The Toyota Yaris became a part of the Throttle Blips long term garage sometime in June this year and it was my choice of commute by default for the next couple of months that it stayed with us. We finally bid good bye to it earlier this month, so now would be a good time to sum up the driving experience and what it is like to live with.

Most of the commute over its tenure with us has been in slow traffic, no thanks to the heavy metro construction that has taken over Mumbai. There’s just barricades and diversions wherever you go. It is in these scenarios that you appreciate the CVT of the Yaris. The gearbox is smooth shifting and and will take u through the thickest of traffic without a hiccup. If you want to play around a bit, this top end VX also gets paddle shifters. The engine is refined too and does its job well. That said, the Yaris is not a car that will pull the heart strings of the driving enthusiast in you. Fuel efficiency hovered around 9-10 kpl at most times and the worst I got was a 5.7 in extreme bumper to bumper scenes.

The dashboard is functional and every control falls right at hand. The instrument cluster is clear to read and I like the MID display. The animation that plays when you start the car is quite cool as well. The fake stitching on the dash and steering isn’t to my liking. The touch screen looks outdated and the display is very 90s. There is also a lag in operation, and on a number of occasions, I couldn’t answer calls via Bluetooth because the system would just hang. I mentioned this in the earlier report as well. Also, the positioning of the centre arm rest is ergonomically weird.

Contd…