Toyota reckons you’ll find 314 litres of boot space with the rear seats in place. (image: Andrew Chesterton)
The biggest challenge for any city-focused micro-car is a longer-distance trip, and the time has at last come to put the Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid to the test.
The model we’re testing is called the Urban, after all, so it’s not as if Toyota is playing mind-games about exactly where its little Yaris Cross will be most comfortable. But no matter how inner-city your life is, road-trips still happen, right?
I like to think of my urban life as pretty stereotypical. Mostly you’ll find me hanging around my local area, ducking to the shops or to work, with short hops dominating my driving life. But, like plenty of others, there are weekends away or people to visit, or – in this instance – a mid-week getaway to the beautiful Bundanoon in the NSW Southern Highlands.
So, first things first, the Yaris Cross Hybrid is small. That part is probably obvious just by looking at it, but it really is diminutive. We’re talking 4180mm in length, 1765mm in width and 1590mm in height here.
The backseat, predictably, is a squeeze for anyone approaching adult size (though, as it turns out, it’s just the right size for anyone approaching corgi size). This is not a growing-family SUV, but then, it hasn’t been designed as one either.
The boot, though, is surprisingly willing to swallow enough gear for several days on the road. My wife insists not just on packing bags and pantry supplies, but also brining every pillow ever made (presumably just in case the ones in our accommodation are filled with gravel, or something), and the Yaris Cross took it all without complaint.
Toyota reckons you’ll find 314 litres of boot space with the rear seats in place (because ours is AWD, in the 2WD version you’ll get 390 litres). That’s about the midpoint in a car this size. In a similarly sized Hyundai Venue, for example, you’ll find 355 litres, while in the Mazda CX-3 you’ll get a tiny 264 litres.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the Yaris Cross takes some Tetris-style packing, but you can absolutely fit more than you might expect in its boot (see the picture for evidence), meaning longer getaways are not off the table here.
That’s the good, then. The not so good? The Yaris Cross Hybrid is fitted with a fuel-saving Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), which takes the place of a torque converter or dual-clutch automatic. These are largely awful inventions, designed to help car companies lower their emissions, but the technology has improved, and now some are worse than others.
The Yaris Cross is a tale of two transmissions. Clearly tuned for the city, the CVT is mostly breezy in the urban environment, only making itself known when you really plant your foot. But on longer drives, and on the wrong road, it can get stuck at that point in its band where the droning is at its loudest, and most annoying.
Say you’re travelling on a 90km/h road with a slight incline, the Yaris Cross will have no problem maintaining speed, but it will do it in a way that sounds – though doesn’t feel – like it’s straining. It’s hard to explain, but the gearbox makes the little Toyota sound as though it’s working much harder than it actually is, and wreaks havoc on the cabin experience.
Still, whether its the CVT, the hybrid system or – more likely – a combination of all of it, I’ve been blown away by the impressive fuel use the Yaris Cross has delivered so far.
Some of you might recall (and if you don’t, be sure to read my previous dispatch) that I was getting 5.3L/100km when mostly driving around the city in our hybrid, but that number has only fallen in the weeks since.
Toyota reckons you’ll find 314 litres of boot space with the rear seats in place. (image: Andrew Chesterton)
After a few longer-distance trips (though still with plenty of city driving), my fuel use has dropped nearly half a litre, and now sits at 4.9L/100km. Toyota claims 4.0L/100km combined, so I’m still above that. But then, my, well, let’s just say enthusiastic driving style probably isn’t helping much.
But at a time when fuel prices are blowing holes in bank accounts everywhere, I’ve been very grateful for the miserly antics of my little Yaris Cross Hybrid.
As I write this, the average price for 91RON unleaded is $1.74 per litre, which means the 36 litres it requires to fill the Yaris Cross’s tiny tank will cost me around $62. For that, I’ll be able to travel around 735 kilometres.
And that’s pretty damn good, I reckon. So good, in fact, that I can very easily put up with an overly loud gearbox…
Acquired: June 2022
Distance travelled this month: 1014km
Odometer: 5342km
Average fuel consumption for July: 4.9L/100
Keyword: Toyota Yaris Cross 2022 review: Urban AWD hybrid long-term | Part 2