2001 Toyota Yaris reviews

Toyota Yaris 1400 Diesel 2001

From the second I started driving this car it began to exceed any expectations I ever had for it. I have now covered 65,000 with nothing more than 3 headlamp bulbs and 2 front sidelight bulb failures, what a car. The Yaris is very easy to drive and comfortable from start to finish on runs I have done lasting about 6 hours. At worse I have achieved 66mpg. and as much as about 92 mpg. No I don’t dawdle about before anybody asks but over the years as a professional driver I have mastered economy driving techniques, which are more about observation, correct use of accelerator and gears than slow speeds as some people think. As with any common rail diesel engines that I know about the engine does take quite a time to warm up so it is a bit chilly inside during the winter months if you have to do short runs. The engine has great torque and always keeps going even up very steep hills without the need to change into lower gears. On motorways driving is effortless and cruising at 70mph is done at about 2,300rpm. The turbo give a very welcome burst of speed for overtaking and lane changing but watch the speedo because there is little sensation of speed and you can be well over the speed limit without realising.Tyre noise from the originally fitted Goodyears could be a bit much depending on the type of road surface but I changed to Toyo tyres and this was eliminated. Several times I have had 5 adults in the car and did honestly expect performance to drop right off but it didn’t. Overall a very reliable and well built car but give it a miss if you are only doing short journeys. I have even still got the original brake pads and shoes fitted with plenty of life left in them.