2022 Toyota Yaris Cross review (inc. 0-100)
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TechTranscript
00:00G'day, I'm Paul. I'm seeing a stack of these cars around. It's the Toyota Yaris Cross.
00:05We reviewed this car a little while back and, gotta be honest, I didn't really love it. It
00:09was way too expensive at the top end and didn't feel like it was good value for money. Well,
00:14this time around, we've gone to the lower end of the price bracket. This one is
00:18just one up from the entry level. This is the GXL. It's the hybrid two-wheel drive version.
00:23This here is priced at just over $30,000, but if that is too expensive, the entire range kicks off
00:29from a little over $25,000. So there's something in there for everyone. And then it goes all the
00:33way up to that super expensive one that we drove a little while back. What are you going to buy
00:38if you don't want to buy one of these? Well, you've got Mazda CX-3, Hyundai Venue, Kia Seltos.
00:43They're just some of the competitors in this segment. Today, we're going to do a detailed
00:47review of this car. So if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review,
00:50you can use the time codes up on the screen there. Or if you're on YouTube,
00:53scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our
00:57channel and press the bell icon, because that's going to tell you every single time we drive very
01:01blue cars. Let's talk exterior. So you've got eight external colours to pick from. Orbit Black is a
01:08little under $600 extra. Now, the design. So this is based on the Yaris. It shares a platform with
01:15the Yaris. So it is 30mm higher off the ground than a standard Yaris. It's 90mm taller, 20mm
01:22wider, and 240mm longer. So despite sharing a platform with the Yaris, it is very much a bigger
01:29vehicle than the Yaris. Down the front here, if you've seen our other Toyota Hybrid videos, you
01:33will know that the blue here signifies that this is a hybrid. So if you have a spotlight in traffic
01:37and see the blue, you know that this is an environmentally conscious person. You've got a
01:41radar sensor just under the logo there, and then a camera here for the wider view camera. And I'll
01:47run you through that when we go for a drive. It is interesting here. The whole purpose of a grille
01:51is to keep a car cool. And given that this is a tiny little engine and obviously doesn't require
01:56much cooling, three quarters of that grille is completely closed up. So it's kind of just here
02:02for design purposes. It doesn't really sort of serve any real cooling purpose, which is an
02:06interesting dilemma, especially as EVs come along because they require less cooling up the top here.
02:11So yeah, watch this space. I think eventually in the design field, we will see this disappear from
02:16cars as we move towards battery electric vehicles. Over here, you've got a set of full
02:21LED headlights with an LED daytime running light. You've got an indicator down the bottom there.
02:26Whip around to the side. 16-inch alloy wheels. That is a very chubby profile tire, and I suspect
02:34that's going to mean this will ride very nicely. Typically cars that are on the TNGA platform like
02:39this one, I don't know, the ride is just really well sorted here for Australia, and this is going
02:43to add to that. So can't you see what it's like when we go for a drive? And because it's an SUV,
02:48you've got to have wheel arch protectors. Look at the size of that. It's almost CX-30 sized in terms
02:53of its bulkiness just there. Another hybrid badge on the side there. It's got an indicator built
02:58into that wing mirror and then a camera beneath there. So you've got this black strip here that
03:03divides the body colours. Come back here, you've got privacy glass. Up the top there, you've got a
03:08shark fin aerial. A little spoiler here with a brake light built in, and then more of that blue
03:14badging for your hybridness, with more hybrid there. LED tail lights. Let me know what you think
03:19of the comments section below. Do you like the design, and do you think that the price is justified
03:23given how much bigger this is than a standard Yaris hatchback? So we're inside the Yaris Cross. We will
03:27start with the key. So you've got lock, unlock, Toyota, then nothing on the back. It's a proximity
03:35sensing key, so you grab the door handle. Once you're inside, you've got that big start button
03:39just there. Okay, so in terms of design, I've got to say this is probably one of the blandest looking
03:44interiors I've seen in quite a long time. So you've got, you know, piano black all over the place,
03:49really small infotainment system, and just everything is this nasty plastic, and it's all
03:55just sort of quite dark as well. So yeah, it is a little bit disappointing that they haven't put
04:00just a tiny bit more effort into this, because this is a vehicle that's potentially going to be
04:04bought by young people, and I think that a young person would want something a little more stylish
04:08than just, you know, what we see here in front of us. So a little bit disappointing there. So I said
04:13that most of the materials are scratchy. I do correct myself. This stuff up the top here is a
04:17tiny bit soft up to that point where it gets a little scratchy, and then it sort of stays scratchy
04:22down the doors with these cloth segments sort of built in. So anyway, touch points. So you've got
04:27no center armrest. You can kind of rest your arm on that, but that's like solid, and then this is
04:33solid as well. So how solid is it? Well, we've got our gyrometer. We've tested the main surfaces in
04:38this cabin. If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before,
04:42have a look at the link in the description. Build quality. It's got a bit of flex in it
04:46just there, but I think the rest of this feels okay in terms of how it's put together. Door.
