Call me eccentric if you like, but I’m a large man who loves small cars. Add to that my passion for three cylinder engines and the new Toyota Yaris T1 just has to appeal. Still, I had reservations about the ability of the little one-litre unit to motivate the Yaris very well – as small cars go, the Toyota is comparatively heavy, thanks to all the bells ‘n whistles that are built in as standard. While not too heavy on their own, the accumulated mass of all these bitsas plus a battery and alternator powerful enough to operate them can’t help but have an effect on the performance of a 51 kW car.
The Yaris T1’s three-cylinder engine is not derived from the current Daihatsu Charade, which is what I’d expected. Toyota owns a large chunk of Daihatsu, and with all the manufacturers these days habitually sharing platforms and engines it would have made sense to find the three-cylinder Daihatsu engine slotted under the Toyota’s bonnet. The current Charade, however displaces 989 cm3 against the Toyota’s 996, and produces 41 kW compared with the 51 of the Yaris T1. Curious about the origins of the 1KR-FE unit in the Yaris, I trawled the Internet, and found out that Toyota / Daihatsu were, unsurprisingly, a couple of steps ahead of me. The new engine was jointly developed by the two Japanese manufacturers for use in a minicar badged as the Passo by Toyota, and the Boon by Daihatsu. Toyota South Africa tells us that the Yaris T1 is but one leg of their replacement strategy for the discontinued Tazz, so let’s hope we’ll be hearing about the arrival of the cheaper Passo some time in the not too distant future.
Despite its diminutive size, the KR-FE engine does a pretty good job of moving the heavy Yaris along. Acceleration from a standstill at sea level is, as one would expect, adequate rather than exciting, and the factory claims a 0-100 km/h time of 15,7 seconds on the way to a top speed of 155 km/h. The now discontinued Tazz, with a 1,3 litre engine producing just 4 kW and 10 Nm more, gets to 100 km/h in a second and a half less, before topping out at 159 km/h. The little triple thrives on revs, and emits a delicious howl as the rev-counter needle approaches the red line. Once it’s overcome the initial inertia from standstill the car gallops along well enough, and the fact that you can thrash it everywhere and enjoy the three cylinder acoustics without doing ridiculous speeds makes the car huge fun to drive aggressively. Cruising at 120 – 145 km/h is easy-peasy, even on uphills, as long as you don’t get stuck behind slow moving traffic. Regaining momentum to pass on as ascent takes a little stirring of the gearlever and concentration on the road ahead.
The Yaris comes in an all-new three-door body shell, as well as in the now-established five-door format. All models are well specced, coming with dual front airbags, ABS brakes with EBD and emergency brake-assist, a multi-function info display, rear windscreen wiper, a stowage tray under the front passenger seat, 60/40 split rear seat, tilt adjustable steering column, headlamp-on warning buzzer, electrically adjustable side mirrors and digital instrumentation. The more upmarket version of the T1 gives you extras like electric windows, aircon, a leather steering wheel cover, and a sound system. Prices range from R89 990 for the base model three-door, to R105 400 for the full-house Yaris T1 five door.
I enjoyed the Yaris T1 immensely, but feel that R89 995 for the base model, without aircon, is a little steep. The aircon model costs R10 000 more, which places it in direct competition with the 70 kW Hyundai Getz 1,4 and the very-well equipped Daihatsu Sirion, that utilises a 64kW 1,3 litre engine. Both these cars come with aircon and most of the frills you could wish for at the price. Perhaps if the Passo arrives with the same three-cylinder engine and an aircon for under R80 000 you’ll see me joining the queue.