We are back behind the wheel of the Toyota Yaris Cross - this time it’s the all-wheel drive variant. Is it worth spending extra on the all-wheel drive over the front-wheel drive? Paul Maric finds out.
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:06
Interior: 03:10
Infotainment: 04:37
Safety Tech: 06:22
Practicality: 07:05
On the Road: 09:24
Driver aids: 16:39
Accel. & braking: 17:34
Verdict: 19:31
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#toyota #yaris #review
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:06
Interior: 03:10
Infotainment: 04:37
Safety Tech: 06:22
Practicality: 07:05
On the Road: 09:24
Driver aids: 16:39
Accel. & braking: 17:34
Verdict: 19:31
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#toyota #yaris #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00All right, we'll try the outermost lane. Let's see how this performs up here. I can't recognise
00:05the lines. Wow, look at that. It's doing a really good job. So, it is willing to provide enough
00:11steering torque to hold the vehicle in the outermost lane, which only a handful of cars
00:16actually do. So, yeah. G'day, I'm Paul. So, SUVs. Everyone wants one, but not everyone wants an
00:22enormous SUV, and that's where something like this comes in handy. It's the Toyota Yaris Cross.
00:27It's basically an SUV version of the Toyota Yaris, and a lot of older Australians like
00:33those, or like these rather, because it is easier to get in and out. You've got a higher
00:36hit point, yet it's not this enormous SUV that you need to worry about parking. So, today
00:41we're going to do a review of this. We have already reviewed this car in pretty much this
00:45exact same spec. It was the two-wheel drive version. This here is the urban all-wheel drive.
00:50So, it is the top, top spec. It's priced at just under $40,000. If that is too expensive,
00:55the entire range kicks off at just over $30,000. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of
01:00this review, you can use the time codes that are on the screen, or if you're on YouTube,
01:04you can scroll down and use the chapters below. Let's talk about the design. So,
01:08optional colours. They're actually not too outrageous. They're priced at just under $600,
01:12but you can spend extra if you want a two-tone roof. So, it kind of gives you a bit of differentiation.
01:18In terms of the actual design itself, though, I'm a big fan of this, because it really just,
01:22I mean, it's got a stylish vibe to it. It doesn't look very much like a regular Yaris. They've
01:27supersized it. No one really knows that this is based off the smaller sort of entry-level vehicle
01:31that they sell. The tyre range is now hybrid only, so that's moved Toyota's making more and more across
01:37its range to help meet some of the emissions deadlines. It has looming shortly to offset some
01:43of the emissions for stuff like Hilux, Land Cruiser, and all that sort of stuff. Down the front here,
01:47big Toyota badge. You've got open grille there for a bit of cooling. Camera there for the
01:52360 camera. Full LED headlights. You've got LED indicators down the side here as well.
01:57Now, around the side, you've got wheel arch cladding there. Now, this is all-wheel drive,
02:02but it's kind of an interesting all-wheel drive, because it doesn't actually have a physical drive
02:06line that runs from the front to the back of the car. It just uses an electric motor on the rear,
02:10and then a combination of internal combustion and electric at the front here as well. So,
02:15the wheel arch cladding kind of makes it look like it's an off-road king, but it's not really.
02:18You've got a nice-looking set of wheels there. Machined finish on the outside. Piano black finish
02:24there on the inside, and that's an 18-inch alloy wheel. Down the side here, a HEV, so hybrid electric
02:30vehicle, and this is the new hybrid badge that Toyota is using. Indicator built into the wing
02:34mirror there as well. Privacy glass. You've got that plastic cladding that runs down the side
02:39there too, with Yaris Cross on the side, and then come around to the back with me. Now, around the back
02:43here, more of that HEV lettering with Urban, which is the grade, and then Yaris Cross over to the side,
02:49shark fin aerial up the top there. So, oh, and LED lights as well, full LED lights, which is cool.
