The Toyota Yaris Cross: A Comprehensive Review

As I embarked on my test drive with the Toyota Yaris Cross, I was excited to see how this new addition to the Japanese automaker's lineup would fare. With its electric motor and speed limits in villages and towns, it seemed like an interesting choice for those looking for a more eco-friendly option.

Rolling into Action

I started by rolling up to 35-36 mph on EV power, feeling the gentle hum of the motor as I picked up speed. However, things took a turn when I hit a slight incline and the engine kicked in, catching me off guard. The sudden increase in power was surprising, but also impressive. As I continued driving, I noticed that every touch felt hard, from the armrest to the door handles. It seemed like the Toyota Yaris Cross was built for efficiency rather than comfort.

A Comfortable Ride?

As I settled into my test drive, I began to appreciate the car's interior design. The soft padding on the seats and slight armrest made it more comfortable to sit in for an extended period. However, the overall build quality seemed a bit questionable, with thin metal and hard surfaces that made every interaction feel stiff.

A Smooth Ride?

When hitting the highway at 70 mph, I switched to normal mode and observed how the car handled. To my surprise, the Toyota Yaris Cross glided smoothly over the road, with no noticeable delay or hesitation. The engine seemed to pick up speed quickly, but not so quickly that it felt unnatural.

A Quiet Ride?

As we approached higher speeds, I noticed that the noise insulation improved significantly. At 70 mph, the car felt almost eerily quiet inside, making it easy to converse without raising one's voice. However, there was still a hint of wind noise and road rumble that lingered in the background.

Power Mode: A Thrill Ride?

When switching to power mode, I felt an immediate surge of energy as the CVT gearbox kicked into high gear. The car handled remarkably well, especially when cornering or taking sharp turns. The steering was responsive and precise, with a surprising amount of grip for a relatively tall vehicle.

Brake Boost: A Surprising Twist

In a surprising turn of events, I discovered that the Toyota Yaris Cross's brake boost feature added significantly to its acceleration time. With specialist timing gear, I managed to achieve an impressive 9.59 seconds from 0-60 mph in power mode.

Final Verdict

As I concluded my test drive with the Toyota Yaris Cross, I couldn't help but feel that it was a solid choice for those looking for a reliable and economical small family SUV. While it may not be perfect – particularly when it comes to comfort and build quality – its eco-friendly credentials, smooth ride, and responsive handling make it well worth considering. However, for those who value the ultimate driving experience or are willing to pay a premium for luxury features, there may be better options available.

**Recommended Action**

If you're in the market for a new small family SUV, the Toyota Yaris Cross should certainly be on your shortlist. With its impressive fuel economy and comfortable ride, it's an excellent choice for those who prioritize practicality over performance. However, if you're looking for the ultimate driving experience or want to indulge in luxury features, there may be other options that better suit your needs.

