2021 Toyota GR Yaris review: 0-100, 1/4 mile & detailed review

CarExpert

We've finally driven the 2021 Toyota GR Yaris. It's one of the most anticipated new car launches of this year and it has put a massive smile on Paul's face! Paul Maric does a detailed video review of the GR Yaris, which includes a 0-100km/h performance test in a variety of drive modes, along with a 1/4 mile run.  We need to give a massive shout out to the guys at Tuners Edge. They loaned us their own vehicle because we couldn't get our hands on a press vehicle for another few weeks. Make sure you check out their YouTube channel to watch the build progress on their GR Yaris monster! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtue4Fy12y57fp0ewIu6eXw   Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Read the review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2021-toyota-gr-yaris-review  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 01:21 Interior: 03:56 Infotainment: 05:08 Safety Tech: 06:10 Practicality: 06:40 On the road: 09:04 On the track: 13:34 Performance test: 17:00 Verdict: 20:24  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  More on the Toyota Yaris: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota/yaris  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #review #toyota #gryaris @Toyota Australia

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. I reckon this is one of the most anticipated car launches of the year.

00:06 It's a car that was kind of created as an excuse to do stuff in rally, but they actually ended up

00:10 with a bespoke platform and a pretty awesome little hot hatch. It is the Toyota GR Yaris.

00:16 This competes with things like the Fiesta ST and those mini hot hatches, but given its pricing,

00:21 the fact that it's all-wheel drive, and its credentials, it actually competes with that

00:25 next level above, which is stuff like Golf GTI, i30 N. We have one specification in Australia.

00:30 It starts at just under $50,000. They did a whole bunch of driveway pricing early on,

00:35 but all of those cars are now sold. Now, just really quickly, this review is slightly different

00:39 because this isn't an official manufacturer's car. It's actually a customer's car. We couldn't get

00:43 our hands on a proper press vehicle for another few weeks, so we wanted to get behind the wheel

00:47 of this. This belongs to the legends that run Tuners Edge. If you do want to modify your Yaris

00:52 GR, these guys are going to be doing a whole stack of work to them. They actually had this

00:55 on the dyno recently, so if you want to see that in action, you can watch that video up there.

00:59 So, today we're going to do a detailed review of the GR Yaris, along with a little bit of

01:04 performance testing as well. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,

01:08 you can use the time codes up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and use

01:12 the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, I would love it if you could hit

01:15 subscribe and press the bell icon, so you can find out every single time we drive highly

01:18 anticipated cars.

01:20 To keep things super simple, Toyota offers this car in three colours - white, red, black,

01:25 and red is just an additional $500, the other two are free. Now, let's talk about the design.

01:30 So, this is really curious, because the front end of this car is a Yaris, the back end of the car

01:35 is like a Corolla/CHR. The whole reason this has like a split platform is this car is what they

01:41 call a homologation car for rally. So, they needed to create a car that they could build for the

01:46 road, and the rules say that you have to have 25,000 production units of it, and that then

01:50 gives you an excuse to have a new rally car. And then they went and created this, we were just

01:53 expecting like a slightly hotted up version of the Yaris, not something that sits on its own

01:58 platform. So, let's talk about the design. Have a look at that mouth, it is absolutely mega. While

02:02 the Yaris has that sort of cheeky, smiley design, this actually looks really nice and aggressive,

02:07 and from the front there, you can just see all of those air inlets sucking in as much as it can,

02:12 because this is the most powerful three-cylinder petrol engine on the planet, which is really cool.

02:17 Now, what about lights? Up here we have LED headlights with LED daytime running lights.

02:22 You've got these cutouts here that are blocked. I suspect maybe later on we'll see like a super

02:26 hardcore version of this that cuts those out, similar to the Supra, in terms of them blocking

02:31 things up for future variations. Got a set of fog lights hidden down the bottom there as well.

