-flopping between the two is just throwing money down a fiery drain!