The Toyota GR Yaris is the last proper hot hatch, but there’s a big problem
Car changing is a big deal
News editor Jamie Edkins has spent a week with the Toyota GR Yaris, a rally-bred hot hatch which had him head-over-heels, until he saw the price.
I am a bit of a yob at heart, and that’s why I love a hot hatch. I’ve owned a Ford Fiesta ST and an Abarth 595, both of which are shouty, quite garish and goad you into driving like your hair’s on fire.
So when I was offered a Toyota GR Yaris Aero Performance for a week, I jumped at the chance. It’s one of the only proper small hot hatches left, and after a week with it I can also say it’s my favourite.
What do I mean by a “proper” hot hatch? Well, in my mind, it’s a small hatchback with a powerful engine, a rorty exhaust note and a manual gearbox. It also needs to be fun to drive, practical enough to live with day-to-day and affordable.
If you go back a few years, cars like the Ford Fiesta ST, Hyundai i20N and the Peugeot 208 GTi all fit the bill. In 2026, the GR Yaris is the only one which really comes close.
On the engine front, the GR Yaris is fitted with a 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder – and it puts out an impressive 280hp. That’s 50hp more than the 2.0-litre engine you get in the Mini Cooper JCW, but unlike that car, which is automatic-only, the Toyota has a slick-shifting six-speed manual gearbox.
It also has the option of auto rev-matching which blips the throttle between gear changes for you, making downshifts smoother when you’re driving quickly, and the engine sounds great as well.
And this is the sort of car you’ll want to drive quickly. It has a rally-derived four-wheel drive system, so you get loads of grip through the corners, and the steering is really direct and precise. It’s a real laugh to hoon this car down a twisty road.
The trade-off is quite a lot of road noise on the motorway, but the GR Yaris is at least more comfortable over bumps than the overly bouncy Mini.
As for practicality, it’s not the best. This Aero Performance version of the GR Yaris has the handbrake mounted on the dashboard, which is great for doing handbrake turns on a rally stage, but on, say, the M3 it gets in the way of the heater controls. The door bins are also tiny, and there’s little-to-no rear legroom.
The boot is also a rather small 174 litres, with most of the underfloor space taken up by a tank for the system which sprays water at the intercooler to cool down intake temperatures. That’s the sort of tech usually reserved for race cars, and it’s really cool to see on a hot hatch, but some extra storage would be more useful.
That said, if you don’t have any kids it’s practical enough. The boot will fit a week’s worth of shopping for two, and there’s loads of space up front to get comfortable. The driving position is also spot-on, and the bucket seats are supportive without being too tight.
So the GR Yaris has ticked almost all of my hot hatch boxes, and after a week with this car I was itching to buy one, but then I saw the price.
The Toyota GR Yaris starts from almost £49,000, and this Aero Performance version, with the big rear wing and some other styling upgrades, costs £52,295.
That is a lot of money for a car which is quite so compromised day-to-day. For context, you could have a Volkswagen Golf R or Audi S3 for around the same price, and those cars have usable rear seats, a much larger boot, a posher interior and they’re faster as well.
It also represents a price increase of around £20,000 compared to when the car was new, and that makes it much harder to recommend.
But I’m going to anyway. The Toyota GR Yaris is one of the most fun and engaging cars I’ve driven in a long time, and if you’re lucky enough to be able to afford a £50,000 second car, I can’t think of many better options than this.
If you’re looking to spend £50,000 on your only car, a Volkswagen Golf R is a safer bet.
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