Yaris T-Sport - A Fistful of Fun In A Half-Pint Pot (Toyota Yaris in general)

Member Name: Nibelung

Product:	Toyota Yaris in general
Date:	02/03/02 (12564 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good value for equipment level, Equal to many GTi's without the insurance grief

Disadvantages: Harder than average ride

Having sacrificed my family-sized 2-litre saloon a while ago, so that my wife could be the next to have a new car (pause for hearts and flowers, violins etc), in her case a right-hand-drive Smart, I'd been pottering around in our other car, (by default officially "mine" it seemed), judging by the minuscule number of hours I was spending behind the Smart's wheel!

Don't get me wrong, the car I refer to, is a Nissan Micra, a sterling bit of machinery that served us well on a few long journeys lately like London to Morpeth or the Lake District, since it had become our de facto "big" car.

However, there was only so much deprivation a lad could stand. Wot, no CD player or air-con? Waaahh!!!

Most definitely not. The Micra's claim to luxury stopped at rear wash-wipe and central locking! Oh yes, and it had SEATS!

So, with the impending 02 registrations about to appear on the streets, our hero set about finding himself a worthy replacement. Criteria? Not necessarily any bigger, but with more loads more oomph and loaded with boy's toys.

In the past, I've always enjoyed the concept of a small car with a generous engine size, my Mark 1 Golf GTi and my Renault 5 1.7 GTX being two cases in point. My experience shows that good fuel consumption needn't be sacrificed in these cases, as when cruising, they are still essentially small cars. It's only when you take part in the traffic light drag race that it all goes pear-shaped, cost-wise.

Since the Toyota Yaris launched a couple of years ago, I've always thought that its cheeky off-beat styling would lend itself to a sportier version to top the range off, so to speak.

Well, since April last year, it's had one, the Yaris 1.5 T-Sport.

Only the 3-door version is available in the UK. My guess is that the 5-door just wouldn't look the part, although you can import one from Europe.

There&#
39;s something about the 3-door version of any hatchback, which, when "warmed up" like the T-Sport, says, "If you don't like my back seat, get the bus".

To a certain extent, it also looks a bit more coupe-like which all helps with its image. On the practical side, it also helps stiffen the body-shell of a car modified for a firmer ride.

So, outwardly at least, the T-Sport is a 3-door Yaris (which, depending on whether you like the styling, could be good or bad), with, predictably, all those so-called aerodynamic bits like a rear spoiler, and all-round underskirts with built in front fog-lamps.

Oh yes, and don't forget the lowered suspension with compulsory low profile 6-spoke alloy wheels with lockable nuts (ouch!).

If that all sounded a bit too sarcastic, then I must be sending myself up, because I've bought one, "boy-racer" bits and all. They don't make "old-git-racers", so this'll have to do!

Very nice it looks too, sat there on our drive, in dark Caribbean Blue metallic paint. Unlike the TV ads, I haven't started peeking at it through the curtains, or pulling the blinds whenever I'm kissing the wife (or whoever is in snog-range).

THE PURCHASE PROCESS

The On-The-Road UK dealer price is £12,270, including the metallic paint option. You'll be hard put to it to specify extras, but I'll deal with that later.

So, what about importers and car supermarkets? Almost to a man (person?), they all claim to have this car listed at under 10 grand. Aha, great savings you'd think, but make sure you are comparing like for like.

For instance, perusal of www.broadspeed.com would give you the impression that the car would cost £9763 including their £150 booking fee. Very interesting. Now watch.

The following additions are all needed to compare like-for-like.

Plus metallic paint = £9963
Plus r
oad tax and 1st registration fee = £10098
Plus 'managed home-delivery' from France, where they are made = £10897
Plus extended warranty = £10996.
Plus window-etching and Thatcham-approved remote alarm* = £11544
Plus one year's subscription to a car recovery organisation, say at £70** = £11614

*this MAY also mean having two key fobs, whereas with the 'official' version, it's part of the immobiliser sequence.
**Toyota's three-year UK warranty includes the first year with the RAC

Voilà - STILL a saving of around £656, or approx 5% (and delivered to your door on a truck).

