Toyota's Yaris Hybrid introduced in Germany

Yes, this is in Germany, which is somewhat astonishing. But I participate more in two french forums, and there, the enthusiasm is really impressive. The Yaris Hybrid seems to have the potential of becoming a star. it is already the best sold Hybrid in June, seemingly at the expense of the Auris HSD.

Jan

 

Indeed... it is because the price is so reasonable (plus it is a good car of course). Here, they never sold many Auris HSD's, because the price was never subsidized so it is almost 2x more expensive than base Auris 1.33! Which is crazy.

I know in bigger countries Toyota subsidized the price so it was reasonable but for me Auris HSD never made much sense because of small trunk. We have some Prius sold though.

However with Yaris HSD, I see that pricing is good even in countries where it wasnt before - like Poland, plus they improved the looks, so there is no reason not to buy! So I hope price is same in Croatia - same as diesel or close to it.

I am not sure how is it in France, but here on general automotive forums, people, even ones that are car fans, think batteries will stop working after a year like in a cell phones and that it is some kind of weird, freak technology .

 

I have high hopes for next Rav4 hybrid - they will be able to price it the same as diesel for sure, and thats means it will sell great. Rav4 unveil is in November and Auris in September at Paris.

 

what are the french forums? how are the reports in french car mags?

p.s. We just got informed over Toyota@Facebook that in Europe they are extending warranty to 10 years total - we have 5 years unlimited warranty and after that every year/15000km you will get extra warranty as long as you service at Toyota dealer, for a total of 5 extra years/75000km. Have you heard of this? It seemed like it was new pan-european thing and that it will be everywhere.

 

they dont, they only own few flagship stores... this is basically 5 year extension of hybrid component warranty as long as you service it as Toyota... which is the same as normal warranty i guess, because you still have to service it at Toyota

 

The French Forums:

Yaris hybride [Topic officiel] - Toyota Yaris - FORUM Toyota - FORUM Marques

Toyota Yaris hybride - Page 82 - Forum Prius Touring Club

The PTC is really excellent. FA is more "popular", and therefore reflects very well the opinions in the large public.

The reports in french car magazines are mostly positive, with the usual weaknesses. The most important being that car journalists do not do much effort to drive a hybrid car like it ought to be. The fact that the Yaris is assembled in France, however, taints this with the usual "patriotism".

In case you can read french, you will be able to see it for yourself, and also find numerous links to car magazines. The links contain plenty of nice pictures of the cars delivered to new owners. As a hole, I consider the hype about the Yaris as extensive as that around the Prius C.

I did not hear yet about this initiative. I'll check it out. My Prius still has the new car garantee, and after that, it will benefit from a two year extension by Car Garantie. The HSD is having eigth years.

Jan

 

HSD here has 5 years, and we have 5 year/unlimited mileage for rest of the car too .

It might be regional then... i thought HSD warranty was pan-european thing since they mentioned "only for cars sold for Western European markets", but generally warranty is part of marketing and different Toyota distributors have different rules.

 

there is nothing better than public testing the cars.. i am surprised at British reviews as Yaris HSD is really not that slow - for instance they talk about Kia Rio 3cly diesel as car that can get similar mpg, except that it is a lot slower car, a lot noisier and only without A/C installed and with base equipment can it get close to similar official figures... nicely equipped, it is barely better than Yaris D4D, which is a rocketship compared to it .

Not to mention that average user wont gun the car all the time, just like they dont gun the diesel... most small diesel drivers run it at 1500 rpm or less to minimize fuel consumption... And plus, especially cheap diesels, are very very noisy... maybe inside BMW it wont be noisy, but inside Clio, it will be

 

interestingly enough, just read Autoexpress and Autocar and apperantly Yaris Hybrid is slow and gets relativly poor mpg.

Some things will never change

 

Well for americans it is under powered if that is what they mean by slow. I can believe that, but the cars in the class are also "slow". How do they get relatively poor mpg? How did they test that?

 

magic! UK mags dont like the hybrids... one wrote how it is really loud and harsh sounding and other how it is quiet even at hard acceleration .

In any case, they say best they could do 42 mpg when they tried... on the other side, german AMS wrote how they got 76 MPG when they tried

There is quite different reporting between German and UK mags when it comes to hybrids, and this has been pretty constant. For instance Autobild keeps their list of economic cars, and Prius is very high (2nd) on the list and actually more economical, and comparable Jetta TDI for instance is 10% "worse". On the other hand, when UK mags review Yaris, they say things like "it gets good mpg, but so do many other cars, even petrols". Which is weird, because they dont .

 

Oh the UK mags are a nightmare. I used to get people tell me the Prius was slow and couldn't get the mpg's that it does get, yet my experience was that it is fairly quick compared to economy diesels and does get 70+mpg UK when I try.

One thing that proved that mags talk nonsense was 'Which' who rated the Prius as 3/5 and said its ride and handling were dreadful. Which's own customer survey voted the Prius number 1 with a 5/5 rating for its ride and handling!

So the mag says it's dreadful, yet the mags very own readers rated it highly. Work that one out.

 

I actually never got huge time with G3... i had it for a day and all i remember how i freaking gunned it from light to light and got only 5.9l/100km consumption, which was crazy low for type of driving (and any other petrol would spend 15l). And for city driving, with electric motors, Prius is pretty fast, heck a lot nicer response than most turbo diesels that need some time to react. Then you go and read how slow it is and how bad mpg is and you start to wonder whats goin on.

While Germans are completely opposite with same cars and Prius is regularly as their best car in the class for mpg. I mean you can criticize it for plastics all you want, and for (non) sporty feel, but for mpg and even speed, not really. Not to mention comfort - my wife still says G2/G3 are the most comfortable cars she ever drove in.

 

Auris is a compact. It uses the same platform as the Corolla. In Australia/New Zealand it's the Corolla Hatchback.

If anything the Auris is too close to the Prius. I know Grumpy wonders why people buy the Auris Hybrid. It's only #800 cheaper than the Prius and is slightly less efficient. Of course, a big difference is that the Auris Hybrid is assembled in England.

 

Here is the list of all Toyota hybrids in Europe and price range (price is different from country to country):

Yaris - Prius C drive train (100 hp) >15.000 €
Auris - Prius drive train (136 hp) size similar to Lexus CT200h >20.000 €
Prius - > 23.600 €
Prius+ > 31.000 €

 

The Yaris Hybrid is a sub-compact. In certain countries, that's the best-selling category. Its price puts the full-hybrid category within reach of many people who otherwise would not bother about Hybrids. In certain countries, it gets a big government boost. In France, for the Yaris, 2000 Euro!

By the way, 10% of the price of a P3 (2500 - 3000 Euro) or Prius+ (3200 Euro) , and 5000 Euro for a PIP, putting it at 32500 Euro, base version!

The Auris sold well in the UK and the Netherlands, but much less well elsewhere. Its problem is that it was not conceived as a Hybrid from the start (trunk volume shrinked), and that it's powered by the comparatively expensive P3 powertrain. The Yaris one is based on the cheaper P2 system, adapted to P3 state of the art. It has a smaller, hence cheaper battery. It is better value for money.

The Auris II Hybrid will correct this and will be available as a break. Some question whether in certain countries, it will make sense for Toyota to continue and offer the Prius.

Jan

 

Yaris should get another 2000 bump, for the total of 4000 if new law passes in France....

As to the Prius, it is class above Auris and always be, so it will be available always.