02:55So, let me know what you reckon about the design, and what do you reckon about the price? These
02:59things have become so expensive. 40 grand, you know, used to buy you quite a sizable SUV, but now it is
03:04basically this entry-level sized SUV. Do you reckon cars are becoming too expensive? Let me know in the
03:09comments section below. So, we are inside the Yaris Cross. We'll start off with the key. This is what
03:14it looks like. You've got lock, unlock, boot, the Toyota logo, and then it's blank on the back. This
03:21is a proximity-sensing key, so you can leave that in your pocket. You've got a push-button start just
03:25over here. Now, in terms of the design, it is pretty bland in here, I've got to say. This is, after all,
03:31based on the entry-level Yaris, which has always just been the cheapest way to get into a Toyota
03:36product, and you can kind of tell there's a lot of hard-touch surfaces, a lot of piano black. It
03:42just doesn't look like a $40,000 vehicle, I reckon, but I guess it is what it is when it is based off
03:48one of their entry-level cars. In terms of the stuff they did change, it's got a bigger infotainment
03:52system as part of this refresh. You have a centre armrest now as well, which is great. Didn't have
03:57this previously, and you used to kind of just keep falling down there, whereas this is a nice addition
04:01just to give you something to rest on. In terms of your touch points, so, soft on that centre armrest,
04:05sort of soft-ish. It's a bit hard, actually, on the door there. How soft are those touch points?
04:11Well, we've got our durometer. We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin. If you do want to see
04:16how this car compares to others that we've tested before, there is a link in the description below.
04:20Now, build quality, what is it like? So, that is pretty wonky there in the centre, but it is designed
04:25to be like that, given your arm's going to be resting on it. So, that feels pretty good. This is what
04:30the door slam sounds like. Sounds a bit ratty, actually. Try it with the window closed. Yeah,
04:36it's better. So, let's talk about infotainment. You've got central infotainment screen that's
04:41sort of perched up there. Then, there's also an 8-inch screen ahead of the driver. 7-inch display
04:46for your infotainment screen. It's interesting, because you can see the holder for that is clearly
04:51much larger, but they've gone with this tiny little screen. It's not tiny, it's just quite small,
04:55especially for the top-spec version. So, it is good that it has a volume knob there,
04:59but I think that they've probably cheaped out a little bit by not going that full-sized
05:03infotainment system. It does come in built with satellite navigation, and this facelift brings
05:08with it connectivity, so you can actually get over-the-air updates, etc., etc. You've got an
05:14SOS button up the top here as well, if everything turns sour. Wireless smartphone connectivity, so this
05:20is what Apple CarPlay looks like. So, full-screen integration. Now, I did have a couple of issues
05:26with this, actually. When it was hooked up wirelessly, it kept dropping out, and then I had this weird
05:31sensation where I would be on a phone call, but my voice was like three seconds behind. So, when the
05:39person was talking on the other end, my voice would talk over them, and it was just weird. I had to
05:43basically stop the car, restart it, repair it, and then it was fixed. But, yeah, it was just a bit of a
05:48weird one. And this is what Android Auto looks like. So, full-screen integration again. Pretty
05:55straightforward there. Wireless as well, which is good news. In terms of your sound system, AM, FM,
06:00DAB digital radio. Six-speaker sound system. It's nothing sort of too crazy. Sort of just does the
06:05job. Head of the driver, you've got another display there as well. It has a little bit of configurability,
06:11but nothing sort of too crazy. Central part is digital, and then the outer edges are just sort of lit up,
06:15but it's not that whole section there that is digital. Let's chat safety. You don't have an
06:21auto-dimming rear vision mirror, which is a little bit disappointing. And you do have a blind spot
06:25monitor built into your wing mirror. You've got radar cruise control with the semi-autonomous
06:29steering function that we're going to test later on. Well, the parking front, front and rear parking
06:32sensors, and a 360 camera. I'll show you what that looks like. So, I'll just switch the car on.
