TOYOTA’S overhauled Yaris aims to appeal both to the heart and the head, so does it pull it off?

ON THE ROAD: JUST as with its little brother the Aygo, the Yaris has been given a significant facelift. Toyota says the aim was to “strengthen the Yaris’ emotional appeal” which is probably another way of saying it was a car that did not really tug on the heart strings. The new car, it insists, is both attractive and practical.

The front of the car has more purpose about it with the bonnet coming down to meet the grille in something of an ‘x’ shape. In doing so it dispenses with the cute and replaces with something more akin to aggressive.

The rear has also been worked over, with a new bumper, integrated diffuser and new LED light clusters.

Four engines are available, featuring 1.0 litre and 1.33 litre petrols, a 1.4 litre diesel and a 1.5 petrol hybrid.

Despite the relatively small capacity of the engine, our 1.33 litre test car proved more than capable of holding its own, if you were prepared to give it a work out, that is.

It has to be said that around town, where surfaces are patchy at best, the Yaris wasn’t the most comfy of confines to be in. But get it on a recently renovated road and things even out. The steering isn’t the most communicative on the open road, but around town it has a tight turning circle which, allied to the car’s short dimensions, make getting in and out of tight spaces easy to do.

ON THE INSIDE: THE interior of our Yaris was rather minimalist with the need for many of the buttons dispensed with thanks to the touchscreen infotainment unit. It made for an uncluttered appearance.

Changes have been made to the centre console and dashboard and there’s greater use of soft materials.

WHAT DO YOU GET: IF you want to really get the best value in terms of equipment levels, then our Icon badged car probably represents the best option. It comes with, among other things, air conditioning, electric windows, remote central locking, follow-me-home lights, a 6.1ins touchscreen and six speaker audio system, Bluetooth, USB port and aux socket and a rear-view camera. In addition, there were heated door mirrors, projector headlights, 15ins alloys and front fog lamps. Options fitted to our car were an easy to use satellite navigation system, Google Local Search connectivity and metallic paint.

HOW PRACTICAL IS IT: NO one complained for space while we had the Yaris. I was impressed with the room up front, and while we only carried two passengers in the rear, instead of the possible three, leg and head room was more than adequate. There’s 286 litres of luggage space, extending to 768 with the seats down.

RUNNING COSTS: WE managed 45mpg on a combination of routes. Toyota say it is possible to get a best of 57.6mpg on the combined cycle. CO2 emissions come in at 114g/km. The Yaris falls into tax band C.

VERDICT: TOYOTA has achieved what it set out to do in improving the Yaris, but it’s not as fun to drive as its Aygo sibling or some other rivals come to that.

ALTERNATIVES: VW Polo, Ford Fiesta