Toyota Confirms Production Yaris Hot Hatch as Image Makeover Continues

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s unveiling of the Toyota Gazoo Racing-crafted Yaris Gazoo WRC rally car, Toyota has said a road-going hot hatch for the common man is on the way.

The automaker’s European division let the news slip in Helsinki yesterday, confirming rumors swirling around a possible hot hatch variant of the brand’s staid subcompact.

Still, Toyota left many questions unanswered.

Giving the masses something to pine for seemed like a natural outcome of the company’s splashy re-entry into the World Rally Championship. Certainly, that’s what we’ve expected for some time. Toyota has mulled turning to its Gazoo Racing division for a sporty sub-brand, with the unit’s chief, Koei Saga, declaring that he’d like to make it happen.

Sure enough, that’s what happened — assuming, of course, that the Yaris is just the first hot shoe to drop. In a very brief release, Toyota Europe stated, “Not only will the WRC scene provide learnings to further improve Toyota’s road car technology, it will also inspire an expansion of the Yaris line-up with a performance oriented version.”

To accompany the news, Toyota teased a sketch of the shadowy model. While the automaker hasn’t said if the upcoming model will bear Gazoo badging, it seems likely. It also hasn’t said what to expect under the hood, or whether the model will appear on American shores.

Competing in the subcompact hot hatch segment means this supposedly fiery three-door needs to present a serious threat to the reigning champ — the Ford Fiesta ST. That means output in the neighborhood of 200 horsepower and 200 lb-ft of torque. The Yaris Gazoo WRC boasts 375 hp from its boosted 1.6-liter four, if you were wondering.

If Toyota brings this variant stateside, it could ignite some interest in the overlooked subcompact — and not a moment too soon, either. Sales of the Yaris in the U.S. fell steadily since the model’s 2008 sales peak. While it once saw sales peak above the six-figure mark, this year is on track to become the model’s worst sales year to date.

[Image: Toyota]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • APaGttH APaGttH on Dec 14, 2016

    So Toyota can barely give the Yaris away, literally. Its meager sales go to a lot of rental fleets, and Americans are running away from the B-segment as fast as they can. The former iA sitting on the shoowroom floor is the better vehicle top to bottom. That worst sales year to date is after a relatively recent refresh. Stickers, paint, big rims, some plastic trim and different gearing won't save the Yaris.

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    • APaGttH APaGttH on Dec 15, 2016

      @30-mile fetch Agreed - and prior to shooting Scion in the head, the worst competitor to the Yaris was the Corolla LE sitting next to it. For a few dollars more a month, literally...

  • FreedMike FreedMike on Dec 14, 2016

    "Sales of the Yaris in the U.S. fell steadily since the model’s 2008 sales peak. While it once saw sales peak above the six-figure mark, this year is on track to become the model’s worst sales year to date." The Mazda-sourced Yaris (the iA) might have just a little bit to do with that. It outclasses Toyota's in-house effort so badly that I'm amazed no one has committed sepuku in Toyota HQ over it.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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