02:35 Let's have a look at these brakes and wheels. So, you have 18-inch alloy wheels. Now,

02:39 these brakes are interesting. So, four piston calipers up the front, 356mm rotor, and it's

02:44 slotted as well. They're a fairly serious set of brakes. Most of the hot hatches in this segment

02:49 just have a pretty basic braking package. This is quite a meaty braking package, especially for a

02:53 car that weighs just a little over 1,000 kilos. I like the design as well. It's all nice and black

02:58 with that Toyota logo in the middle. GR badge here. This stands for Gazoo Racing, which is

03:03 Toyota's performance arm. Now, let's talk dimensions. It's 55mm longer than the standard

03:08 Yaris, 60mm wider, and that's thanks to those massive haunches at the rear, and 45mm lower.

03:14 The other differences on the body here are two doors instead of five. The bonnet and the tailgate

03:19 are both aluminium. That saves around 30 kilos, but this is the most impressive for me. It is a

03:23 carbon fibre roof, so this reduces weight by 3.5 kilos, and this actually sits 95mm lower than a

03:30 regular Yaris, which is why I think we'll find that headroom in the back is going to be a little

03:35 bit cramped. But, let's come around to the back. Have a look how wide this is. That is absolutely

03:40 huge at the rear here. So, it's got a big bum on it, and then you can see that roof line really

03:44 slopes down nicely. You've got LED taillights, more GR badging, so one there next to Yaris,

03:48 and then GR4, because this is an all-wheel drive car, and then all round we have 225mm wide rubber.

03:55 So, we are inside the GR Yaris. Let's start with the key. So, to look familiar to you, it looks

04:01 like most other Toyota keys. You've got lock, unlock, Toyota symbol down the bottom, a little

04:05 bit of brushed aluminium there, then on the back you get GR, which is kind of cool. My Supra key

04:10 is just a BMW key, so at least this is a Toyota key. It's a proximity sensing key, so you just

04:14 leave that in your pocket, grab the door handle, then when you get inside you've got a push button

04:17 start, but have a look at that. It's got GR on it. That actually looks really nice and cool.

04:21 Now, what about styling? So, the rest of this just is basically a Yaris in here. So,

04:25 all picks up the same styling treatment as the Yaris, so you're getting these soft touch

04:28 materials along the dashboard, a little cubby hole up there and up there. But, I do love some

04:33 of these touches. So, you've got a little sticker here that says, "Developed for FIA World Rally

04:38 Championship." So, I love that they've included that, but the rest is very much a mirror image

04:42 of the Yaris, and that means there's no centre armrest, but you do have this section along the

04:46 door. It's actually covered in Alcantara, which is kind of cool, but it is pretty firm to touch.

04:50 We've also tested these surfaces with our durometer. If you want to see how it compares

04:54 to other cars that we've tested, just use the link in the description below.

04:58 Now, what about build quality? Well, the new Yaris is actually really impressive in terms of

05:02 build quality, so everything feels nice and solid, and it feels like it'll stand the test of time,

05:07 especially if you're going to do some rallying.

05:08 Let's talk infotainment. So, the GR Yaris comes with a 7-inch infotainment display. It has

05:14 shortcut buttons off to the side, and then it is a touchscreen in the centre. There is also a screen

05:19 ahead of the driver as well. You have smartphone mirroring, both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto,

05:24 but you have to have a cable. It's not a wireless system. And in terms of audio, you have AM, FM

05:29 and DAB plus digital radio. So, I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like. There it is there,

05:33 full screen integration, nice and sharp and quick. Let's have a look at Android Auto.

05:37 Another full screen integration, and again, works fairly well, no lag there.

05:43 This also has inbuilt satellite navigation, so regardless of whether you have a smartphone paired,

05:47 you also have voice recognition. When you do have a smartphone mirroring set up there as well,

05:52 it'll forward through to the phone and use the cloud for voice recognition, which makes it

05:56 a lot more accurate. You've also got a JBL branded eight-speaker sound system.

05:59 And in terms of connectivity, you have one USB port and a 12-volt outlet. Keep in mind though,

06:04 that USB port, once you do have your phone plugged in for smartphone mirroring,

06:08 can only be used for that. You won't be able to charge any other devices.

