2012 Toyota Yaris: New European Yaris revealed

2012 Toyota Yaris arrives

The 2012 Toyota Yaris has been revealed with sharper looks, a revised interior and new instruments.

No one can argue that Toyota hasn’t given us plenty of notice of the 2012 Toyota Yaris. They have.

All we had to do was take a look at the new Toyota Vitz that was revealed by Toyota at the end of last year. The Vitz is the JDM Yaris, and as is often the case with JDM launches it pointed very clearly at the new Yaris.

An even bigger clue was the reveal of the 2012 Toyota Yaris Hybrid which was, apart from the HSD gubbins lurking under the skin – the regular 2012 Yaris. So not much in the way of surprises to come.

The 2012 Yaris in’t a great styling departure for the little Toyota, just a cleaning and sharpening of the old model. Which isn’t the end of the world; the Yaris is a competent, decent looking little car.

It shows Toyota’s latest design language with more prominent headlights and shape-defining creases but beyond that theres’ not much to shout about. The interior, however, has moved on.

Gone is the rather irritating central instrument display with its once-trendy digital readout. In its place is a much better binnacle in front of the driver with proper instruments and a touch-screen media centre.

Information on the Yaris is not yet official so we’re not certain what engines will be on offer, but it seems likely to be a 1.0-litre VVT-i and 1.33-litre dual VVT-i petrol units and a 1.4-litre D-4D diesel to stand alongside the already revealed Toyota Yaris Hybrid.

More when we get it.