04:55Sounds a little bit cheap and nasty. I wonder if it's just because that window was open a little
05:00bit. Yeah, it sounds a little bit better, but yeah, a little tinny. Now moving on to infotainment.
05:05So I mentioned before that it is like a very small screen, and I just don't know why they don't go
05:10with the bigger screen given you've got all of that real estate. Instead, they've gone with what
05:14is possibly the smallest screen they can find. So it is a seven inch screen. You've got shortcut
05:19buttons on either side, and then its functionality is sort of fairly straightforward. You've got a
05:24menu there with shortcuts to some of your options. In terms of audio, you have AM, FM, DAB plus digital
05:32radio, and that's all plumbed through a six speaker sound system. Sound system isn't very
05:36good, but what is good is a new feature that Toyota has added to some of its cars, which is
05:41a remote connection to the car. So it has an embedded sim. It allows you to interact with the
05:45car remotely, but it also fits this feature here. So it's not an injector seat, but it is an SOS
05:50button. So if you do run into any dramas or have a car crash, you can hit that and that will send
05:55for assistance, which I think is a really great feature. And Toyota are one of the few to be doing
05:59it in this segment. So it's great to see that they're actually rolling that technology out.
06:03In terms of smartphone mirroring, you have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Both are wired.
06:07I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like first. So it takes up the entire portion of that small
06:12screen. It's not too bad. It's kind of fast, but can be a little bit laggy at times. I'll show you
06:18what Android Auto looks like. So same story, full screen integration, tiny bit laggy, but at least
06:24it has it. You've got a screen ahead of the driver here as well. This contains your trip computer,
06:29plus a few more details on the drive. We'll go into a bit more depth with this when we do go for
06:33a drive, but in terms of the functionality, you can just skip between some of these menus,
06:36see your safety details and also what the hybrid system is doing. And now safety, you have front
06:41AEB, rear AEB, front and rear cross-traffic alert. You have a lane departure warning and a
06:47lane keeping assistant. Radar cruise control. You have a blind spot monitor built into the
06:51wing mirror. And in terms of parking, you have front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera.
06:56I'll show you what that looks like. Pop that into reverse. Quality of that is really, really poor.
07:02I mean, look at that. The 360 camera is kind of just pointless because you can't really see
07:06anything and the visibility out the rear is just really basic as well. Although you can go to a
07:11bigger view if you need to. I just honestly don't know why they don't just fit these with a better
07:15camera. Cameras are so cheap at the moment. So anyway, moving on to practicality and we'll start
07:21with connectivity. So you have one USB-A port and when you have smartphone mirroring running,
07:26that's in use. So you really can't do anything with any other devices in the car because that's
07:30in use. But you do get a 12-volt outlet. This is a lower grade car, so there's a stack of blank
07:36buttons all over the place here. In terms of storing your phone, where are you going to put it?
07:41Well, it can live down here in the cup holders, kind of, or you can pop it down the front there
07:46as well. And then in terms of your coffee cup, that can easily live down there. There's no teeth
07:51or anything like that, but it is easy to retrieve that. Same story with the bottle, that can easily
07:56slot into there. We'll try that one inside the door as well. That is an easy fit. Now, what about
08:01our big bottle? So look, it actually fits, but you've got to wedge it into there and force it in
08:08and then it's really hard to get out. So yeah, it's good, but not amazing there in terms of
08:13bottle fit. Other storage, well, you've got this little hole just here. You've got this nook just
08:18beneath the screen and you also have a glove box there that is kind of reasonably sized,
08:23but most of the space is robbed by the manual. Moving on to comfort, you have single zone
08:28automatic climate control and that's about it. The seats, they are very cloth. Design is kind
08:35of okay though. So you've got the sort of designed textile section on that side and then
08:41a graphic on that center section while this top is just pretty sort of basic. In terms of comfort,
08:45they're pretty comfortable to sit in. They're sort of inoffensive in that sense. Fully manually
08:49adjustable for both the driver and front passenger. And then on the steering front, you have
08:54both tilt and reach adjustment. On our reach test, all of this is easy to reach, but for these
08:59controls, you will have to lean in to get to the left-hand side of that screen. Okay, now before
09:04I run through this, I'm not a huge fan of this door. I mean, that is as far as it opens. So yeah,
09:10it's just really not very good in terms of the aperture there. So pretty disappointing. Space,
09:15it's not a great deal of it. So my knees are wedged into that seat. Toe room's not too bad.