06:11 Let's talk safety technology. You have autonomous emergency braking. It also has pedestrian

06:16 detection. You've got a blind spot monitor that's built into that wing mirror. You have radar cruise

06:21 control, a lane keeping assistant. But in terms of parking, you don't actually have front or rear

06:25 parking sensors, but you do have a reverse view camera. Let's see what that looks like.

06:29 There it is there. You can see the screen's pretty small and it's slightly low resolution,

06:33 but you get the picture. You can see what's going on. You have wide angle view and also

06:38 normal angle plus guidelines as well. Okay, moving on to practicality and we'll start with

06:43 storage and phones. Where can you put your phones? Well, you've got a slot up here. It's

06:48 slightly gripped, but not a great deal. So it's going to move around a bit there. You've also got

06:51 this storage space here. You can also put your phone in the drink holder plus another spot behind

06:55 it in lieu of that center console. Now in terms of drinks, your coffee cup will fit in there fairly

07:00 easily, but just like in the Hilux, it kind of just sits a little too low. It's hard to get out

07:07 of there easily and there's no cup holders in front of the air vents either. So you're going

07:11 to be stuck with that. But in terms of bottle storage, that easily fits into those two slots.

07:16 Plus in the door, you've got bottle storage there with extra room for odds and ends. And you've got

07:22 a glove box as well that will fit your bottle fairly easily. Okay, let's talk comfort. So you

07:26 have dual zone automatic climate control, headed seats for the front row, heated steering wheel,

07:31 the gear shifter in the GR Yaris also sits 50 millimeters high. So it is easier to shift than

07:36 a standard Yaris. Another curious thing as well, no electronic handbrake here. And that's because

07:41 this actually disconnects the rear axle when you pull it up. So just like a rally car, you want to

07:45 be able to stop sending drive to the rear wheels when you want to go and do a handbrake turn.

07:49 And in terms of the seats themselves, these look sensational. They kind of remind me of the seats

07:53 in my Supra. They've got that Alcantara trim on them, GR insignia up the top, and they're fully

07:58 manually adjustable as well. And the steering wheel, this looks really nice and cool. Sits

08:02 beautifully in the hand, another GR badge there, and then all of your controls are very easy to

08:06 reach. Okay, second row. I'm not going to climb in there. The roof slopes down. It really is

08:12 probably just a kid's zone or a very temporary adult zone, but you have two seats available

08:16 there. You have ISOFIX on the two outboard seats, plus top tether points on those seats as well.

08:21 But I think they're just going to be occasional use seats. Righto, let's talk cargo space. I've

08:26 got some bad news. You're not going to be fitting prams and stuff like that in here, and that is

08:29 because the all-wheel drive system in the rear has raised the boot floor, and that means under the

08:34 cargo floor you've got a battery, a little bit of spare room there, and a tyre repair kit. That's

08:39 about it. So you've got 141 litres of cargo space available. Let's just see if it fits our bags in

08:46 there. I'm getting the feeling it may not. Let's see how we go. Hey, there you go. So it actually

08:52 does fit a full-size suitcase plus a laptop bag, but if you do need some more space, you can

08:59 actually drop that second row, and that gives you a fairly flat load floor. We've just hit the road

09:06 in the Yaris, and I think this is the bit everyone is excited the most about. Let's talk about the

09:10 engine. So this is the world's most powerful three-cylinder engine, and it's hard to believe

09:15 how much power they've extracted out of this. So it's a 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged

09:20 petrol engine, 200 kilowatts of power, 370 newton metres of torque. It is an absolute monster,

09:28 and it only comes with a six-speed manual, so no automatic transmission available. Now,

09:33 what does all that feel like? Well, we're in second gear now, and I'm just going to pin it.

09:36 There's a little bit of lag, but once it comes on boost, it just pins you back in the seat.

