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Does the revised, bonkers, rally-bred mega-hatchback remain the high point for a generation of hatches?

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The revised Toyota GR Yaris has arrived in the UK. It’s a car Toyota thought would be too niche to have to revisit, but owing to the surprise popularity of the first-generation version, here one is.

It has seemed one of those rare cars destined for greatness from the get-go. Since the original’s launch in 2020, few cars have generated quite the same level of collective salivation as this Japanese pocket rocket.

It was effectively the first ground-up performance car Toyota has developed on its tod for some 20 years, built using know-how distilled from a heavily revitalised interest in motorsport. The resulting car won our affordable driver’s car competition, before taking on vastly more powerful and vastly more expensive supercars at our annual Britain’s Best Driver’s Car shootout, where it secured a podium position there, too.

Now, several years on and more than 32,000 buyers later, Toyota has decided to make the GR Yaris a permanent fixture in the line-up and put it through a number of revisions to improve its capabilities and durability.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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5TOYOTA GRYARIS 2024 INTERCOOLER

To recap a prototype drive we had at the start of the year, the changes are largely focused on making the GR Yaris more durable when driven hard. So there’s better cooling with a stronger mesh in front of the radiator, lights have been moved away from the hot exhaust, and engine and manual transmission internals are revised.

Body changes see 15% more spot welds and 15% more adhesive used to stiffen the shell, while the front strut mounts are reinforced. Brakes, wheels and tyres are the same.

INTERIOR

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13toyota gryaris 2024 driving shot

There are changes to the interior, aimed at improving ergonomics and what was limited forward visibility, but include a digital instrument pack as a by-product. Other minor switchgear has been moved to in front of, or at least in easy view of, the driver, who could lose sight of some buttons if harnessed or using a race seat. The GR Yaris is that kind of serious car. The instrument binnacle is 50mm lower than it was, the rear-view mirror has been raised by 25mm and unseen body changes allow the seat to be mounted up to 25mm lower, though it’s height-adjustable, and the effect of this is immediately obvious to those familiar with the first-gen car. There’s no more peering around the rear-view mirror to get a view out, at least for me. It’s a more habitable car.

The driving position is good, as is the round steering wheel and clarity of the instruments. Material quality inside is unremarkable but weight is only 1300kg so one can’t expect too much plushness. 

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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3toyota gryaris 2024 cornering front

Toyota has taken that opportunity to raise power and torque, too, to 276bhp (from 256bhp) and 288lb ft (from 266lb ft), and offer an eight-speed automatic gearbox as an option.

Our test car was an automatic, just 20kg heavier than the manual, and in standard specification rather than one of the even higher-priced special editions (I’ll come to that).

Left in its regular automatic mode the gearbox keeps revs modest, and the engine grumbles in slightly gravelly fashion, changing up early.

It feels curiously calm if you know the infectious old model, although still not overtly refined. The previous GR’s enthusiasm, from memory present all the time, takes knocking the gear selector across into manual mode to unlock this time around. A few revs wind on, you choose the ratio yourself via flappy paddles, and from that point on the quick-shifting, slightly boosty Yaris feels much more like the GR we know and love. 

RIDE & HANDLING

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2toyota gryaris 2024 side view

There’s no separate Circuit Pack option now: torque-sensing differentials and firm suspension are standard. Firmer, in fact: spring rates are 46N/mm at the front and 40N/mm at the rear (up from 36N/mm all round on the old Circuit Pack car) and there’s a stiffer front anti-roll bar. Drive modes have changed names and altered the four-wheel drive system’s distribution: in Normal, 40% of power goes to the rear, in Gravel that’s 47% and in Track 40-70%.

Given the increase in spring rate the ride is better than I’d expected. It’s firm, of course, but control is excellent and it’s never crashy or flustered by bad surfaces. The ability to absorb one lump quickly and be ready to deal with the next one straight away is still there – the GR Yaris is a car that feels better the faster you go.

But I’m not sure it’s as agile as the previous car. The firmer suspension, particularly the increased roll-bar stiffness, make for a car that’s flatter and even more capable, but feels less inclined to rotate under braking or turn-in and, while an increase in power distribution to the rear counters that on corner exit on a track, on the road where there’s only so much power you can deploy, I think it feels more led by its nose (I’d want a back-to-back on the same stretch to say for sure). 

VERDICT

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4toyota gryaris 2024 cornering rear

The Gen 2 GR Yaris is more serious, more capable, a ‘better’ car – and still a hoot, you understand, still a five-star capable entertainer, so we’re talking nths of degrees – but I don’t know if it’s any more fun than it was. As a pure road car, if you’re not likely to get the exhausts hot enough to melt the reversing light, maybe the Gen 1 car is just as peachy.

Which brings me to the price. Supply is limited and this is an expensive car to develop and make, and it’s finally priced like it: £44,250 as a manual, £45,750 here, or £60,000 for a special edition. I still love this car, but those numbers help the Gen 1 GR Yaris look even more of a bargain.

Toyota is on a roll with driver's cars, and remains so here.

Matt Prior

Matt Prior
Title: Editor-at-large

Matt is Autocar’s lead features writer and presenter, is the main face of Autocar’s YouTube channel, presents the My Week In Cars podcast and has written his weekly column, Tester’s Notes, since 2013.

Matt is an automotive engineer who has been writing and talking about cars since 1997. He joined Autocar in 2005 as deputy road test editor, prior to which he was road test editor and world rally editor for Channel 4’s automotive website, 4Car. 

Into all things engineering and automotive from any era, Matt is as comfortable regularly contributing to sibling titles Move Electric and Classic & Sports Car as he is writing for Autocar. He has a racing licence, and some malfunctioning classic cars and motorbikes. 

Toyota GR Yaris First drives