**Disclaimer**

Car buying decisions should always be based on individual preferences and priorities. This review aims to provide a balanced assessment of the Toyota Yaris Cross's strengths and weaknesses. However, it is essential to weigh this information against your own needs and consider multiple factors before making an informed decision.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm going to show you something really cool about the updated Toyota yarus cross so if I go into the boot look at this underneath here I have stashed this thing and what is it watch this this is good it is the load cover so I can now attach it on there and on there then these bits go up there and then the other one up there there how clever is that all models get adaptive cruise as standard and I can press this button here to increase the distance to the car in front look there we go and I can press that button there to turn on Lane keeping assist so the car will basically keep you that distance that you set from the car in front using its radar technology and it'll Auto St to keep you in Lane to make your life just much easier when you're commuting you can get the Aris cross with an extra electric motor on the rear axle so you get four-wheel drive and none of its competitors offer that the front seats have a quick recline lever so you just pull up on that and watch or you can use it to set your perfect position like this look pull it up there we go it's exactly how I want it Toyota has fitted this latest version of the Yaris cross with a new thicker wind screen thicker Side Glass extra insulation in the dash and a new engine mount which reduces vibrations all this is designed to make the car quieter than it was before however it's not all good I'm going to tell you about five annoying things about the new Toyota yisc cross a little later in this video Toyota has made no changes whatsoever to the exterior design of the Yaris cross as part of this midlife update I'm not too bothered because I actually quite like the way it looks so depending on which version you go for you have a slightly different treatment gr versions have like a sporty look to them slightly sportier Grill Premier versions have some Chrome on them this is the one up from the entry level model and considering that's the point that it's at it actually looks pretty good I don't think it's wanting for any kind of extra bits so alloy wheels start at 16 and they rise to 18 these are 17s and they come standard on this car and they're all you really need you also get stuff like black roof bars which you don't have on the entry level they're not black in color they're they're just not there you don't get roof bars you can get like two-tone body paint in like high spec cars but I don't think it really needs it round the back it's all quite cool looking I really like Toy's designs lately it's a good looking car this now prices the Aris cross starts from £55,000 rising up to £35,000 this one here is just over 27,000 good thing is you can save an average of about £25,000 off a yarus cross through car wow want to sell your car quickly easily for a fair price then head to car to have over 4,000 trusted dealers ready to bid on it in an online auction first enter your car's registration to get an instant approximate valuation then if you want to proceed give us some more details and upload some photos and we'll help you set a fair reserve price for your car that's the minimum amount you'd be happy to sell it for once you've done that we'll enter your car into an online auction when the auction's over we'll let you know the result and the dealer with the winning bid will be in touch to arrange easy payment and free collection of your car 93% of sellers surveyed said they got the price they expected or more through carb the best bit is it's completely free I put a link in the description of this video and the Ping comment to take you directly to carwow where over 4,000 dealers are ready to bid on your car or you can just click on the pop out Banner that should be appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen now alternatively just Google help me carwow and we will help you sell your car quickly easily and for a fair price on with the video Toyota has made a few changes to the interior of the Yus cross the most noticeable change is this all but the entry level gets a new updated infotainment screen which is much better than before look we it's faster to respond it's got nicer Graphics it's bigger obviously it's got Apple carplay and Android auto you also have a slightly New Look dial section here all but the entry level car and this level car have a full digital driver display this one has a digital driers display here in the middle and then just lights for your fuel gauge and your temperature gauge at the side but it is slightly different than it was before there's also some new trims like on the door cards and elsewhere about but you wouldn't really notice that now in terms of the car itself so you got squidgy material there and there harder Plastics here it's nice that's covered in this KN fabric this is quite thin and unyielding so so look at the center console oh it moves about quite a bit yeah that feels a bit flimsy but the seating position is pretty nice tends to be in Toyotas actually they always get it spot on but I have an issue with these seats see this it's raised up slightly it feels like you sat on something you know when you're like you might have a jumper behind you something like that it feels like there's something or your belt's not right and whenever I'm driving along that's just digging into like this part of my bottom and I find that really really annoying now the top three spec cars actually have sport seats and they may not have that issue I don't think they do actually another issue I found is with the storage look look at this