Toyota’s latest launch in the Indian car market, the Yaris C-Segment sedan, has managed to bag 5,000 bookings within a month of the price announcement. While the car’s prices were announced last month, it went officially on sale last week. Deliveries too began last week. The Yaris competes with vehicles, such as the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, the Honda City and the Hyundai Verna. Over 2/3rds of the bookings have been for the CVT automatic variants of the Yaris. This has made the sedan quite unique in its segment. Toyota offers the CVT automatic gearbox on all four trims of the car. There are 8 variants on offer in total, four manual and four automatic.
The Yaris is powered by a 1.5-litre petrol engine that features a four-cylinder layout. This naturally aspirated petrol motor, which also gets variable valve timing, puts out 108 PS of peak power and 140 Nm of peak torque. While the Yaris is not a tarmac scorcher, it offer adequate performance for everyday driving. A 6-speed manual gearbox is standard with the engine while the CVT automatic gearbox with seven stepped shifts is offered as an option. Top-end variants of the Yaris Automatic get paddle shifters. The Yaris – currently a petrol-only car – will not be sold with a diesel engine, even in the future.
Toyota has loaded the Yaris with safety features, making it one of the safest cars in its segment. Seven airbags are standard across trims, along with ABS+EBD. Other key safety features of the car include front proximity sensors, reverse parking sensors and camera, an electronic stability program, cruise control, a tyre pressure monitoring system and hill hold assist. As for other features, the Yaris offers ambient lighting, roof mounted AC vent, leather seating, start-stop button with keyless entry, a power adjustable driver’s seat, a cooled glovebox and a touchscreen infotainment unit with gesture sensing. Prices of the Yaris start from Rs. 8.75 lakhs, ex-showroom Delhi.