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Motoramic2015 Toyota Yaris review: The soft bigotry of low expectations
It's small, French and affordable — but not much else
Somewhere, deep inside the Toyota Yaris, there’s a really good car trying to get out.
Toyota’s scrunchy subcompact hatchback is great at pinching pennies. It enjoys some of the lowest total ownership costs — counting payments, fuel, maintenance, insurance and so on — of any automobile.
Subtly restyled by Toyota’s European studios and built in France, the 2015 Yaris looks a bit more polished and less utilitarian in either three- or five-door configurations. It’s stiffer, quieter and less Spartan than before, and positively stuffed with safety features for a budget hatch that starts at $15,670.
Best of all, the Yaris has seriously underrated handling. Lightweight and eager, it’s got the right-now steering response that’s often been missing in Toyota’s lineup.
But that’s about all the love I can muster for the Yaris.
A breathless four-cylinder engine that defines the word “doldrums,” equally indifferent transmissions and a general shortage of style, ambition and ingenuity leave the Yaris near the bottom of the minnow pool. Despite improvements for 2015, the Toyota remains swarmed by budget hatches that do everything it can do, only better: The Honda Fit, Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Sonic, Mazda2 and Hyundai Accent.
The Yaris’ upgrades begin with a gaping maw that recalls the Manta Rays I dove with on the big island of Hawaii, where we drove the Yaris. On a car so tiny, the mouth seems enough to inhale an ocean’s worth of krill. Overall length grows by two inches, but that’s strictly a function of the restyled bumpers, with no gains in passenger or cargo space. An SE grade perks up the visuals with 16-inch alloy wheels, sleek LED daytime running lights, a piano-black grille and a rear spoiler. More importantly perhaps, that SE model adds four-wheel disc brakes and slightly sportier steering and suspension tuning.
Negotiating a volcanic mountainside road in the Kona coffee belt — where dozens of small coffee farms cater to tourists — the Yaris SE shot from corner to corner in caffeinated fashion. That’s the pleasant surprise: Aside from the Scion FR-S sports car from Toyota’s youth division, the Yaris has the most agile, entertaining handling in the Toyota family. Additional spot welds help stiffen the body structure. There’s also a mildly retuned suspension and a soupcon of added sound insulation.