09:44 It really is an addictive engine. It's just... And the good thing about all of it is this gear

09:50 shifter. So the clutch is nice and light, but it's still got plenty of feel through it. But the gear

09:54 shifter has a short throw, and as I mentioned earlier, it sits a little bit higher, so it's

09:58 easy to grab, and it's easy to take charge of. In fact, all of this, the whole driving position,

10:03 everything about operating this car just feels really natural. It doesn't feel like it's overdone

10:08 or a super hot hatch, but when you do get stuck into it, it actually feels rewarding and gives you

10:14 the big smile on your face you need when you buy this sort of car. Now, you can heel and toe, and

10:19 I do enjoy a bit of heel-toe. It's fun to try and master, but there is a button down here,

10:23 the IMT, and what that does is it does all the rev matching for you. So we're in third at the

10:28 moment. If I grab second, it'll jump the revs on its own. It is a little bit slow though, so I find

10:34 that if you're on a quick downshift, you can sometimes catch it napping. So it probably is

10:38 just quicker to do it on your own, but you've got the option there just in case you want it.

10:41 One thing I did notice that is probably worth calling out is, just in terms of ergonomics,

10:46 I don't really have anywhere to rest my left foot. I have to squeeze it past the clutch to get to the

10:51 footrest, but the clutch sticks out a little bit, so I'm kind of catching it every time I go to rest

10:56 my left foot. Okay, let's talk fuel economy. So Toyota's official claim is 7.6 litres per 100

11:03 kilometres. Now, keep in mind this isn't our car, and we haven't had a chance to drive it for a

11:08 super long time. We're averaging 13.3. We have been driving it pretty hard and a little bit on

11:14 the track here as well. So keep in mind that is still a pretty impressive figure when you consider

11:18 how much power and torque this car makes. It's not like it's just some little buzz box. This is a

11:22 fairly hardcore hot hatch. I want to quickly touch on some other key points about the engine here. So

11:27 one side of it has a hydraulic engine mount to reduce the vibration that you inherently feel

11:31 with a three-cylinder, an inline three-cylinder engine. You have a single turbocharger, and then

11:36 the all-wheel drive system. It's fully variable, so it means that it's able to vary torque 100 to

11:40 zero or zero to 100 between the front and rear, but it does have some preset drive modes that

11:45 we'll go through in a second. Normal is just your regular driving mode. That's 70% of torque to the

11:49 front, 30% of torque to the rear. Sport does the opposite, sends most of the torque to the rear,

11:54 and then you have a track mode as well, and the track mode just does a 50/50 split between the

11:58 front and rear axles. There is also another version of this car coming. It's called the

12:02 Track Package Overseas, but in Australia it'll be called the GR Yaris Rallye, and that comes with

12:08 front and rear locking differentials, lightweight wheels, different coloured brake calipers,

12:12 and a few other bits and pieces that are changed as well. That's going to be for your hardcore

12:17 track enthusiast. I suspect when we start pushing this a little harder, it will feel like it's

12:21 understeering a little bit, but for the most part this is going to do the job for the regular track

12:25 day or just, you know, putting a smile on your face on a weekday. Now what about the ride? This

12:29 is probably the bit that's most surprising for me. There are no adaptive dampers, and the ride is

12:33 fantastic. So most other cars in this segment, your hot hatches, especially things like the

12:37 Civic Type R, they can just be overly firm and just over the top in terms of the way that they

12:43 feel out on the road. This is a little bumpy at low speeds, but once you're driving along,

12:47 it really just sucks everything up nicely, and it just isn't over the top, despite the fact it has

12:51 the performance credentials to suggest that it's going to be way over the top. Let's talk

12:55 visibility. So being a Yaris, it is literally tiny, so I can see clearly out the front. Yes,

13:00 it is wider than a normal Yaris, but for the most part I don't have any dramas with placing the car.