06:38Wow! That is one of the worst cameras I have seen in a new car today. Are you kidding? I mean,
06:45have a look at it. You can barely even see what's going on. That is terrible. It's like stepping
06:50back in time. That is genuinely not very nice at all. So, thankfully, you've got front and rear
06:55parking sensors, but I wouldn't be relying on that camera to really tell you what's going on
06:58behind the car. And it's what the horn sounds like. Now, moving on to practicality and your
07:05connectivity options. So, you've got USB-C now instead of USB-A. You have a 12-volt outlet down the
07:11bottom there. No wireless phone charging, which is a bit disappointing. You've got a little storage
07:15nook up there in that centre armrest. A couple of cup holders. A little storage slot up the top
07:21there, too. Kind of like a weird little divot there. You've got a glove box there, as well,
07:26that is reasonably sized. No sunnies holder up there. On the climate front, you have single-zone
07:33automatic climate control and seat heating for your front row. In terms of steering wheel adjustment,
07:39it offers both tilt and reach adjustment. You've got a head-up display there, head of the driver,
07:44too. Seating adjustment for the driver is electric, so you can go forwards, backwards. Your backrest
07:49can go forwards and backwards. And you can also lift the back of the seat, as well. Passenger seat
07:55is manually adjustable. And on our reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.
08:00Now, second row. What's it like back here? Cramped, in a word. So, knee room, terrible.
08:06Tow room, okay. Headroom, okay, as well. It's pretty scratchy back here. It's sort of
08:12considerably more low rent than the front is. No air vents, no charging ports. Just nothing
08:19around here, really. You do have this centre armrest that drops out there, but even that's a bit sort
08:24of janky in terms of the way that it operates. So, yeah, not a great place to be seated back here.
08:30I'll show you what it looks like with the windows down, see if they go all the way down. So,
08:33it's auto up and down, which is nice. And they go all the way down.
08:37Now, cargo space. What's it like in your little SUV? So, power tailgate.
08:45So, you've got just over 300 litres to work with. Let's have a look under the floor here. So,
08:50there's no spare tyre. You've just got a tyre repair kit. And conceivably, you've got room under
08:54there, as well, if you do want to pop some extra stuff in. Show me what it looks like with our bag in
08:59there. It doesn't quite close that way. So, you're going to have to turn the bag. It's not a huge
09:07amount of space, but also not the end of the world. You can expand the space by dropping the second row
09:13as well. But not if you have your driver's seat far back like I do. And then once that does drop
09:19down, you've got a sort of fairly flat load floor. Righto, we have just hit the road in the Yaris Cross.
09:27Now, let me run you through some of those specs. So, under the bonnet,
09:30one and a half litre, three-cylinder petrol engine. So, pretty unique setup because you
09:35typically find in cars like this, there are four-cylinder. But three-cylinders is what you
09:39can get away with if you don't need a huge amount of power and torque. And especially in a vehicle
09:43like this, it doesn't weigh a lot. It gives you the benefits of fuel economy. And then, you know,
09:48you offset the fuel economy with having the electric motor that builds in the balance there between a
09:54three and a four-cylinder engine. Now, that three-cylinder engine alone makes 67 kilowatts
09:58of power and 120 newton metres of torque. So, not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things. But
10:02it pairs with an electric motor that produces around 60 kilowatts of power. Funnily, though,
10:08the all-wheel drive version, which is what we're driving here, you're paying for an electric motor on
10:13the rear axle. There is no driveline that runs down the centre of the car. And that rear electric motor
10:18makes just under four kilowatts of power is comically small. And that also provides you an
10:24additional 52 newton metres of torque. So, it's a real weird one. I think it's there simply for the
10:30purpose of added traction. So, if you're driving in the snow or something like that, it can provide
10:34you pulses of torque at the rear to get you out of some of those situations. It's not really there
10:39as a performance enhancement or anything that's going to totally change the way the car drives.