09:20Headroom is reasonable. Look, I mean, yes, this is based on the Yaris. I understand that, but
09:26it is longer than a Yaris and bigger than a Yaris. And I think that if you're making an SUV,
09:29why would you not make there be enough room here, especially if you're going to be carrying
09:33friends and stuff like that in it. So pretty disappointing in terms of the amount of space
09:37back here. That flows onto the amenities. You've got one map pocket there, no air vents, no USB
09:43charging. You know, even this stuff, like that's almost made entirely out of a single cast of
09:49plastic. It's just really drab and dreary back here. So same theme continues with that seat
09:54design. And then you've also got ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats with three top tether
09:58points. This centre section drops down and gives you access to two cup holders. So you can drop
10:03bottles in there if you need to. And then you've got storage for the bottle inside the door. So
10:08look, this is a pretty cramped space and it is a bit disappointing they didn't put a little more
10:12effort into the second row, but there is one upshot. Watch this. The window goes all the way
10:18down. Let's sort cargo. So I've got some good news. In addition to saving money with the two-wheel
10:25drive, you also get more boot space. So the two-wheel drive gets 390 litres of cargo space.
10:31The all-wheel drive with its hybrid motor at the back here robs you of boot space, which is good
10:37news. It's also a dual-tiered floor, which means you can have it up here or you can drop that tier
10:42out of the way and then you get yourself a little bit more storage space. Beneath both of these is
10:48a space saver spare tyre. I'll show you what it looks like with our bags in there. Pop one in
10:53there. We'll try this one over here. Yeah, look, I'm sure you could close the boot if you sort of
10:59wedge that in or alternatively you can go in sideways and then you have plenty of storage
11:04space there. And it's nice and deep as well, which means you can actually get a whole stack of things
11:08in there if you need to. And if you need a little bit more space, what you can do is get rid of this
11:12cargo blind. So I'll pop that out of the way. And then once that's out of the way, you can drop your
11:18second row. Oh, that's good. You can't drop your second row. Well, you can drop your second row,
11:24but you need to move the front seats forward. A little bit annoying given that should just drop
11:28on its own. But anyway, once you do that, you have a little bit more storage space.
11:33OK, we're on the road in the Yaris Cross. Let's start off with the engine and the combination with
11:41the electric motor, because this is, of course, a hybrid two wheel drive version. So powering this
11:46is a one and a half litre three cylinder petrol engine. It's naturally aspirated. The petrol
11:51itself produces 67 kilowatts of power and 120 newton meters of torque. So it's barely anything,
11:56but it is supplemented by an electric motor on the front axle, and that provides a combined power
12:01output of 85 kilowatts. Toyota doesn't quote a combined torque figure because it varies throughout
12:05the torque band. So it will sort of team up with the petrol engine when it needs to. And then other
12:10times, like right now when the little EV light is on just there, it is running just on electricity
12:16alone. It's not until I get stuck into the throttle that it actually kicks on the internal
12:20combustion engine. It uses a CVT, so continuously variable transmission, but it's not a conventional
12:25one. It has a mechanical first gear. So when it does take off, it's actually using an actual gear
12:30before it kicks into its standard CVT mode, where it does have 10 individual gears you can pick from
12:36as well. So what does all that feel like behind the wheel? Look, it's not the snappiest thing in
12:42the world, but it's also not the worst. It kind of just gets up and moves when it needs to. It
12:46doesn't really sort of pin you back in the seat, but it's adequate for where this car will be
12:50driving, which is probably in and around the city, doing overtaking and that kind of stuff.
12:53You really want to be concentrating on what you're doing and getting stuck into the throttle
12:57nice and early. You do get a nice supplement of torque from the electric motor, but you're
13:02really getting a huge amount to work with there. Now I'm going to switch that annoying lane
13:06departure stuff off because it will just end up beeping at us the entire time. Toyota claims a
13:12combined fuel economy figure of just 3.8 litres per 100 k's. Let's have a look at what we're
13:17sitting on. 4.3! Like pretty much bang on that number. That is such a small amount of fuel.
