Description Of The Car

Mini Car Toyota YARIS 1 0 T2

The Toyota Yaris 1.0 T2 Is The Most Cost Effective Way To Buy Into Toyotas Award-Winning Citycar Range. Andy Enright Checks It Out

If you live in the city and want the smartest city car available, how would you go about choosing? Obviously ease of parking, decent interior space and sassy styling are desirable, but there are other considerations. Security, an attractive insurance grouping, safety, economy and a low purchase price also have to be taken into account. If you dont intend to hammer up and down a motorway, this leads to one distinct class of car.

From the moment you see it - you fall in love with it. It has character and a cheeky face - its just a great, fun car!



We got our Silver Toyota Yaris 1.0 CDX brand new from a car dealership, managing to wangle a few thousand off the asking price. The CDX is the top of the range. It has a built in CD player, Air Conditioning, Sunroof, RDS Radio, five doors and just a fantastic drive.

As you step inside, the first thing you notice is one of the best little quirks of the car. Where is the dashboard? The dash is entirely electronic and is hidden in a futuristic pod in the centre of the front of the car. In front of the driver is just a flat panel - and for the first time moving off, it is quite an uneasy feeling - but once you see the dash in its unusual location, you will find it difficult to take your eyes off it! (Please do - the last thing you want to do is crash a new car!)The dashboard faces the driver, so you never strain to see it, and it cant be read by anyone else in the car due to a clever bit of lens alignment behind the screen. The display is deep within this pod - giving the illusion that it is somewhere underneath the bonnet! The 100% digital dashboard also includes very useful features such as a Programmable Odometer with A and B trips - so you can measure the length of two journeys. You can even toggle between MPH and KMH for driving abroad.

What the heck am I raving on about the dash for... Ahem... ill move on!

The drive is incredible. Its fantastically smooth, and corners excellently. The engine, depsite being just a one litre, responds immediately with an immense amount of power, you can easily leave other cars standing at the traffic lights! With a five gear transmission, you are never short of power and speed - it has ample ability on any type of road.

The ride is very confortable. The seats are well designed and cushion your body in the right places to create an incredibly comfortable ride, but at a practical driving position. You can, like in almost any car now, adjust the base, back and height. The amount you can see from the drivers seat is great. It is just at the right height to see all around you, and the mirrors are electrically powered, so you can easily move them from within the car both from the drivers seat.

The rear seats are as equally comfortable as the front, including the ability to move the entire bench seat backwards or forwards. This can be particularly useful for people gaining a larger boot, or extra leg room in the back, of which there is ample anyway!
The boot looks smallish, when you compare it to a huge saloon car, but for a super-mini, its perfectly fine. You can easily fit the weeks shopping in the back, or about two or three suitcases and extras on top if you are going on a journey.

The Air Handling of the car is excellent. The Air Conditioning included with the CDX model is incredibly useful on a very hot day and is fast to start up. As in a usual car, there are three dials, one to control the direction of the air, another to control the speed of the fan and another to control the temperature. Other features in the front include heated rear screen (with wiper) and the fantastic entertainment centre.

The entertainment centre is based around the rectanguar screen underneath the dash-pod. This screen contains the time, the temperature outside, and either the name of the radio station you are listening to, the CD track you have on or the fuel consumption, depending on which setting you have it on. While were on the subject of fuel consumption, I cant remember off the top of my head how economical it is - but take it from me that it can go a very very long way without ever filling up. Just recently, on a trip to London from Birmingham (about 100 miles or so) I went and came back, and still had some petrol left to potter around in for the next couple of days! As an optional extra, you can have a satellite navigation system built in to the car (rather than having a big ugly box), in which case, this is where the data comes up.The CD player does not have a changer in the boot, you feed the CD into the slot in the dashboard, and with just two speakers, a truly amazing sound quality comes out - and we have had this car for over a year now, and not once has a disc ever skipped - you can even listen to CD-R discs created on your PC.

Now, when it comes to securtity, the car does not have an alarm. This may put people off, but the car comes fitted as standard with a powerful immobiliser, where the key contains a special chip that enables and disables the engine, so there is no way of moving that car in any way without the key, and it also includes central locking. We bought, as a precaution, a handbrake lock. You can get one for about £20 from Halfords and it easily fits the Yaris, by covering the handbrake and clamping the gear stick.

The look of the car is still fresh and unique. I like it in Silver. I believe this is the standard colour, but it really looks the best with this. And, as the CDX is the top of the range, it has body coloured bumpers, which is an added bonus, as some of the lower models with the grey plastic dont look half as sharp! The car is still looked at in public - as it is unmistakable. It has a cheeky and friendly face which, as strange as this might sound people, reflects the cars personality. It is a great little car that is bags of fun to drive. You will literally want to go everywhere in it!
As ive said before, weve had it for over a year now, and the only time it has ever been in to a service bay was its first 1 year check up. Not once has it failed to start, or had any kind of trouble - it is one of the most reliable cars on the road.

Every person I know that has one, adores it, and everyone else I know desperately wants it. If you are looking for a car - there is no faulting this one - you will be so pleased with it - you will never ever look at another car again!

FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Toyota Yaris 1.0 T2
PRICE: £7,295 on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 2E CO2
EMISSIONS: 137g/km
PERFORMANCE: [1.0] 0-60mph 14.1s / Max Speed 96mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [1.0] (Euro average) 50.4mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Driver and passenger airbags, ABS, EBD WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height" 142/65/59"

Nevertheless, for around £7,000 in petrol form, with ABS and electronic brakeforce distribution as standard, its a lot of car, plus its covered by the companys comprehensive three-year warranty. If you want a credible runabout thats small enough to squeeze through the smallest gap but big enough inside to swallow a family of four, the Yaris 1.0 T2 may just fit the bill.