2021 Toyota GR Yaris AWD Hot Hatch Review

I hate to bust a nut too early, but this GR Yaris is HOT HOT HOT. Toyota is back in the rally game but they’re not just kicking the door in, they’ve only gone and blown it of its hinges.

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Stunning Looks

GR Yaris is everything her frumpy 5-door sister isn’t

Bugling muscular wheel arches with 18” ENKEI alloys look evil, in their inky blackness..

It hunkers down, all low and mean. The blacked carbon fibre roof is the same as what they use over at Lamborghini, for a million times the price. LEDs light the front and rear with the glare of small suns, but these lights long with the mirrors, are shared with the dowdy Doris 5-door. The rest is all gym-bunny GR.

As they say around at Lotus, “add less weight,” and this is something Toyota took to heart. GR Yaris weighs a mere 1280kg. The roof is carbon fibre, and the doors, hatch and bonnet are aluminium, meaning a 24kg weight saving over the 5-door. I didn’t mind the 5-door but it now looks so pedestrian, that I’d rather crawl over broken glass than drive it again after being seduced by the beauteous body.

GR Yaris is pure WRC. Neil Bates Motorsport is ripping a pair of road-going GR Yaris 3-doors down to the floorboards. RWC rules have a minimum weight of 1200kg, so the Bates team will have to add ballast. They’ll be canny about where it is put

Above: This Week’s VIDEO Car Review -2021 Toyota GR Yaris AWD HOT HATCH Review

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ABOVE: 2021 Toyota GR Yaris

The Inside doesn’t quite match the outside

The bulging body goes some way for compensating for the low-rent cabin. The nasty plakky bits are covered by a Batman theme, and who doesn’t like a little bit of black action.

The JBL sound system does the job, and the 7” LCD screen includes DAB and Apple CarPlay/Android auto, bringing Toyota in to the current decade . The heads-up display , traditional dials, and 4.2” MFD bring all the driver data to where it is most useful.

GR Racing seats look impressive but need more lateral support for corners that need tighter hip-hugging. Rear seats lay flat, 60/40, but are useless for anyone but legless yoga masters.

The cabin is bijou and there is no point pretending otherwise

You’re part of it, and it seduces the driver, even if the passengers is not quite as impressed.

The Engine:

The 1.6L is a 3-cylinder turbo is a peach. With 200kw/370Nm, it gets to 100 in 5.2 seconds which is more than enough to be going on with.

The manual 6-speed has a rev-matching button, but it turns off when the engine is stopped. It is a bit of a bugger because whenever you start the engine, you have to press the button.

The GR-Four AWD system has drive mode options: normal, sport, and track. The front/rear power split is 60/40, 30/70, and 50/50 respectively. Even on the crappiest days when the rain is apocalyptic, it simply refuses to put a foot wrong. The traction control may as well take a holiday.

The $5,000 “Rallye” version adds harder suspension and Torsen Limited Slip Diffs front and rear. Don’t bother, save the bucks for cocktails on a cruise ship instead.

The drive:

GR Yaris howls, but doesn’t spit and carry on like Golf R. None the less, it makes you work for your dinner. Shifting gears is sublime with a clutch so light, you could add cream and have it for pudding

Around town, the 1.6L 3-pot sounds a little bit like a hair dryer with a buggered bearing. That throaty note really gets on my tits, but when taken to the raggedy edge, it rewards you in a way that makes you want to touch yourself inappropriately.

We took GR Yaris over a bunch of roads, from the crappy to the credible. They ranged from billiard table, to wash board and moon crater, with long sweeping bends giving way to straights and tight switchbacks. You’re kept on your toes and although there is a lot of wheel action, you’re kept smiling like a kid at Christmas.

Even on the most appalling surfaces, GR Yaris bent over for another smackin’. I may have detected my drive partner’s gills getting a little green. I can’t think why.

Suspension is a bit pf MacPherson Strut action at the front, with trailing multilinks around back, backed up by front and rear stabilisers for good measure.

After a week of strenuous trial, the 50L tank took a whole 41 litres to fill.

There are a couple of areas for improvement

It’s a fact that the bad makes the good all the more piquant.

The tacky plakky bits feel like a much cheaper car, but GR Yaris is about the drive. I get that, but it is many shekels to pay for a cabin that feels like it might not last to the end of the block.

There is 141L in the boot is ok for a car this size but, as I said, rear seats are fit only for infants, and let’s face it, who wants kids in a hot hatch anyway.

The glove box is petite, as are the door bins. There are trinket trays on the facia of the dash, which holds a phone even in stomach churning corners, but other stuff will go flying. The is another trinket tray at the rear of the console, and 2 cup holders that you’ll slip a disc reaching back for.

For a car that is meant to be thrown at warp 10 corners, side bolsters needed to be big and bolder, with much more hug.

Cabin noise, particularly at highway speed, was abominable. Tyres made a drumming noise, nicely accompanied by wind noise around the window seals. The exhaust drone gets on your goat after a few hours too.

Hot hatch ride is notoriously hard. Some get around it with expensive adjustable suspension but there is none of that here. I had jiggling bits where I didn’t even know I had bits

Conclusion

Even though I had growing pains, I adored GR Yaris, and would happily buy one.

Despite my jubblies doing a hula on those crappy roads, I was smiling the whole time. I overcame the noise by turning the DAB up, and the looks and comments from others made me chuffed.

At $49,900 plus on-roads, the price is way more than I’d want to pay, but there it is. Either you do or you don’t, and the sales speak for themselves. I always wonder whether, after laying down the readies, I’d feel lust a little shafted. My favourite hot hatch is a Golf GTi (or GTI depending on the week) and it is only several shillings more.

Price: $49,500

Engine: 3-cyl Turbo Petrol (Euro 6)

Power: 200kw/370Nm

CO2 g/km: 172

Econ L/100k: 7.6 (we achieved 8.5)

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