watch I want to open it really quickly what's that all about look come on it just shs look oh I mean is the glove box big enough to fit a big bottle in oh yes it is oh so too are the door bins look in there quite big one thing I'm very thankful of as well is this look actual physical buttons for the climate control not hidden in some menu somewhere that is really good thanks for maintaining that and an air of normality is it normal it's not normal anymore actually an air of sensibility in your car Toyota what else do you need to know oh yeah look to USB seized down here do we have a 12 vter do we anywhere anyone got look armrest yeah um yeah there it is I knew it was in there somewhere there 12vt socket as well that's pretty much all you need to know about the Interior Space here in the front oh there is one thing well I do quite like the interior of this I do find that the interior of a poo 2008 is way cooler and if you want to see my full in- dep video review of that car click on the pop out Banner appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen or use your mobile phone to follow the QR code which is on screen now here in the back seat head room is pretty good people over 6 foot will be fine where they may struggle is with knee room I'm okay but I've got short legs if you got long legs you're going to find your knees touching the front seat back but look because the front seats are raised up you can at least put your feet underneath them so there's a decent amount of foot space and this seat base is quite deep and it's raised quite a bit from the floor so you do have lots of under thigh supports it's reasonbly comfy actually here in the back now if you come to carrying three people at once this middle C isn't the conf cuz it's a little bit raised but the main issue is the fact the body is quite narrow so it's going to be a squeeze with three adults in the back but it is doable for short Journeys if you want to carry a child seat in the back well the eyes fix anger points are easy to get to the issue is that the rear doors don't open all that wide obiously going to have to push the front seat forward slightly if you want to fit one of those buky rear facing seat so it's not brilliant but once again you can live with it what is good is this look you have some through loading and you have the cup holders there if you want to do it like that you don't have an armrest but this is actually quite good on a car in this ceg to have that through loading feature other features you got here so where are the pockets on the seat bags have they forgot to fit them H anyway you do have some reasonable size door bins which will carry a bottle of that size and I like this cuz it doesn't happen that often anymore rear windows that go all the way down however I think in terms of back seat space a Rena capture is more room me and if you want to see my full in-depth video review of that car click on the pop out banner up there or follow the QR code appearing on the screen now the big capacity of the yis Cross is 350 L which is one of the smallest in this category now I've already shown you these dividers so look that 350 L is when you're actually using up all of this space but I want to keep these in place right now to just illustrate this when you fold down the rear seats oh your seat belts don't snag and as long as your front passenger seat is a bit more forward than that the seats will fall down easily and then you have a continuous floor to slide things towards the front if you want to makes loading easy also some features in here just some hooks to tie things down there there there's a couple more here and it looks like there's a blank switch there what is that blank switch for actually do you know what that brings on to five annoying things about the Toyota Yaris cross this design trim version of the Yaris cross which is one up from bass has a lot of blanked out switches look blanked blanked blanked and let's look over here blankety blankety blankety blankety blanky blank actually that takes me back to the 1980s that's what cars used to have a lot of in the 1980s also look at this here's another thing that feels cheap where's the light where's the light for the vanity mirror speaking of feeling cheap have listen to this sounds like the car is made out of the thinnest cheapest metal known to man that's the thing about Toyotas they do feel cheap in places but you do get a 10-year warranty so maybe you don't need to worry there are no USB charging ports in the back of the car at all how are the children supposed to charge their devices that means they're going to try and interact with their parents on a journey which I mean who want that I hate the way you can't just open the fuel filler cap when the car is unlocked like with other Toyotas and Japanese cars that I've owned you have to go and do it manually like this and then go back around now you might be thinking well you know if you own the car you're going to know to do that every time believe me if you got multiple cars if it's like your second car or something like that you will forget because every other car just allows you to open the fuel filler capab if the car's unlocked always have that problem with my GS always forget get out go to fill up and have to go back in again can you spot a problem with the location of these cup holders this one in particular ready ready all right watch is this that's yeah it's not great the rearview mirror is located quite low down and you end up getting this reducing visibility through the center of the wind screen look at it compared to this part here and then this part now it's pretty bad but it's nowhere near as bad as on my gr Yaris but still many of the cars don't have such an issue as that the Aris cross's engine range has actually doubled in size because now instead of one option there is two now they both have