13:24It is genuinely remarkable. Now what about your drive modes? So you have Eco, which seems to make
13:29sense for a car like this. You have Normal and then you have Power. When you put it in Power,
13:34everything just becomes a whole lot snappier and it's ready to respond. Really all Power mode's
13:39doing is bringing in a higher throttle position earlier in the pedal to make it feel like it's
13:44going faster. It isn't actually giving you any extra power or torque when it comes to
13:49hitting down the throttle. Just another couple of things I wanted to point out in terms of
13:52driving. You can slot this down into B mode and that increases the amount of, I guess,
13:58resistance you get as the vehicle slows down. It kind of gives you a little bit more charge
14:02into the batteries, but it feels like it actually uses a bit of reduction gearing with the engine
14:08as well to slow the car down. So it's a really good system if you're going down long hills and
14:11you want to conserve a little bit of energy and you can see how that whole process is going using
14:16that little screen there. So right now it shows you that we're using battery power to run the
14:21vehicle, but if I push a little harder it kicks in the internal combustion engine and when I roll
14:25out of the throttle it all starts plumbing back into the battery pack. So yeah, really nice setup
14:29and to be honest I think this is exactly what people want from a car like this. It needs to
14:33be simple and for the most part it is incredibly simple to operate all of these hybrid controls.
14:38Now Toyota doesn't have an official 0-100 time for the Yaris Crosshybrid,
14:42but we've put it up against our stopwatch and this is how it went.
14:57Now what's it like through corners? We've got a little corner coming up here. We're already in
15:00power mode. Let's give it a shot. Look, it's okay. It's not going to change the world,
15:06but equally it's kind of fun at the same time. Now you will have noticed that my
15:10talking has picked up a little bit. As we get to these ruttier sections of country road,
15:14there is a lot of tyre noise coming into the cabin. It is one of the downsides when they
15:18take something like a Yaris, which is very much a, I guess, affordably built city car,
15:23and then make it into an SUV. They don't seem to be adding any more insulation and as a result of
15:28that really communicates a lot of that through to the cabin. Now what about the ride? So I mentioned
15:32in the intro that Toyota has this thing on the TNGA platform. TNGA in general is really good and
15:38the ride here is excellent. So even on a choppy country road, it's nice and smooth and very soft,
15:44and that's also partly thanks to the amount of profile you have on those tyres. It is worth
15:48pointing out though, disappointingly, that the two-wheel drive models get a torsion bar
15:53for rear suspension, whereas your all-wheel drive models have a multi-link rear suspension setup,
15:58and that's probably going to affect this mostly when you're, I guess, driving in a sporty manner.
16:04It is also slightly less comfortable when it comes to the choppier roads because you are getting a
16:08lot of feedback from left to right when you do hit potholes. You get that acceleration moment as the
16:14torsion beam reacts. So look, it's probably not something you're going to notice, but it is worth
16:18keeping in mind that if you do invest in the all-wheel drive version, you are actually getting
16:21a far superior suspension setup at the rear. Now steering. So low speed, it's interesting,
16:26it's an electrically-assisted steering rack, but the feel isn't fantastic. It kind of feels
16:31quite numb. I don't expect it to be a supercar, but even at low speeds, it really just lacks
16:36that sort of feel you'd expect. In power mode, it does feel slightly heavier, but I don't know,
16:41it'd be nice just to have a little bit more steering feel out of your sport utility vehicle,
16:45given that's what it's called. And then the turning circle comes in at 10.6 metres, which is
16:49pint-sized, and it is excellent for getting in and around the city. It's super easy to manoeuvre and
16:54park, thanks to that tight turning circle. Visibility. So being a smaller car, it is
16:58excellent. So I'm able to see clearly down the front of the car there. Wing mirrors are small,
17:02but kind of big enough to see down the side. You've got a blind spot monitor built into those.
17:06Visibility out the rear is pretty good as well. I can sort of clearly see there,
17:09and it's a pretty decent envelope as well. So the Toyota Yaris Cross. I was kind of hoping
17:16that it would get better the cheaper that it was, and the lower it was down the price range,
17:20but it kind of, I don't know, it still doesn't really do it for me. I think that Toyota just
17:24dropped the ball with it. They really didn't put a great deal of effort into it, and with a brand
17:29new car and a brand new platform, why would you not just go that extra mile to make it just
17:32something interesting and cool? The upshots though, it is incredibly efficient, and I think
17:37that if you don't really care about interior materials and space in the second row and all
17:42that sort of stuff, this is probably a really good option if you're doing a lot of city driving,
17:45or even a lot of highway driving, because it is a class leader when it comes to fuel economy. So
17:50that is probably something to keep in mind, and it isn't that expensive at this end of the price
17:54range, so it takes a little bit of the sting out of the lack of materials and stuff inside the
17:58cabin. So let me know what your thoughts are in the comments section. Our last video got a stack
18:02of views, and people seem to really like the car, but I don't know if they're just watching it
18:06because they're interested in it, or they're watching it because they're buying it. So if you
18:09were one of the people that bought it, let me know why you bought it over some of the competitors,
18:12and whether some of the stuff that I was talking about really doesn't affect you. So really keen
18:16for your feedback. If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and share it with
18:20your mates, and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
18:23But, until next time, take it easy.