Toyota Yaris Review 2026

If you're looking for a small car you really are spoilt for choice. There's the Ford Fiesta which is great to drive, the Volkswagen Polo that is comfortable and practical and the Peugeot 208 which is stylish to the bone and also available as a pure electric car. The Toyota Yaris gets close to matching these cars in all areas while majoring on comfort and fuel economy – thanks to its suite of autonomous driving aids and petrol-electric setup. 

If the Toyota Yaris was a European country it would be Sweden. Famed for being taxing on the wallet, Sweden rewards your investment by providing an excellent quality of life. 

In much the same way, the Yaris comes loaded with technology that’s expensive but ultimately makes your life better. 

Thankfully, we can drop the Swedish analogy at the Yaris’s styling because it’s pure Japanese. A jumble of creases and curves, sharp edges, with a hint of origami, bookended by a gaping grille and pair of attractively protruding tail lights. It’s a Yaris that, whisper it, looks great. 

The inside doesn’t quite match these high standards. Its slabby looking infotainment screen rises awkwardly (if practically) out the top of the dashboard, but the rest of the cabin is lovingly sculpted. You even get a thick seam of squishy plastic that’ll keep Volkswagen’s head of perceived quality trembling under their duvet. 

Volkswagen’s head of practicality – if such a job existed – would get off more lightly because, while the Yaris is quite practical for its size, it’s not as spacious in the back as the Polo and it’s boot isn’t as well designed or as roomy.

That’s about where the negatives end, mind you, because the Yaris is near enough a class-leader in every other respect and it goes about it in its own unique way. 

Take the hybrid engine, it serves up spectacular fuel economy almost irrespective of how or where you drive. Its ability to drive in silent electric power almost all the time in town makes the Yaris extremely relaxing to potter about in and it’ll take you all the way up to motorway speeds without stirring the petrol engine.

It’s at this point that Yaris pulls another trick out its sleeve – its comprehensive suite of autonomous driving aids. Bang up to date, they’ll keep the Yaris arrow straight in its lane and around curves while braking and accelerating with a deft smoothness that serves only to expose the poor quality of driving of the humans around you. 

Sure, you have to keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel, but it cuts down on fatigue and makes long motorway slogs less exhausting as a result. It makes the Yaris the small car to have if you do lots of long-distance driving. 

It's worth saving your energy because when you turn off onto an A road you realise the Yaris is actually decent fun. It grips well and steers with precision. It’s not a genuine driver's car like a Ford Fiesta but, unlike the old Yaris, it is at least playing the same sport.

And anyway, like Sweden, you sense Toyota hasn’t tried to copy anyone else – it's made things better by going its own way. So, while the Yaris isn’t the last word in dynamics or the very best in terms of practicality, it makes up for that with its smart design, relaxing drive and unnervingly good fuel economy. And we can't ignore Toyota's enviable reputation for reliability. 

It's no longer just the safe choice, instead it's a desirable car that just so happens to also be very sensible. 

Looking for a second opinon? Why not read heycar's Toyota Yaris review.

The Toyota Yaris doesn’t drive with the verve of a Ford Fiesta or strike a perfect balance between comfort and fun handling quite like the Volkswagen Polo, but it gets closer than any Yaris has before it.

It’s only when you get close to its limits that it feels a little nose heavy and the constant engine drone caused by the CVT gearbox never encourages you to drive beyond eight tenths.

That doesn’t really matter though because the Toyota’s miles ahead of the competition in areas that will likely be more relevant to you. Areas like comfort. That hybrid engine might exist to provide low emissions and excellent fuel economy, but it also means the Toyota runs on electric power most of the time – making it quieter than a luxury saloon at lower speeds. 

Factor in the light controls and standard rearview camera and you have one accomplished city slicker.

Hit the motorway and the Yaris has another trick up its sleeve – it’s standard autonomous driving aids, which do an excellent job of accelerating, steering and braking the car for you. As a result, you no longer need to dread intercity hikes and it helps take your mind off the Toyota’s occasionally taught ride.

The Toyota Yaris only comes with one engine and gearbox combination – a 116hp 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol that’s boosted by an electric motor and feeds power through a CVT automatic gearbox.

The hybridisation in this latest model goes well beyond what the old car could do. Around town it will drive on electric almost all of the time and it has enough juice to get you up to motorway speeds for short bursts. It helps the Toyota return 60mpg in more or less all conditions.

And it’s far from slow. It’ll whisk you from 0-62mph in a respectable 9.7 seconds and tops out at 109mph. That being said, while the CVT gearbox makes the Yaris as easy to drive as a supersized dodgem, there’s a level of disconnect between pressing the accelerator pedal and actually accelerating that makes the Toyota less engaging than a competitor with a conventional auto or, naturally, a manual gearbox.

The Toyota Yaris scored five stars when it was crash-tested by Euro NCAP in 2020.

Its autonomous driving aids make it very safe on the motorway. Plus, you get automatic emergency brakes – that detect cars, pedestrians and cyclists – auto-dipping headlights and a system that can send your location to the emergency services after an accident.

Thanks to its tall seating position and large doors, it’s easy to get into the front of the Toyota Yaris. All models come with a steering wheel that moves up, down, in and out and a driver’s seat that’s height adjustable so small and tall people can get equally happy behind the wheel. 