So why am I sticking with a local dealer ('Currie Motors - Nice Business to Do People With')?

Well it's partly that fact that I could have had the car straight away, being that it was in the showroom. It was me who opted to wait 4 weeks for the 02 registrations.

Broadspeed want you to wait 16, yes 16, weeks. Other sites like www.oneswoop.com even wanted 26 weeks, (or 6 months, as they were so anxious to avoid saying). This gives you little control over delivery, since these dates could quite easily slip (that never happens, of course!) and therefore prevents you gleaning the maximum 6-month's 'flash git' benefit from a new registration.

Anyhow, a wait like that is quite clearly more than a lad, deprived of toys for months already, could stand.

Also, buying from a local dealer gives you the option to trade in your old machine, albeit it at trade prices. This gives you a clean changeover, with no duplicated ownership and insurance whilst the world and his wife 'umm and aah' over whether to buy your old one from you (and possibly make a mental note to come back and steal your CD/DVD collection some time).

It's either that or you sell the outgoing model ASAP and do without a car in the interim. Not an option for me as I need a hatchback to
transport my pushbike for my job, believe it or not. I only TEACH children to ride a bike - the job specification said nothing about being FIT enough to cycle there!

Another concern for me relates to warranty work. If, within minutes of the car-transporter leaving the end of my road, I discover a fault, how do I get it fixed? Off to Currie Motors, tail between legs, I suppose. At least with a local purchase, I've got a door to break down with God on my side!

Anyway, that's why I decided to pay through my own particular nose - you may think that £656 is worth taking a very minor risk for, especially since all Toyotas have a three-year international warranty.

The only minor problem I have with the official UK dealer price is this..if they are made in France and the Euro has slipped considerably against Sterling since its launch, how come these benefits haven't percolated through to the On-The-Road price, which has been the same for months? One can only assume that the dealers will all be having an extra holiday (in France probably) this year.

THE YARIS IN GENERAL

Finally, Billy Nibbles, unofficial chairperson of the Dooyoo Rambler's Association gets to the point!

For those not acquainted, the Yaris is a 3/5 door hatchback in the 'bigger than a Ka - but then aren't most things?' size bracket.

It was voted European Small Car of the Year in 2000. It comes out as one of the safest 'superminis'? in the NCAP safety tests

It's also been likened to the Tardis, i.e. small on the outside and enormous inside, a bit like my wife's handbag in fact.

There's no denying that the interior is spacious, but it's the way in which you can configure the back seat that makes it particularly versatile. Not only does it have the usual 60/40 split, with the option to tumble the whole lot forwards to create a level load area, but you can also slide the re
ar seats back and forwards over a range of about 6" to create more baggage-, or more leg-room, but obviously not at the same time!

Tumbling the whole seat forwards does leave the front seats slightly restricted from their full travel. Long-shanked drivers might want to check this out if they intend the Yaris to be a part-time load carrier.

Headroom is exemplary, and on a par with my old Micra without looking so Noddycar-like.

Extras, or should I say 'the levels of appointment' in the Yaris are excellent.

'Aircon' as standard cuts in at one up from the base model. Thanks to the digital instrument binnacle, they all qualify for the fuel consumption and trip computer, something that I have found very interesting on a long run if only to see how high you can get the m.p.g. figures to go (of course, you'll be two hours late, but what wotdehell?).

Ah yes, the wonders of freewheeling and slipstreaming removal vans - it all comes back to me now - I once managed to squeeze 59 m.p.g, from a 2-litre Primera GT on a 200 mile run doing this!

Servicing is now only every two years, with an interim oil-change annually. Insurance costs are commendably low considering the market it's pitched at. My own insurers only wanted a further £54 (compared to the Micra) for the remaining 6 months of this year, which bodes well for the future, especially since I've got one more year's 'no-claims' to accumulate.

I take my hat off to storage space in the Yaris. Cubbyholes abound. There is a fold-UP glove box, a fold-DOWN glove box, cubby-holes either side of the glove boxes, a hidden tray under the passenger seat and numerous ingle-nooks and door pockets to put 'stuff' into.