13:05 At the back, visibility is good. It is a very small window there, but, you know, you can easily

13:10 see out of it. Now one thing you will notice, and it is really noticeable once the speed picks up,

13:14 you're doing highway speeds, is the amount of tyre noise that comes into the cabin. It can get

13:18 really droney as well. This is kind of an inherent issue when they develop bespoke platforms like

13:23 this. You know, you go for performance, but it comes at the compromise of noise insulation and

13:28 that kind of thing. So that is one little side point to mention if you're doing a lot of highway

13:32 driving. Probably something that will become noticeable over time. Okay, so we're back on the

13:38 racetrack, but I just want to give you a quick caveat here. Because this isn't our car, we're

13:42 doing this slightly differently. We're not going to be able to drive this on public twisty roads

13:46 today, so we have this private section of racetrack, but I think it'll give us a good

13:50 understanding of how the car feels. Let's see what this is like once we get stuck into it a bit.

13:56 So that's normal mode. Let's go over to sport mode. Normal mode's really nice and sharp and

14:01 raspy. It's actually quite hard to complain, but sport mode makes the throttle even sharper. It

14:07 plums more of that noise, that fake noise, into the cabin. Even there with the heel-toe,

14:12 it's a little more responsive. Far out. This thing is a missile. So in that sport mode,

14:21 it's sending 70% of torque to the rear and 30% of torque to the front, and that means that you get a

14:26 slightly more engaging feel behind the wheel. You feel like it's a bit more of a rear-wheel

14:30 drive car, but at any point, it can actually send up to 100% of torque to the rear if it has to.

14:35 That means that this thing can actually do four-wheel drive burnouts. I love how flat it

14:39 sits. So despite the fact it doesn't have adaptive dampers, it's sitting nice and flat through

14:44 corners. The steering is incredibly responsive and it's so connected to the wheel. It's almost

14:50 like they've created the perfect little hot hatch here. It is just so planted to the road.

14:56 I don't know, I'm just seriously blown away by this. I was not expecting it to be this good.

15:03 Things like the Fiesta ST still feel really nice and fast, but this just, it's on another level,

15:09 and they've just done a remarkable job in making it feel like a really well-planted hot hatch that

15:14 you could just use on a rally track if you wanted to. It is super cool. So what I want to do now is

15:19 actually just try flicking over to track mode. See how much of a difference there is there.

15:24 Actually sounds like there's a whole lot more noise in the cabin.

15:30 I'd actually be interested to hear what it sounds like without the

15:35 noise because I can't really put my finger on it.

15:37 Tip it into here.

15:39 Far out. This is seriously, seriously impressive. Okay, let's talk about the brakes. So I noticed

15:48 the pedal, I don't know, it's a bit like my Supra where if I stand on it, yeah, I'm getting like a

15:54 proper stonking of that brake, but if you ride the pedal, it actually feels like it goes long.

16:00 It doesn't feel like it's confidence inspiring. So I don't know whether that's just a tuning thing

16:06 with Toyota or whether it's deliberate, but I think the brake pedal could have a little bit more feel.

16:10 Okay, the other negative I've got to call out is just that noise. It's

16:17 just sounds really fake. I know that the car doesn't sound like that with that noise and

16:21 I can't see a way to switch all that off. So yeah, I'd be curious to see what this

16:25 sounded like with all of that disabled. A lot of tuners are currently working on

16:29 exhaust packages for these. So I think that once you throw an exhaust on and figure out a way to

16:34 disable this, because in the Supra, there is a way to just make the sort of fake noise that

16:38 comes into the cabin go away. And I think that once you do that, stick an exhaust on this,

16:42 this really will be the complete hot hatch package. I'm just finding it super hard to

16:46 fault in terms of the way that it drives here on the track. I think if we took it out onto a

16:51 public road where it was a little bumpier, I'd be interested to see how it responds.

16:55 But in terms of a track day car, this is damn impressive.

16:58 Okay, so let's do some performance testing. Toyota claims a 0 to 100 time of 5.2 seconds.

17:06 I want to see how close we can get to that. I'm not a professional driver, so I just want to see

17:09 how close we can get to that figure. And I'll also point out at this stage that it is slightly,

17:13 slightly uphill here. So the times are going to be a little less than what we would normally expect,

17:18 but this is all we could secure at late notice for this. So let's give this a shot. First up,

17:23 we're going to put it into sport mode, but leave stability control on for our first run.