a 1.5 L 3-cylinder petrol engine M2 electric motor now this particular car as before has 116 horsepower but now you can get a version with a more powerful electric motor which takes a total to 130 horsepower that's the new thing whichever version you go for their front-wheel drive unless of course you spec the extra motor on the rear axle though that doesn't give you any more P it just gives you more drive so it gives you four-wheel drive and regardless of which one you go for you get a CVT automatic gearbox as standard so which version of the Aris cross would I go for in terms of power output and trim level while I've actually configured my ideal Yaris cross using the carw configurator if you want to see what the model is and the saving through carwow click on the pop out banner up there or follow the QR code that should be on screen now using your mobile phone that was a lovely butterfly it like the hybrid of this the eco-friendliness there are a couple of advantages of the yanis Cross being a hybrid so the first is that when you're just cruising round Town sounds dodgy that doesn't it you can put it into EV mode oh I'm going of charging the battery for it to do that but it's still doing what I want it to do which is run in electricity mode only so it's silent apart from the sound that you get from all hybrids or electric cars when you're driving at low speeds to warm pedestrians but it does mean that it's silent there's no engine thrumming away so it's all nice and quiet and relax maxing but unlike with some small cars with internal combustion engines with no hybrid system and this is especially with those with an automatic gearbox because you've got the assistance of the electric motor when you put your foot down you instantly get a pickup from that electric motor with cars that just have turbocharged engines made to an automatic gearbox you often get a terrible delay while the gearbox and the engine work together and you have to wait for the turbo to boost up so this is really good for Town driving this hybrid system now we come to the Turning Circle which isn't quite so good on this car compared to some of its key competitor still relatively tight at 11.2 M but a scoda commix is better it's like 10.1 M I can just about make this round because I've got good visibility I can tell how close I'm to the cars that I'm just trying to brush past so I shouldn't hit them even though I have no front parking sensors nor any surround view cameras because of the spec of this car is quite like low to middling but that was actually really easy to do and also the view at the side mirrors is good and the view at the back window is good you do have a bit of a blind spot though from that big fat rear pillar and there's a bit of a blind spot there but overall pretty good what also is pretty good the suspension around town it deals with bumps quite well but as you go faster and you drive over uneven Services it does get a bit fidgety so it's not the most settled terms of the brakes so hybrids can sometimes have grabby brakes because what's happening is when you're braking the first part you're braking is actual regen braking so you're using the motor in Reverse like a generator or is that a Dynam I don't know anyway it's using the electric motor to slow you down and it's basically putting the energy back into the battery and that can make the brakes feel a bit unnatural bit grabby but these are smooth you see Toyota has had years and years and years and years of experience building hybrids and they've got it down to a fine art now now you can put the car into a b mode which is what I've got it in so you have a bit more regen braking when you lift off the accelerator without touching the brake but you don't have full warm pedal driving so I'm holding the car on the brake now look I lift off the brake and it moves forward I wish it had full one pedal driving that would be better let's just see if I can do it no hybrid batter is still too low for EV mode darn it and that transition there when the engine kicked in it's really smooth you do notice it though because it's a three-cylinder and they're a little bit thrm but a lot of cars in this category have three cylinder engines All In All Around Town this is very very very very very good look I'm in EV mode now this is the reason why you get such good economy out of these hybrids the ability to do this you are using all the energy you you recoup through braking and slowing down and using it to drive you at lower speeds I'm going to come out of B mode going to D yeah now it really just rolls in B mode actually the slowing in B mode is more like just normal engine braking D is just like you're rolling rolling rolling rolling rolling basically done this whole town section using the electric motor only and with speed limits in villages and towns just like 20 mph everywhere now hybrids are making more and more sense oh look how fast can I go on EV Power ooh 35 36 I'm going to build it up slowly we are going downhill which is helping as soon as there's an incline it's going to bring in that petrol engine but come on come on oh no look the engine just kicked in and I didn't notice it at all now I'm going quicker can't get my elbows comfy every light thing you touch is pretty hard the armrest has a bit of padding on it but it's still very hard so Toyota hard trim and tiny thin metal but usually rocks on reliability right we're coming up to a faster bit of Road a 70 mph limit so I'm going to slow down to 40 Flo the throttle and see what the pickup is like you know like say with you trying to filter and join a Motorway so we'll see if this car has enough off so here we go I'm around 40 I'm in normal mode go it was hard to distinguish when the actual pickup was it just slowly acrude speed it wasn't like oh right we're going now no noticeable delay but no noticeable hog cool pickup