10:44It's just a really fascinating setup and something I haven't really seen before in terms of those
10:48really small numbers on the rear axle. Now, when it all combines together, that means you can get
10:5485 kilowatts of power out of this. And look, today is hot, 36 degrees outside, but I'm going to give
10:59it a little punch here and see what this feels like. Love the noise. So, the noise is unique,
11:05three-cylinder rumble. It's basically what you get out of cars like the Fiesta ST. And I just love
11:10the sound because it's just got such a unique character to it. But unfortunately, this is not
11:15going to win any performance awards. I mean, that is flat to the board and nothing is really
11:20happening. So, yeah. It's worth pointing out as well that you can actually drive it in EV mode for
11:27limited distances. So, it's currently driving the vehicle with the internal combustion engine switched
11:33off entirely. And when I start braking, you can see it dives there into the charge zone where it's
11:37basically plumbing energy back into the small battery that's fitted in the vehicle. And that
11:41small battery can basically take the car off from a standing start without switching the engine on.
11:46So, you can see there, the light's still on. It's not until I really push the throttle quite hard
11:51that the internal combustion engine kicks on. So, that is one of the big benefits there of having
11:56that hybrid system. It means all of that extra effort and energy you need to move the car from a
12:01standing start is achieved just by the electric system alone. And that, in theory, gives you fuel
12:06economy benefits. So, it acclaims a fuel economy, a combined fuel economy of around 4 litres per 100
12:10k's. We haven't come close to achieving that. And I think that figure could be a little bit of a
12:15stretch. You'd have to be driving really slowly and really gently to achieve that because in most
12:19instances, you need to really get stuck into the throttle to keep up with traffic. And that is going
12:23to start chewing through your energy use. So, if you're happy to just drive really slowly and perhaps
12:28hold up traffic around you, you'll probably hit that figure. But if you're not doing that,
12:32it is going to be above that. But still quite reasonable for a vehicle this size.
12:36The other one I'll point out as well, there is a B mode. So, B is interesting. It's able to use
12:41the internal combustion engine as an outlet for the vehicle's momentum effectively. So,
12:47it'll charge the battery. It'll go into recharge. But when you are specifically in B mode,
12:51even when the vehicle is in EV mode and you roll out of the throttle, it's able to then plumb
12:57energy back into the engine through the wheels to slow the vehicle down. So, it's quite a unique
13:02setup. And it can get a little noisy when it is running in B mode because it is operating the
13:07engine. It just isn't using any fuel when it does that. Now, let's talk about the ride in and around
13:11town. It's probably a little on the firmer side. And I was surprised by that because typically
13:17Toyotas are quite softly sprung and very sort of comfortable. Whereas this has sort of sharper edges to
13:22it. And I don't know whether they've deliberately sort of given it a sportier tune,
13:26but it does feel a little sharper than I would have liked. Now, let's see how it goes on our
13:31sine waves. We do these at 130km an hour, which is maximum speed limit in Australia.
13:37And it's the speed you might achieve when you're overtaking on a country road. Given how many of
13:43these they sell in country areas, I'll be keen to see how this performs. There's 130. These are our
13:48undulations. Actually, it feels really nice and settled. Again, that comes back to that ride being
13:54just a little firmer than other cars in this segment. It gives you that good body control
13:59over the undulations.
14:00Time to hit our rough road. Do this at 90km an hour to see what the ride is like on some dodgy
14:07potholes and corrugations. Yeah, it is on the firmer side. It's sort of shaking the car a little bit
14:15there. We've got our sine waves here. They're basically a tighter set of sine waves that simulate
14:21corrugations. We'll see what this is like.
14:23It's actually pretty good. Because the ride is on the firmer side, the tyres are falling into each
14:31of those divots really nicely. So it handles those corrugations pretty well. It's just the rest of
14:35it is quite firm. Now let's look at drive modes. You've got a button down here that takes you between
14:39eco, normal and power. We're going to go for a little drive around our ride and handling circuit
14:45just to see what it feels like. We test all cars back to back in the same way and it just gives us a
14:51good idea of what the handling characteristics are like. Suspension feels a little bit firm there on
14:57those bumps as we come in.
15:05Good traction out of the corners, which is great.
15:10And right now I've got it basically pinned to the board and you can see that it starts running out of
15:15puff a bit when you exhaust the hybrid battery. But again, this isn't a sports car. They do a GR
15:20sport version of this, but again, it's not really a fully fledged GR. It's more just a
15:25body kit and stickers. It's actually surprisingly sort of nimble. Being such a small car, it's
15:33easy to throw around a little bit and it just feels nice and fun here behind the wheels. So
15:39yeah, nothing outrageous, but good fun nevertheless.
