Toyota GR Yaris Review 2024

If you love driving and a 'normal' hot hatch won't cut it, the Toyota GR Yaris is an excellent choice. It feels special to drive, while the updates made in 2024 make it even more desirable. It's not the most practical choice and some people will question the logic of spending so much money on a Toyota Yaris... but those who get it will think you're an absolute hero.

We like the updated 2024 Toyota GR Yaris but getting one will be difficult - and, if you can, you'll be paying extremely strong money. With that in mind, we suspect most Toyota GR Yaris buyers will be happy with the original GR Yaris - you can pick one up for as little as £25,000, just make sure it has the optional (and desirable) Circuit Pack fitted. Cars without it are rare... so rare, in fact, that it's now standard on the new Toyota GR Yaris.

While there are other hot hatches on the market, there's nothing else quite as extreme as the Toyota GR Yaris. The Hyundai i20N and Ford Fiesta ST are both are a lot of fun, although neither can still be bought new. The bigger Honda Civic Type R is perhaps a more serious competitor, while you might also want to consider the Volkswagen Golf GTI or even the Volkswagen Golf R.

If you're looking for a plush cabin with lots of soft-touch finishes, you might want to look elsewhere. While the interior of the Toyota GR Yaris feels robust and well-made, it's certainly not luxurious. The new 2024 dashboard looks like a big slab of plastic (because that's what it is), while the focus on reducing weight means you won't find any unneccessary materials. And that's exactly how a Japanese performance car should be.

Buy an early Toyota GR Yaris and you'll get a fairly basic but user-friendly eight-inch infotainment system that sits proudly on the dashboard. It's a bit clunky and old school, but we like the physical shortcut buttons that run alongside it. Navigation wasn't offered on cars with the Circuit Pack (that's the majority of UK GR Yaris models), but Apple CarPlay and Android Auto was standard (meaning you can use Google Maps from your phone instead).

A slightly revised infotainment display was offered on the updated 2024 model. It remains the same size, but it's positioned lower down and now angled slightly towards the driver. The shortcut buttons are gone, too, but at least the heating and ventilation controls haven't been lumped into the media system.

Measuring 3995mm long, 1805mm wide and 1455mm high, the Toyota GR Yaris is one of the smallest hot hatches on sale. It's noticeably more compact than, say, a Honda Civic Type R or Hyundai i30 N.

As such, you're going to struggle if you want to use a GR Yaris as your main family car. It's perfectly spacious up front, but the rear seats are a struggle to get into (it's only offered with three doors), while the boot is tiny. It can officially accommodate just 174 litres of luggage, which is about half what you get in a Hyundai i20 N.

On the plus side, the Toyota GR Yaris is a much more useable everyday proposition than, say, a Mazda MX-5. Consider it a sports car that can occasionally carry rear-seat passengers and the GR Yaris starts to make a little more sense in terms of practicality.

This is another area in which the GR Yaris is quite unique. It boasts the most powerful three-cylinder engine you can buy: a 1.6-litre turbocharged unit that originally produced 261PS and 360Nm of torque. Apparently that wasn't enough punch for some buyers, which is why the Toyota GR Yaris now packs 280PS and 390NM of torque.

Those figures are officially good for a 0-62mph time of 5.5 seconds for the old model, or just 5.2 seconds for the newer GR Yaris. We have a sneaking suspicion that these figures are actually quite conservative, though - we've heard of some drivers successfully breaking the sub-5.0-second barrier with little effort. Top speed for all GR Yaris models is an electronically limited 143mph.

A six-speed manual gearbox is standard on the Toyota GR Yaris. It's a brilliant gearbox - easy to use with a direct, snickety response that'll have you changing gear for the fun of it.

For those who don't want the effort of changing gear, an eight-speed automatic gearbox was added to the range in 2024. This is a rather old-school automatic transmission but it works pretty well - it'll change gears at a lightning pace and rarely leaves you hanging in the wrong ratio. Purists will hate the idea of an auto gearbox in this car but we certainly wouldn't judge you for it - especially as it leaves you free to concentrate on more important matters like perfecting your racing line.

At first, the Toyota GR Yaris almost sounds a bit disappointing. It's not exactly dramatic at start up - it almost sounds like any other small hatchback. Technology is on hand, though, to pipe some synthetic noise into the cabin. It's not overwhelming but does add a little drama in the one area the GR Yaris might otherwise be lacking.

Other than that, you will notice some tyre roar and a bit of wind noise inside the GR's cabin. It's nothing too irritating but this is, fundamentally, a hot hatch - so don't go expecting to cruise along in near-silence.

While it might be a performance car, the Toyota GR Yaris isn't short on standard safety kit. Highlights include the Emergency Steering Assist, which can increase the steering response when swerving to avoid a collision, while the Lane Trace Assist will help you remain in your lane (following the path of the vehicle ahead if the lane markings are obscured).

A rear-view camera is standard on all Toyota GR Yaris models, as well as automatic high beam and intelligent adaptive cruise control. There are also ISOFIX child seat mounting points on the outer rear seats.

Toyota is the king of reliability, and we doubt the GR Yaris will be any different. We haven't heard of any common issues with the Toyota GR Yaris, but we do know that Toyota's engineers and rally drivers have been challenged to break it during testing. When they succeeded, a fix was developed to prevent it happening again. If the GR Yaris can cope with rally driving, it ought to be a fairly reliable everyday car.

A regular Toyota GR Yaris sits in insurance group 35, while one with the Circuit Pack is in group 36. What this means in reality depends on factors like your driving experience, location and even what you do for work. If you're a young driver or have a few incidents to your name, you might find that the Toyota GR Yaris is alarmingly expensive to insure - do shop around for quotes first.

If you buy a secondhand Toyota GR Yaris registered before 2024, you'll pay a flat rate of £190/year in tax. That's because it's petrol car with a list price (when new) of less than £40,000.

Unfortunately, the 2024 price hike means the latest GR Yaris will cost more in tax. For five years (from the second time it's taxed), a 2024 Toyota GR Yaris will cost a hefty £600/year in tax. That's made up of the regular £190 VED, plus an additional £410/year in premium car tax. That'll apply to most performance cars, unfortunately, unless you buy an electric car or one with a list price of less than £40,000.

Standard equipment on the 2024 Toyota GR Yaris includes rear privacy glass, black exterior highlights, keyless entry and start, automatic headlights and wipers, a three-spoke leather steering wheel, aluminium pedals, suede-like door trim, front sports seats, 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, dual-zone automatic air conditioning, a limited slip differential, dual exhaust pipes, selectable drive modes, automatic high beam, adaptive LED headlights, rear-view camera, emergency steering assist, road sign assist, adaptive cruise control, hill-start assist and Isofix seat fixings. Infotainment features include an eight-inch navigation system, wireless smartphone integration, DAB radio and voice recognition.

Highlights on the Toyota GR Yaris Ogier include a 4WD ‘Ogier Mode’ with GR-FOUR AWD switch, bespoke Matte Stealth Grey exterior, blue interior stitching, blue brake calipers, GRMN carbon fibre rear spoiler, vinyl body stripe, front and rear parking sensors, blind spot monitor, safe exit assist, rear cross traffic alert, JBL premium sound system and a heated steering wheel.

The Toyota GR Yaris Rovanperä features exclusive three-tone paintwork, steering wheel stitching in Finnish national colours (blue/grey), carbon fibre GRMN rear wing, red brake calipers, Rovanperä specific drive modes, blind spot monitor and a heated steering wheel.