either I guess that's just the nature of the power output of this engine but he got up to speed quick enough I wonder if it's better if I put into power mode no these speeds it just feels the Blum insane now when you are driving at high speeds in terms of the noise insulation it's maybe a bit quieter than it was before I'm not noticing the road noise quite as much as I did in the pre-facelift car there is a little bit of wind noise around there but it's not terrible quite happily do a long journey in this and I'm not really having to raise my voice to talk to either at 70 mph which is good I think what's also good the economy so this car is supposed to do around 63 m to the gallon this one has averaged almost 57 MPG I'll take that okay I am Starry to notice a bit of wind flutter around here and I can hear a little bit of road noise but I think it's about average for this class of car I think the sound installation upgrades to this version has helped slightly W do now is going to power mode no not EV I can have EV now look EV mode I don't know why it has EV mode it still brings in the engine in the slightest touch of the throttle why even bother right I'm going to go into power mode anyway see what this car handles like now when you thrash it you can hear that CVT gearbox caus the engine to like hold its revs and and being a three-cylinder it's quite thrum but it's not too bad oh that went around there really well actually for a relatively High riding car say relatively you know it's it's not massive it's not a G wagon it's definitely taller than a normal Yaris the steering is actually reasonably responsive and precise and it grips well I mean people buy these cars aren't going to be thrashing them about really but you can easily keep up with other traffic Corners really well I'm actually surprised I like this car you know it's remarkable how light it feels in terms of the handling compared to all like the electric cars I've driven recently they're just too heavy I mean this is a hybrid so it does have some extra weight on board but it still feels light and agile this version of the toota Yaris cross should do n to 16 11.2 seconds I'm going to find out for myself with specialist timing gear in power mode brake boost it doesn't like that smooth 9.59 9.6 I think they underestimated it okay I'm just going to run the other way to get an average bre boost really puts it power down well well what power it does have okay 10.29 that's cuz it's slightly downhill One Way slightly uphill the other which means that the averages on the screen now couldn't do the math in my tiny little brain couldn't still good though right so then what's my final verdict on the Toyota Yaris cross should you avoid it consider it short list it or just go right ahead and buy it well I reckon you should short list it it's a good all round and very economical small family SUV I hope you enjoyed the video if you did give it a like let me know what you think of my verdict in the comments below click on the windows to watch some more videos and on the car logo to change your car that easy way sell your current car through car and buy your next one through us as well at a fair price thanks for watchingI'm going to show you something really cool about the updated Toyota yarus cross so if I go into the boot look at this underneath here I have stashed this thing and what is it watch this this is good it is the load cover so I can now attach it on there and on there then these bits go up there and then the other one up there there how clever is that all models get adaptive cruise as standard and I can press this button here to increase the distance to the car in front look there we go and I can press that button there to turn on Lane keeping assist so the car will basically keep you that distance that you set from the car in front using its radar technology and it'll Auto St to keep you in Lane to make your life just much easier when you're commuting you can get the Aris cross with an extra electric motor on the rear axle so you get four-wheel drive and none of its competitors offer that the front seats have a quick recline lever so you just pull up on that and watch or you can use it to set your perfect position like this look pull it up there we go it's exactly how I want it Toyota has fitted this latest version of the Yaris cross with a new thicker wind screen thicker Side Glass extra insulation in the dash and a new engine mount which reduces vibrations all this is designed to make the car quieter than it was before however it's not all good I'm going to tell you about five annoying things about the new Toyota yisc cross a little later in this video Toyota has made no changes whatsoever to the exterior design of the Yaris cross as part of this midlife update I'm not too bothered because I actually quite like the way it looks so depending on which version you go for you have a slightly different treatment gr versions have like a sporty look to them slightly sportier Grill Premier versions have some Chrome on them this is the one up from the entry level model and considering that's the point that it's at it actually looks pretty good I don't think it's wanting for any kind of extra bits so alloy wheels start at 16 and they rise to 18 these are 17s and they come standard on this car and they're all you really need you also get stuff like black roof bars which you don't have on the entry level they're not black in color they're they're just not there you don't get roof bars you can get like two-tone body paint in like high spec cars but I don't think it really needs it round the back it's all quite cool looking I really like Toy's designs lately it's a good looking car this now prices the Aris cross starts from £55,000 rising up to £35,000 this one here is just over 27,000 good thing is you can save an average of about £25,000 off a yarus cross