In the motoring section of The Telegraph (Sat 22nd Sep 2012) you intimated that the only current Toyota Yaris you would recommend was the Hybrid model. I would like to know why this is so?

One week short of the 36 month warranty expiring and at around 40K miles on our seven year old Yaris the turbo charger "blew". After repair it was traded in for a new, entry level, cheap and cheerful VW fox. Alas VW obviously realised what a splendid product they had produced (no doubt with little profit margin) and replaced it with the Up.

We are now in the market again for a smallish car (and it won't be an Up). The car needs to be able to seat two adults (6 feet tall plus) in the back and take a dog in the boot (although not necessarily all at the same time time).

The Fox coped with this. The replacement Up is a joke by comparison.
Our searches to date point to the Toyota Yaris and the 5 year warranty looks like a no brainer. Apart from the carrying capacity our main purchase criteria are: residual value, reliability and running costs. We were interested in the Yaris Hybrid but it would take us more than five years to recoup the additional purchase cost against running a 1.33 cc petrol equivalent. We have also considered and looked at a Mini, Audi A1 (both rejected due to lack of rear space).