The little big winner: the Stuff Top Car for 2020 is the Toyota Yaris
Thursday, 3 December 2020
Well, here we are – after a very weird and unsettling year that featured a global pandemic, a brutally divided USA election, a remarkably united NZ election and the loss of Eddie Van Halen and Darth Vader, we have stepped back, taken a breath, let the dust clear and decided on our Top Car for 2020.
To be brutally honest, no one here thought we would ever be writing the words “The Stuff Top Car for 2020 is the Toyota Yaris”, but that just adds to all the other stuff we never thought we would see, hear or say, but did in 2020.
Yep, that’s right – the Toyota Yaris is our pick for the best car we drove in 2020.
But it’s not only that - the Yaris also took out the Top Compact/Small Car category and the Top Hybrid category for good measure.
**READ MORE:
* Celebrating the best cars of 2020
* Top Compact/Small Car: Toyota Yaris
* Top Sports/Performance Car: Ford Fiesta ST
**
And it thoroughly deserves the titles as well. All-new from the ground up, the Yaris is now based on the same excellent TNGA (Toyota Next Generation Architecture) platform as the likes of the Prius, Corolla and last year’s Top Car titleholder, the RAV4.
The TNGA platform brings the same surprisingly engaging feel to the Yaris that it endowed the Corolla and RAV4 with, but the Yaris takes it even further by being lighter and packing a thoroughly brilliant 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine that is both charmingly growly and brutally fuel efficient, even in non-hybrid form.
But that hybrid is where you want to look if you want truly serious fuel sipping, particularly buzzing around in an urban environment.
You see the Yaris hybrid if something that hybrids have been long-promised to be (and EVs actually are) in that it is more fuel efficient at urban speeds than open road speeds – our first experience with a Yaris saw us register a frankly remarkable average consumption of just 2.8l/100km during a week urban pottering.
It wasn’t just the supreme frugality of the hybrid that swung the Top Cars needle the Yaris’ way either – the level of equipment and technology you get for your investment in a Yaris is deeply impressive too, with every model – yes, even the rental special base model GX – coming with Toyota’s Safety Sense package of driver aids and assists that consists of adaptive cruise control, a pre-collision system with autonomous emergency braking, pedestrian and cyclist detection and intersection turn assist, as well as automatic high beams, lane keep assist and even road sign assist that detects and displays the speed limit.
But wait, as they say on the telly, there’s more: the Yaris is also fun to drive! And, yes, I can almost feel the disbelief radiating off you as I write this…
Going off the Yaris’ past track record, I can completely understand your doubt and reluctance to accept that fact, but it is true – that TNGA platform is even more engaging under a lighter car, while that brilliantly growly triple gives its all right across its rev range.
Sure, it is hooked up to a CVT, but in the petrol models it does a remarkably good impression of a normal auto when you are thrashing it, while remaining delightfully smooth and unobtrusive around town.
Styling is, of course, entirely subjective. And while I have to admit to initially having some reservations with the swoopy curves and gaping face of the Yaris, it has truly grown on me. I think it looks particularly good in top ZR spec with the black roof.
The interior is similarly swoopy, but is also fantastically well laid out and impressively comfortable, although not all of our judges agreed on that last point, so that’s definitely a try-before-you-buy warning.
Of course, we can’t talk about the Yaris without mentioning the fact that it is now a family of cars, even if the rest of that family didn’t quite arrive in time to make consideration for Top Cars.
I am, of course, referring to the Yaris Cross small SUV and the GR Yaris hot hatch.
The Yaris Cross uses all the same bits underneath the hatch, but wraps them up in a higher-riding baby SUV body, while the GR Yaris saw Gazoo Racing unleashed all over it for spectacular results.
We have driven both cars since the Top Cars decision was made and can happily report that both would only have bolstered our decision to give the Yaris the win if they had been included, with the Yaris Cross being even more comfortable, with a bigger boot and an even better ride, while the GR Yaris is just all sorts of wonderful hot hatch madness that resets what you expect from the segment. And we already expected quite a lot.
That the Yaris hatch alone was enough to clinch our Top Car award speaks volumes about just how damn good the basic package is.