through car wow want to sell your car quickly easily for a fair price then head to car to have over 4,000 trusted dealers ready to bid on it in an online auction first enter your car's registration to get an instant approximate valuation then if you want to proceed give us some more details and upload some photos and we'll help you set a fair reserve price for your car that's the minimum amount you'd be happy to sell it for once you've done that we'll enter your car into an online auction when the auction's over we'll let you know the result and the dealer with the winning bid will be in touch to arrange easy payment and free collection of your car 93% of sellers surveyed said they got the price they expected or more through carb the best bit is it's completely free I put a link in the description of this video and the Ping comment to take you directly to carwow where over 4,000 dealers are ready to bid on your car or you can just click on the pop out Banner that should be appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen now alternatively just Google help me carwow and we will help you sell your car quickly easily and for a fair price on with the video Toyota has made a few changes to the interior of the Yus cross the most noticeable change is this all but the entry level gets a new updated infotainment screen which is much better than before look we it's faster to respond it's got nicer Graphics it's bigger obviously it's got Apple carplay and Android auto you also have a slightly New Look dial section here all but the entry level car and this level car have a full digital driver display this one has a digital driers display here in the middle and then just lights for your fuel gauge and your temperature gauge at the side but it is slightly different than it was before there's also some new trims like on the door cards and elsewhere about but you wouldn't really notice that now in terms of the car itself so you got squidgy material there and there harder Plastics here it's nice that's covered in this KN fabric this is quite thin and unyielding so so look at the center console oh it moves about quite a bit yeah that feels a bit flimsy but the seating position is pretty nice tends to be in Toyotas actually they always get it spot on but I have an issue with these seats see this it's raised up slightly it feels like you sat on something you know when you're like you might have a jumper behind you something like that it feels like there's something or your belt's not right and whenever I'm driving along that's just digging into like this part of my bottom and I find that really really annoying now the top three spec cars actually have sport seats and they may not have that issue I don't think they do actually another issue I found is with the storage look look at this watch I want to open it really quickly what's that all about look come on it just shs look oh I mean is the glove box big enough to fit a big bottle in oh yes it is oh so too are the door bins look in there quite big one thing I'm very thankful of as well is this look actual physical buttons for the climate control not hidden in some menu somewhere that is really good thanks for maintaining that and an air of normality is it normal it's not normal anymore actually an air of sensibility in your car Toyota what else do you need to know oh yeah look to USB seized down here do we have a 12 vter do we anywhere anyone got look armrest yeah um yeah there it is I knew it was in there somewhere there 12vt socket as well that's pretty much all you need to know about the Interior Space here in the front oh there is one thing well I do quite like the interior of this I do find that the interior of a poo 2008 is way cooler and if you want to see my full in- dep video review of that car click on the pop out Banner appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen or use your mobile phone to follow the QR code which is on screen now here in the back seat head room is pretty good people over 6 foot will be fine where they may struggle is with knee room I'm okay but I've got short legs if you got long legs you're going to find your knees touching the front seat back but look because the front seats are raised up you can at least put your feet underneath them so there's a decent amount of foot space and this seat base is quite deep and it's raised quite a bit from the floor so you do have lots of under thigh supports it's reasonbly comfy actually here in the back now if you come to carrying three people at once this middle C isn't the conf cuz it's a little bit raised but the main issue is the fact the body is quite narrow so it's going to be a squeeze with three adults in the back but it is doable for short Journeys if you want to carry a child seat in the back well the eyes fix anger points are easy to get to the issue is that the rear doors don't open all that wide obiously going to have to push the front seat forward slightly if you want to fit one of those buky rear facing seat so it's not brilliant but once again you can live with it what is good is this look you have some through loading and you have the cup holders there if you want to do it like that you don't have an armrest but this is actually quite good on a car in this ceg to have that through loading feature other features you got here so where are the pockets on the seat bags have they forgot to fit them H anyway you do have some reasonable size door bins which will carry a bottle of that size and I like this cuz it doesn't happen that often anymore rear windows that go all the way down however I think in terms of back seat space a Rena capture is more room me and if you want to see my full in-depth video review of that car click on the pop out banner up there or follow the QR code appearing on the screen now the big capacity of the yis Cross is 350 L which is one of the smallest