17:27 Now, the owner of this car has told me that he launches it from some astronomical RPM,

17:31 but I genuinely don't want to break the car. So let's just see how we go. I'll try from around

17:36 sort of 3000 with a slight clutch slip. Here we go.

17:40 God, that is quick.

17:48 That is seriously impressive. I enjoyed that. Wow, okay, 5.4 seconds. That is straight out

17:59 of the box, just in sport mode. Right, let's try that again. This time around,

18:03 sport mode, stability control off. So it's a push of that button. It comes up with all

18:07 the messages. Now I'm going to raise the RPM here a little bit because it did bog down out there at

18:11 the start. So I think it actually has a little bit more latitude there before it slips. Up to

18:16 about 4000. Kind of holds it there, which is good. Let the clutch out a little bit.

18:24 Oh, it feels better.

18:24 Far out. This thing is quick. Okay, 5.4 seconds again. Okay, this time around it is track mode.

18:38 I'm going to keep stability control up, but dial up the revs a little bit more,

18:42 and we'll see if we can just get a touch more out of it. Okay, here we go.

18:46 I'll have it up just over 4000 RPM.

18:49 That felt good.

18:56 Okay. All right, 5.7 seconds. That one was even slower. So it looks like sport mode is actually

19:08 the mode that you want to go for. Okay, it's time for us to do the quarter mile run. So what I'm

19:11 going to do is go to the fastest mode, which was sport with stability control off, and we will see

19:18 how we go. I hate launching it at such a high RPM, but that's what's getting it off the line.

19:25 Love the noise that's coming into the cabin already. Here we go. 120,

19:40 130, 140, 50, 60, 70.

19:45 It's a Yaris. It is absolutely hammering. Okay, what time did we get? So our 0-100 was 5.4,

19:58 and let's have a look at the quarter mile. So quarter mile was 13.7 seconds at 168 kilometers

20:05 an hour. Now, the guy that owns this, he's actually done his own testing before they started doing

20:10 tuning. He's a drag racer, so he knows how to properly launch it, and he's more willing to be

20:15 a little more aggressive with the car, but he has managed a sub-five second 0-100 kilometer

20:21 an hour time. Oh, that is impressive stuff. So, Toyota GR Yaris. Just have a look at it.

20:28 How ridiculous is it? In this day and age of cost cutting, it actually blows my mind that Toyota

20:32 has managed to come up with a car that sits on its own bespoke platform that is an all-wheel drive

20:37 ball-tearer. I mean, it just blows me away that they've put so much effort into this, and I am

20:41 so, so happy that they did. So if you have bought one, my hat goes off to you. I am extremely

20:46 jealous. I think you're going to really enjoy it and have some fun with it. I'm also keen to see

20:50 what tuners get out of these, because at first glance, it seems like they're already starting

20:54 to achieve some pretty impressive numbers. So keep an eye on that space as well if you do plan

20:57 on modifying it. So as a daily, it's good. As a track car, it's good. It is let down a little

21:02 bit by that fake noise. I just wish you could switch that off. And the brake pedal feel just

21:06 isn't quite there for me, but this is all stuff that you can probably fix aftermarket. This kind

21:10 of feels like the car that should have been the 86, or at least put that engine in the 86. So,

21:14 fingers crossed that they actually do that. Let me know in the comments section below. I know this

21:18 has been like a very glowing and praising review. We haven't had a massive amount of time with the

21:22 car, but I have been blown away with exactly what they've been able to do with it. So let me know

21:27 in the comments section below, have you ordered one? What colour did you order it in? And are you

21:31 going to wait around for the Rallye package that brings all the locking diffs and all that kind of

21:36 stuff? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Now, if you did enjoy this video, make sure you

21:39 hit like and also hit subscribe, and don't forget the bell icon because that'll tell you every

21:43 single time we drive cars like this. But until next time, take it easy.

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