15:44Now what about road noise? You'll notice that I'm kind of yelling at you.
15:47That isn't on purpose. Well, actually it is on purpose because you probably wouldn't be able
15:51to hear me otherwise. That is because there is a lot of road noise that comes in through those
15:55tyres. They just make a fair bit of a racket and there's just not a huge amount of insulation
16:00throughout the body. So especially on coarse chip roads, you do hear a lot of noise inside the cabin.
16:05You're going to have to turn the radio up or speak louder if you do have other passengers in the car.
16:09In terms of visibility, big wing mirrors. Visibility down the front is great. Visibility out the back
16:14is really good too. So I mentioned earlier at the start that you don't need to buy a gargantuan SUV
16:19if you want that better hit point. You can get a vehicle like this that still gives you that better
16:24access height, but doesn't compromise when it comes to space. It doesn't sort of take up all this room
16:29on the road. Super easy to park and it's going to be great for people who don't necessarily have to
16:33have passengers in the second row all the time. Okay, so it is time to test some of the semi-autonomous
16:39systems to see how well they work. We do that at 70 k's an hour. So this engine is noisy, isn't it?
16:45So I'll set cruise at 70 to start with and then we'll see how well it'll hold the lane that it's
16:53in. So we're going to use the three outer lanes of the banking here to see how it goes. So in this
16:57first lane here, it's doing a pretty decent job. We'll jump over to the next lane, see how it performs
17:03up here. Okay, it's recognised pretty much immediately. So that's holding us nice and
17:10centre. Excellent. All right, we'll try the outermost lane. Let's see how this performs up here. Okay,
17:16let's recognise the lines. Wow, look at that. It's doing a really good job. So it is willing to
17:22provide enough steering torque to hold the vehicle in the outermost lane, which only a handful of cars
17:28actually do. So yeah, very impressive job, Toyota. Okay, let's do a little bit of performance testing.
17:33I know it's a bit of a laugh in this car, but we'll do it anyway. So we're going to go zero
17:38through to 120. That'll give us a zero to 100 and also an 80 to 120, which is just a useful
17:44measure for overtaking. So pop that into power, turn traction control off, see how we go.
17:50Okay, go, go, go, go. And 120. All right, that took almost an eternity.
18:20Let's see what that looks like in terms of the numbers. Okay, so zero to 100, 11.97 seconds.
18:27Wow, that is slow. 80 to 120, 9.65 seconds. Also quite slow if you have to overtake. So
18:34yeah, look, I know it's not a sports car, but that is really slow, especially if you get a couple of
18:41passengers on board as well. That is really going to slow things down as well. So yeah.
18:45Okay, let's do a stop from 100. Let's see what the brake and tyre package is like.
18:52Thank you, thank you.
18:57Go.
18:57Have a little look. So 100 to zero, 2.95 seconds and 40.87 metres. So okay, but not amazing. You
19:08really want somewhere between 35 and 40. And given this is such a small car, it really should be
19:13pulling up in a much better time than that. Okay, how quick does it go in reverse? Let's find out.
19:19Here we go. All right, so 52 kilometres an hour. Okay, so Tony Yaris Cross, what do we think?
19:31Look, firstly, I don't think I'd go for the all-wheel drive version. I don't think it's
19:34worth spending the extra money for that extra motor at the rear. I just don't see the value
19:38that it adds. I also don't see the value in the top end of town. I'd probably be looking mid-range
19:42or entry level in Yaris Cross, given they all now come with a hybrid drive train, kind of getting
19:47those fuel economy benefits without having to spend megabucks for what is effectively just a
19:51Yaris on stilts. So great car, but just not at this top end, I reckon. So let me know what you
19:56reckon in the comments section. Have you bought one of these? Are you looking at them? I'm keen to
20:00see what you think and what you landed on as well. If you did enjoy the video, please make sure you
20:04like it and you share it with your mates. Until next time, take it easy.
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