in this category now I've already shown you these dividers so look that 350 L is when you're actually using up all of this space but I want to keep these in place right now to just illustrate this when you fold down the rear seats oh your seat belts don't snag and as long as your front passenger seat is a bit more forward than that the seats will fall down easily and then you have a continuous floor to slide things towards the front if you want to makes loading easy also some features in here just some hooks to tie things down there there there's a couple more here and it looks like there's a blank switch there what is that blank switch for actually do you know what that brings on to five annoying things about the Toyota Yaris cross this design trim version of the Yaris cross which is one up from bass has a lot of blanked out switches look blanked blanked blanked and let's look over here blankety blankety blankety blankety blanky blank actually that takes me back to the 1980s that's what cars used to have a lot of in the 1980s also look at this here's another thing that feels cheap where's the light where's the light for the vanity mirror speaking of feeling cheap have listen to this sounds like the car is made out of the thinnest cheapest metal known to man that's the thing about Toyotas they do feel cheap in places but you do get a 10-year warranty so maybe you don't need to worry there are no USB charging ports in the back of the car at all how are the children supposed to charge their devices that means they're going to try and interact with their parents on a journey which I mean who want that I hate the way you can't just open the fuel filler cap when the car is unlocked like with other Toyotas and Japanese cars that I've owned you have to go and do it manually like this and then go back around now you might be thinking well you know if you own the car you're going to know to do that every time believe me if you got multiple cars if it's like your second car or something like that you will forget because every other car just allows you to open the fuel filler capab if the car's unlocked always have that problem with my GS always forget get out go to fill up and have to go back in again can you spot a problem with the location of these cup holders this one in particular ready ready all right watch is this that's yeah it's not great the rearview mirror is located quite low down and you end up getting this reducing visibility through the center of the wind screen look at it compared to this part here and then this part now it's pretty bad but it's nowhere near as bad as on my gr Yaris but still many of the cars don't have such an issue as that the Aris cross's engine range has actually doubled in size because now instead of one option there is two now they both have a 1.5 L 3-cylinder petrol engine M2 electric motor now this particular car as before has 116 horsepower but now you can get a version with a more powerful electric motor which takes a total to 130 horsepower that's the new thing whichever version you go for their front-wheel drive unless of course you spec the extra motor on the rear axle though that doesn't give you any more P it just gives you more drive so it gives you four-wheel drive and regardless of which one you go for you get a CVT automatic gearbox as standard so which version of the Aris cross would I go for in terms of power output and trim level while I've actually configured my ideal Yaris cross using the carw configurator if you want to see what the model is and the saving through carwow click on the pop out banner up there or follow the QR code that should be on screen now using your mobile phone that was a lovely butterfly it like the hybrid of this the eco-friendliness there are a couple of advantages of the yanis Cross being a hybrid so the first is that when you're just cruising round Town sounds dodgy that doesn't it you can put it into EV mode oh I'm going of charging the battery for it to do that but it's still doing what I want it to do which is run in electricity mode only so it's silent apart from the sound that you get from all hybrids or electric cars when you're driving at low speeds to warm pedestrians but it does mean that it's silent there's no engine thrumming away so it's all nice and quiet and relax maxing but unlike with some small cars with internal combustion engines with no hybrid system and this is especially with those with an automatic gearbox because you've got the assistance of the electric motor when you put your foot down you instantly get a pickup from that electric motor with cars that just have turbocharged engines made to an automatic gearbox you often get a terrible delay while the gearbox and the engine work together and you have to wait for the turbo to boost up so this is really good for Town driving this hybrid system now we come to the Turning Circle which isn't quite so good on this car compared to some of its key competitor still relatively tight at 11.2 M but a scoda commix is better it's like 10.1 M I can just about make this round because I've got good visibility I can tell how close I'm to the cars that I'm just trying to brush past so I shouldn't hit them even though I have no front parking sensors nor any surround view cameras because of the spec of this car is quite like low to middling but that was actually really easy to do and also the view at the side mirrors is good and the view at the back window is good you do have a bit of a blind spot though from that big fat rear pillar and there's a bit of a blind spot there but overall pretty good what also is pretty good the suspension around town it deals with bumps quite well but as you go faster and you drive over uneven Services it does get a bit fidgety so it's not the most settled terms of the brakes so hybrids can sometimes have grabby brakes because what's happening