'Are you still driving lots of cool cars for a living then?” asked my friend as we strolled over to the Yaris. I said nothing – he could decide for himself.
This was actually an excellent test for Toyota’s new supermini, for it is 29 year-olds like my friend and me who the Japanese car-maker needs to attract with its Ford Fiesta rival, which has to date only ever really found favour with the opposite end of the age spectrum.
That my friend’s next words were “What’s this?” wasn’t an encouraging start. The Yaris looks more generic than a boy band member. Not ugly, just not any different to a Vauxhall Corsa, Hyundai i20, Honda Jazz and so on and so forth.
I explained all about the excellent five-year, 100,000-mile warranty and that with Toyota’s British-built 1.33-litre, 98bhp petrol engine under the bonnet, this car makes a good fist of combining sparky performance with economy that comfortably gets into mid to high-40mpg.
I described how Toyota’s new touch-screen satnav and multimedia system is quite intuitive to use and how the panoramic glass roof is rarely seen in the supermini class but comes as standard on this top-of-the-range T Spirit.
“What do you think?” asked my friend. “Well,” I said, “it’s a functional car rather than a fun one, but there is something uniquely Toyota about the way it’s engineered that’s quite appealing. I know it’s not cool, but it’s not a bad little car. Not sure I’d want to spend £15,000 on this top-of-the-range version though, glass roof or no glass roof.”
“Fifteen grand!” he gasped. “You’re having a giraffe. Give me an Audi A1 any day.” I think he’s got a point.
Toyota Yaris T Spirit 1.33-litre
Price: £15,335
Telegraph rating: Three out of five stars