Sunday Drive: Toyota Yaris ZR Hybrid

Friday, 16 October 2020

Toyota's all-new Yaris hatch is here now, kicking off an entire family of Yaris-badged vehicles.

TOYOTA YARIS ZR HYBRID (TWO-TONE)
Base price: $33,490 ($32,990 without two-tone paint)
Powertrain and economy: 1.5-litre petrol three-cylinder, 67kW/120Nm (85kW total system output), constantly variable transmission, FWD, combined economy 3.3L/100km, CO2 76g/km (source: RightCar).
Vital statistics: 3940mm long, 1695mm wide, 1500mm high, 2550mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 270 litres, 16-inch wheels.

The new Yaris in blue and black two-tone looks awesome, doesn’t it?

We like: Barely requires fuel, good standard safety kit, two-tone paint fantastic
We don't like: Lots of chimes.

Toyota has spruced up the Yaris after nearly a decade and while we enjoyed the base GX Hybrid, we felt the steel wheels and plastic interior let the superb mechanics down somewhat. So, does the top-spec ZR improve things?

First off, this is the Hybrid which means it has the 1.5-litre triple plus an electric motor connected to the front axle. The ZR gets the same powertrain as the GX. If you’re considering a small car, more than 80 per cent of your driving is done in urban areas and you want to reduce your carbon footprint, I’ll save you the trouble – this is the car you want.

Better seats are part of the ZR package and while they could use more lower-back support, are tangible upgrades over the base units.

Toyota claims 3.3L/100km for fuel consumption and while it’s usually the Germans that underestimate their vehicles’ capabilities, this time Toyota is selling itself short.

The hybrid system in the Yaris is quite a bit better than the 1.8-litre-based one you’d find in the Corolla, opting to use electric power as much as possible if you’re below about 60kmh. Above that and the petrol engine kicks in under acceleration but don’t worry; it sips fuel as if it was a strong whisky.

More ZR niceties – a leather steering wheel, digital dash and sat-nav.

* Road test review: Toyota Yaris GX hybrid

* Five Things: the cheapest hybrids you can buy right now

* The Yaris has landed: Toyota's baby hatch is here

It only has a baby 0.76kWh battery, enough for a “few hundred metres to 1km” of range, in Toyota’s words. That’s fine because those metres are usually done in traffic where energy recuperation is plentiful.

Around town you’re likely to see average fuel use dropping into the twos while motorway cruising will see it nudge above 3.5L/100km. After four days of use, mostly comprising highway cruising in and out of the city, my total fuel consumption was 3.6L/100km, though I saw 3.8 once. The fuel gauge didn’t drop one bar.

If you want, you can prod the drive mode button into Sport mode and listen to the surprisingly characterful engine wind up. The powertrain doesn’t produce massive power but it’s enough for a car barely breaking into the one-tonne weight range. Toyota doesn’t claim a 0-100kmh time and that’s because who really cares? It’s fast enough.

Other niceties for the ZR that the GX doesn’t get include better wheels, sat-nav, a head-up display and digital dash, climate air-conditioning, sports seats, a leather steering wheel, an upper rear spoiler, soft-touch upper dash trim, LED lights front and rear and more safety sensors.

The seats could do with some more support in the lower back, but they are more comfortable than the base seats. Toyota includes its Safety Sense package as standard in all Yarises (Yarii?) and while the active cruise control and lane keep systems work well and are appreciated, the lane departure warning was too vocal for my liking, chiming and bonging even at low speeds if I had to move into the flush lane to go around a parked vehicle. You can turn it off by holding the button on the steering wheel but then that sort of defeats the purpose of having it, doesn’t it?

The rear seat occupant alert also thought a bag I mindlessly threw on the back seats needed a seatbelt and wouldn't shut up until I moved the bag onto the floor. It only weighed a couple of kilos but I guess the system errs on the side of caution, in case you forget to belt up your baby or something.

Annoying bongs aside, I can’t help but be impressed with what Toyota is offering here. There’s not much competition aside from the Suzuki Swift Hybrid, which was already running in second compared to the base Yaris Hybrid. The upspecced ZR only adds to the package and doesn’t cost a horrid amount more either.

The nicer interior and better wheels alone are worth considering the ZR and I much prefer the digital dash to the GX’s analogue dials. The slick two-tone paint shown here is effectively a $500 option, one I would personally take.

For $200 more, you can get the larger Corolla GX Hybrid which actually offers less boot space but more occupant area. Corolla also uses the older 1.8-litre-based hybrid system which has a mite more power but is less inclined to use its electric motor. As a result, fuel consumption is a full litre more (4.2L/100km), going by claimed figures.

You’ve also got to figure on paying more money for a base model. Not that the Corolla is a bad choice, of course, it’s just that the Yaris is a better one.