is when you're braking the first part you're braking is actual regen braking so you're using the motor in Reverse like a generator or is that a Dynam I don't know anyway it's using the electric motor to slow you down and it's basically putting the energy back into the battery and that can make the brakes feel a bit unnatural bit grabby but these are smooth you see Toyota has had years and years and years and years of experience building hybrids and they've got it down to a fine art now now you can put the car into a b mode which is what I've got it in so you have a bit more regen braking when you lift off the accelerator without touching the brake but you don't have full warm pedal driving so I'm holding the car on the brake now look I lift off the brake and it moves forward I wish it had full one pedal driving that would be better let's just see if I can do it no hybrid batter is still too low for EV mode darn it and that transition there when the engine kicked in it's really smooth you do notice it though because it's a three-cylinder and they're a little bit thrm but a lot of cars in this category have three cylinder engines All In All Around Town this is very very very very very good look I'm in EV mode now this is the reason why you get such good economy out of these hybrids the ability to do this you are using all the energy you you recoup through braking and slowing down and using it to drive you at lower speeds I'm going to come out of B mode going to D yeah now it really just rolls in B mode actually the slowing in B mode is more like just normal engine braking D is just like you're rolling rolling rolling rolling rolling basically done this whole town section using the electric motor only and with speed limits in villages and towns just like 20 mph everywhere now hybrids are making more and more sense oh look how fast can I go on EV Power ooh 35 36 I'm going to build it up slowly we are going downhill which is helping as soon as there's an incline it's going to bring in that petrol engine but come on come on oh no look the engine just kicked in and I didn't notice it at all now I'm going quicker can't get my elbows comfy every light thing you touch is pretty hard the armrest has a bit of padding on it but it's still very hard so Toyota hard trim and tiny thin metal but usually rocks on reliability right we're coming up to a faster bit of Road a 70 mph limit so I'm going to slow down to 40 Flo the throttle and see what the pickup is like you know like say with you trying to filter and join a Motorway so we'll see if this car has enough off so here we go I'm around 40 I'm in normal mode go it was hard to distinguish when the actual pickup was it just slowly acrude speed it wasn't like oh right we're going now no noticeable delay but no noticeable hog cool pickup either I guess that's just the nature of the power output of this engine but he got up to speed quick enough I wonder if it's better if I put into power mode no these speeds it just feels the Blum insane now when you are driving at high speeds in terms of the noise insulation it's maybe a bit quieter than it was before I'm not noticing the road noise quite as much as I did in the pre-facelift car there is a little bit of wind noise around there but it's not terrible quite happily do a long journey in this and I'm not really having to raise my voice to talk to either at 70 mph which is good I think what's also good the economy so this car is supposed to do around 63 m to the gallon this one has averaged almost 57 MPG I'll take that okay I am Starry to notice a bit of wind flutter around here and I can hear a little bit of road noise but I think it's about average for this class of car I think the sound installation upgrades to this version has helped slightly W do now is going to power mode no not EV I can have EV now look EV mode I don't know why it has EV mode it still brings in the engine in the slightest touch of the throttle why even bother right I'm going to go into power mode anyway see what this car handles like now when you thrash it you can hear that CVT gearbox caus the engine to like hold its revs and and being a three-cylinder it's quite thrum but it's not too bad oh that went around there really well actually for a relatively High riding car say relatively you know it's it's not massive it's not a G wagon it's definitely taller than a normal Yaris the steering is actually reasonably responsive and precise and it grips well I mean people buy these cars aren't going to be thrashing them about really but you can easily keep up with other traffic Corners really well I'm actually surprised I like this car you know it's remarkable how light it feels in terms of the handling compared to all like the electric cars I've driven recently they're just too heavy I mean this is a hybrid so it does have some extra weight on board but it still feels light and agile this version of the toota Yaris cross should do n to 16 11.2 seconds I'm going to find out for myself with specialist timing gear in power mode brake boost it doesn't like that smooth 9.59 9.6 I think they underestimated it okay I'm just going to run the other way to get an average bre boost really puts it power down well well what power it does have okay 10.29 that's cuz it's slightly downhill One Way slightly uphill the other which means that the averages on the screen now couldn't do the math in my tiny little brain couldn't still good though right so then what's my final verdict on the Toyota Yaris cross should you avoid it consider it short list it or just go right ahead and buy it well I reckon you should short list it it's a good all round and very economical small family SUV I hope you enjoyed the video if you did give it a like let me know what you think of my verdict in the comments below click on the windows to watch 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