Not everyone will like the tall position of the driver’s seat – even in its lowest setting – but you soon get used to it and it aids visibility.

The Yaris has room inside for four adults but it feels tighter than in a Volkswagen Polo and Hyundai i20 which can accommodate tall passengers in the back giving them a surprising amount of kneeroom. The Yaris is also a touch narrower than the other two although none of them are particularly comfortable five up. 

A variety of storage cubbies makes it easy to keep the cabin looking spick and span and the 286-litre boot is larger enough for several carry-on cases. That said, the boot lacks features – like the adjustable floor you get in a Polo – so you don’t get a completely flat load bay when you fold away the back seats.

The Yaris’ build quality isn’t peerless but you do sense Toyota wanted to inject some flair into the design rather than settling for pure functionality like in the old car.

There are some sculpted shapes to feast your eyes on – including the overdesigned interior door handles – and all but the entry level model gets a digital dashboard that keeps things looking modern, although it’s not the same as the vast one-piece screen that’s an option in the Volkswagen Polo. 

The Polo just edges the Yaris for interior quality by feeling more consistently solid – things like the flimsy glovebox and centre armrest let the Japanese car down. That said, the Toyota has a thick band of squidgy plastic that runs across the centre of the dashboard that helps raise the ambience and all models come with a Nappa-leather trimmed steering wheel that feels brilliant to hold.

All Toyota Yaris models come with a centre touchscreen infotainment system which has a seven-inch display in Icon models and an eight-inch screen in the rest of the range. Compared to the system you get in a Volkswagen Polo, its graphics look a little washed out, the screen isn’t quite as responsive and its menus aren't as logically arranged but these are all relatively minor gripes.

A row of conventional buttons that run down the screen’s edges make it easy to flick between menus and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are fitted as standard so you can use your phone’s map and music apps on the car’s big screen. For this reason no Yaris comes with built-in navigation.

The infotainment screen also keeps you in the loop with what's going on with the hybrid engine, telling you how power's being divvied out, as well as giving you incremental fuel economy figures and an economy score at the end of each trip.

The Toyota Yaris range kicks off with the £19,910 Icon model, which sounds quite pricey when a Volkswagen Polo is yours for some £3000 less.

Crunch down on the specs though and that premium is hard to argue with. Even Icon versions of the Yaris come with autonomous driving aids that mean they can drive themselves on the motorway and have enough kit to make them more generously specified than a top-of-the-range £19,700 Polo SE L.

The next step in the range is the Yaris Design (£20,970) which has sportier looks, improved infotainment and a digital dashboard, meanwhile Dynamic models (£21,920) look sportier again and add JBL stereo, two-zone climate control and keyless entry and go. 

Excel models (£22,220) are a tad more luxurious, they're available with light interior colours as well as getting foldable mirrors and a head-up display. Finally, there’s the Launch Edition version, which has every conceivable option thrown at it and retails at £24,005.

The Yaris has only been on sale for a couple of months but already there are savings to be made – we saw a brand new Icon model advertised for £18,410 (nearly £1500 off list) or you could have a generously kitted out Excel model with 5,000 miles on the clock for shade under £19,000 – a saving of more than £3000 on a new car. 

The Toyota Yaris is only available with one engine – a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol-electric hybrid that is very cheap to run.

Even when you’re driving through clogged up city streets in the height of rush hour, the Toyota will return fuel economy of around 60mpg.

That same figure is readily achievable on the motorway too if you stick to the speed limit – easy to do thanks to the Toyota’s autonomous driving aids.

The Yaris isn’t the cheapest small car to insure but, even so, we got a £430 quote for fully comprehensive cover, including social and commuting with a 10,000-mile per-annum limit. That was for a middle-aged driver living in London with an eight-year no-claims bonus.

Road tax, meanwhile, costs between £125-145 in year one and £140 every year thereafter. 

As we’ve noted before, the Toyota Yaris is an expensive small car but it comes loaded with standard equipment.

The range kicks off with the Icon model though you wouldn't know it's the entry-level car from looking at it. On the outside it gets 16-inch alloy wheels, LED tail lights and a boot-mounted spoiler.

Inside, you get a long list of kit that includes a seven-inch infotainment screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, climate control, a reversing camera, as well as auto lights and wipers.

Design models look a tad smarter thanks to their tinted windows, 16-inch machined alloys and all LED lights. Inside, they add a digital dashboard, an infotainment screen that’s an inch bigger and get electric rear windows.

Dynamic models represent first-time-car nirvana by giving you 17-inch alloys on the outside, along with sports seats and a JBL stereo on the inside. Their additional kit also includes dual-zone climate control, keyless entry and a height-adjustable passenger seat.

If Dynamic models are the sporty choice then Excel represents the luxury option. They get all the kit fitted to design models and add five-spoke 17-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, folding wing mirrors, front and rear parking sensors, keyless entry and go, plus a height-adjustable passenger seat.

Finally, Launch Edition cars have everything bar the kitchen sink thrown at them. They use Dynamic models as a base, adding a 10-inch head-up display, blue ambient interior lighting, auto-folding mirrors with blind-spot warning and seats with contrast red stitching. They're easily spotted thanks to their Tokyo Fusion (red) and Eclipse Black pearlescent paint job.