In its home market of Japan, automaking giant Toyota actually offers its GR Yaris hot hatch in a more 'basic' flavour. Caled the Toyota GR Yaris RS, the automaker has been offering it to Japanese buyers for some time now.
Though it carries the ‘RS’ suffix that usually denotes a performance special, that isn’t really the case with this model. That’s because the GR Yaris RS has all the sharp styling and aggressive stance of the real GR Yaris, but none of its spicy pep or much of its high performance hardware.
It still employs a 3-cyl mill plonked up front, but it’s a smaller 1.5-litre naturally aspirated unit rated at 118 HP and 145 NM – less than half of what the GR Yaris actually boasts. But perhaps the worst news here is the fact that said three-banger drives the front wheels only (FWD) via a CVT automatic box.
That last para is indeed a far cry from the actual GR Yaris rally rep hot hatch that adopts a 1.6-litre 3-cyl turbo mill paired with a 6-speed manual box that's also brimmed with a trick all-wheel-drive (AWD) system. In short, don’t expect this GR Yaris RS to match the actual GR Yaris in term speed and performance.
Essentially, this GR Yaris RS has the full styling of the real deal, but only half the power and drive.
This, as it turns out, may not be a bad thing altogether, more so given how this also nearly halved its price – literally. Unlike the full-cream version that retails from JPY4,560,000 (approx. RM145,570), this more modest RS version commands a rather reasonable JPY2,650,000 (approx. RM84,597) instead.
Yes, some folks just want the look and style, but not necessarily the performance to match. Could we see a handful of these making their way to local parallel/grey (recond) importers over the years to come? Would you fancy one if it did? Share your thoughts in the comments below…
KUALA LUMPUR | VMK951 |
SELANGOR | BRT8762 |
JOHOR | JXA4065 |
PULAU PINANG | PRF2106 |
PERAK | ANK8059 |
PAHANG | CEW7456 |
KEDAH | KFU2796 |
NEGERI SEMBILAN | NEB7851 |
KOTA KINABALU | SJE1458 |
KUCHING | QAB2466J |
Petrol | |||
---|---|---|---|
RON 95 | RM 2.05 |   | |
RON 97 | RM 3.47 |   | |
RON 100 | RM 4.50 |   | |
VPR | RM 5.50 |   |
Diesel | |||
---|---|---|---|
EURO 2M | RM 2.15 |   | |
EURO 5 | RM 2.35 |   |
KUALA LUMPUR | VMK951 |
SELANGOR | BRT8762 |
JOHOR | JXA4065 |
PULAU PINANG | PRF2106 |
PERAK | ANK8059 |
PAHANG | CEW7456 |
KEDAH | KFU2796 |
NEGERI SEMBILAN | NEB7851 |
KOTA KINABALU | SJE1458 |
KUCHING | QAB2466J |
Petrol | |||
---|---|---|---|
RON 95 | RM 2.05 |   | |
RON 97 | RM 3.47 |   | |
RON 100 | RM 4.50 |   | |
VPR | RM 5.50 |   |
Diesel | |||
---|---|---|---|
EURO 2M | RM 2.15 |   | |
EURO 5 | RM 2.35 |   |