UPDATE - Before accusing the car of rattling, check all these storage boxes. I've had two instances where I thought the rot had set in (I hate rattly cars!) - both of these were put down to
carelessly-stored goods.

My only real criticism of the Yaris' body style is the way in which the high rear cuts down visibility through the back screen. The three rear head rests don't help either, and these were the first items to get put in the outside porch until needed. Coupled with the air-spoiler at the top of the rear screen, it all starts to feel a bit like peering through a letterbox.

THE T-SPORT IN PARTICULAR

Now we're getting somewhere. The T-Sport's VVT-i 1500c.c.engine pushes out about 105 b.h.p, which means that its power-to-weight ratio (approx 115 b.h.p./per ton) is about the same as my old Golf GTi, giving it a top speed of about 118 m.p.h. and that all-important 0-60 time of a 'gnat's-whisker' under 9 seconds. Not THE hottest hatch around but warm enough to fit my 'generous engine + oomph' criteria without giving my insurers apoplexy (and me when I see the quote!)

To be frank, the outright 0-60 figure is a bit academic to me, and most cars with an 'under 10' capability can seem nippy at the very least, especially to the passengers. Personally, I've never achieved anywhere near the stated timings in ANY of my cars. I'm just too kind to the clutch and gears, and possibly too miserly to waste petrol like that I guess!

The T-Sport has what is known as a close-ratio gearbox, the fifth ratio of which leaves the engine a bit busy at motorway cruising speed, and I wouldn't be the first person to suggest that maybe Toyota should have extended the sporting credentials of this car to a sixth gear.

Still on the subject of gears, I am finding the T-Sport's gear-shift a trifle notchy, and dare I say it, not as good as the Micra's. However, the clutch is commendably light with very short pedal travel, although I did have to take a little time getting used to the pedal spacing without stamping 'me plates of meat' on the wrong thing!


Despite its spritely potential, and high-revving engine, its official 'extra-urban' fuel consumption is still 48.7 m.p.g. The basic 1-litre Yaris only betters this by 7 m.p.g. Even our Smart struggles to better 60 m.p.g. The Variable Valve Timing (VVT) plays a large part in the fuel economy by adjusting the intake of fuel and exhausting of spent gases 'on the fly' so the car retunes itself for the current driving conditions all the time.

UPDATE - Having just returned from a short touring holiday to Devon, with a combiantion of motorway and rural driving, I achieved an overall 46.3 m.p.g. over about 400 miles, so the 48.7 does look "do-able"

I HAD read in the motoring press that the ride was over-firm and the engine noisily-strained when pushed (aren't we all?) but my own experience is not so. OK, it's a harder ride than the average family saloon, but I suppose it all depends on where you're coming FROM.

Me? I'm fresh from a 1-litre Micra, which is definitely 'noisily-strained when pushed' or the Smart my wife uses. Not the world's softest ride - the car I mean, you rude person!

In contrast, the likes of our old pal, 'Tosser' Clarkson, and others of the motoring press, have just got out of their 'Phwoarmobiles' and liable to be a tad hyper-critical.

Given free rein, the T-Sport is an amusing little devil to chuck around, and goes almost exactly where it's pointed. The power steering seems to give just the right amount of help, and never feels too light to me.

Noisy surfaces can intrude a bit, largely down to the lower profile (15" rim -185/50) wider tyres giving a harsher less cosseted ride but the Yaris T-Sport is by no means unique there.

Long runs promise to be comfortable, if my first day's 'shake-down cruise' is anything to go by, for front seat passengers at least, and they're all I care abo
ut really, remembering what I said about buses earlier.

The front seats are the predictably sporty side-supporting kind (do they still call those 'buckets'?)

One benefit of the lower, stiffer ride is that it dampens the ordinary Yaris' tendency to lean a bit on corners, the payback to all that headroom and ride-height. I'm glad to report, that despite the firmer ride, nothing rattles, creaks or vibrates after my 'shake-down cruise'.

The standard single-CD player/radio combination, which is shaped to be unique to the dashboard, and hopefully useless to thieves, is a good bit of kit to tap your fingers to (on the two-tone leather steering wheel), but I think I'll also pay for the cassette deck upgrade which slots into the space under the CD player, not because I believe in 'steam technology' but because I want to play my mp3 player through an adapter. Despite the disclaimers in the handbook, it WILL play recorded CD's, i.e CD-R's and CD-RW's, as well as the normal shop-bought ones, so the ability to play very cheap disks (50p each) cuts down the risk that the car could get broken into for its contents.

The standard digital instrumentation is out, and sporty white dials are back in, at least for the speedo- and tacho-meters.

No - the latter does not measure your tolerance to Mexican food, it's the 'rev' counter.

There is a curious lack of other instrumentation - the only indication that you get of engine warmth is when a blue indicator to show you it is cold goes out!

It's rather odd to be driving along with no instruments directly in front of you (they're centrally-placed and angled towards you from beneath a well-shaded hood), but anyone with a soft spot for the old Mini will remember this phenomenon. When driving in the dark, you come to appreciate instruments that are not, shall we say, so "in your face".

In kee
ping with its offbeat outer appearance, interior trim is, well, a bit odd. The T-Sport can't seem to make its mind up whether it is going for the luxury or sporty 'carbon-fibred' panel look, and we have a series of matt silver-effect knobs and levers, silvery leather wheel and gear knob, and rather sombre almost black upholstery. I SUPPOSE it works.

Having sat in my next-door neighbour's Lexus (for 'Lexus' read posh Toyota) LS200 Sport, I kind of see where the T-Sport is coming from, but how it'l look by the end of the three-year warranty period is anyone's guess.

I mentioned the level of appointment in the T-Sport earlier, and it really is a strain to pick something it hasn?t got that it needs.

Tinted glass? Got it. Electric mirrors and windows? Got 'em.

Aircon with pollen filter? Yep!

Tilt and slide sunroof? Of course!

ABS with EBD? Naturellement, mes vieux! (as the first bit was in a foreign language, just thought I'd continue the theme)

Electric Khyber-warmer with built-in adjustable foreplay? Errr..no, I don't think it has!

ONE WORD OF CAUTION - The alarm system is extremely sensitive, thankfully, not to wind or passing cars, but to body heat on the outside of the car - even washing it triggers the alarm as you pass the sponge over the glass sun roof, or pressing your nose to the glass to look at the mileage reading.

Apparently, it can be de-sensitised by the dealers, although they would probably advise against anything which steps down the car's level of security.

Even turning the alarm off doesn't help because it re-arms itself in 30 seconds if you don't get in and drive away. The only solution seems to be, to open one door with the alarm off - this stops it re-arming, and then closing the door after the 30-second time-out period.

You can check that it hasn't re-armed by checking that the LED
by the handbrake isn't flashing.

Also, there is no 'pet' over-ride for those leaving a dog in the car, so unless you drug Rover until he's comatose, off goes the alarm!

If I have one other criticism to make, it's that the instruction manual has no information about the alarm whatsoever (presumably since the T-Sport is the only Yaris to have it fitted as standard).

This version vies with the Yaris 1.3 CDX for maximum gadgetry, but if you want an automatic gearbox, then the CDX, and a flat in Hove it would have to be.

If you're after growing old DIS-gracefully, get a T-Sport and hack off down to Nice with a good-looking hitchhiker with legs up to her ....well, to the top of her legs anyway!

As you look left to check your speed in the central instrument panel, they should at the very least be in your peripheral vision!

So there it is, my new toy and main workhorse all rolled into one snappy little package, and long may it reign.

Riviera, anyone? You bring the legs, I'll buy the petrol.

FINANCING IT

As an adjunct to the above, I financed about 2/3rds of the cost through an on-line loan from Cahoot, which has an excellent APR of 7%, and is so flexible that you can alter the regular payments on a monthly basis, and make extra ones too. The only stipulation is that you make at least a 1.75% reduction to the amount outstanding every month (or £50 if this is larger). There is no penalty for early redemption, and you are free to start drawing money from the account all over again whenever you like up to the agreed credit limit, so it's probably worth thinking about consolidating other debts like 'plastic' while you're at it.

God, I'm starting to sound like one of those day-time TV ads for 'curing' your debt problems! It's time to go when that happens!

Summary: