2024 Toyota GR Yaris: Price, performance and specs

2024 Toyota GR Yaris price and availability

Are you sitting down? This one’s going to sting. The 2024 GR Yaris will command a starting price of £44,250. Admittedly, that now incorporates the previously optional Circuit Pack goodies including the limited-slip diffs but it’s still some £15,000 more than when the original debuted. Should you want the automatic, it’ll cost you £1,500 extra and should your tastes extend to the limited-run Ogier of Rovanpera editions, the full price hikes up even further, to £60,000.

The reasoning for this hike is something of a grey area, though we’re given to understand it has something to do with the fact that the allocation coming to the UK will be limited. Existing owners and those that were on the waiting list already will be getting priority.

The limited allocation, as with the limited number of GR86s and indeed, Honda Civic Type Rs, is believed to be linked to fleet emissions averages. These relative high emitters can cost their manufacturers serious money in fines, should they shift too many to the point of popping over a regulatory threshold. The solution: keep numbers limited and retain profitability by hiking prices. The dedicated few will pay the premium and enjoy the relative rarity and exclusivity.

But that does leave a once-hungry customer base frozen out both in terms of price and availability. A shame, but if it’s a choice between this and not having a GR Yaris at all, we’ll take this. And power to the enthusiasts who get a spot and pay for the privilege.

2024 Toyota GR Yaris design and cabin

So, what are they going to be paying for? The new GR Yaris is fairly significantly updated design-wise compared to the original, with more aggression and identity with Toyota and GR’s current styling tropes from all angles. Chief among these changes are a revised front bumper with a bigger mouth and a new slick-looking rear light cluster that’s now joined with a bar on the boot lid. Between the exhaust tips also is a vent in the lower bumper that reduces drag and lets heat from the back box escape.

Not quite so successful we think are the changes to the inside. It’s not so much that the dash is now digital – it’s perfectly clear and with added functions like a G meter and so on. The fact the seats are now 25mm lower is an entirely welcome revision. But what on earth is going on with that dash facia? It looks like a dummy cover on a prototype, designed to hide the real design of the cabin.

2024 Toyota GR Yaris performance, specs and equipment

That engorged mouth on the outside now feeds – on cars with the Circuit pack which is standard in Europe – an extra radiator. Those cars also get intercooler spray and a modified air intake. The GR Yaris’s gruff 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine was already a champion of power output being the most potent three-pot in production.

Now it’s even peppier, with a bump to over 280PS (206kW). With the jump in poke, Toyota has made changes to make sure it doesn’t rattle itself to pieces. The valvetrain is now stronger and the pistons are lighter with more wear-resistant rings for good measure. Fuel injection pressure is up too.

Totally new for the updated GR Yaris is the option of an eight-speed automatic gearbox, dubbed the GR Direct Automatic Transmission. Downshift speed has been prioritised during with software to monitor and anticipate the driver’s decisions, based on brake and accelerator positioning. Why eight speeds? Close ratios – a must in any rally car.

Tried and tested, the transmission earned its stripes in the Japan Rally Championship, no less. How you can absolutely tell this has been developed by rally drivers, is the fact that the manual mode on the lever is set up to deliver upshifts with a pull back and downshifts with a push forward. You just know we’ll be pretending we’re in a sequential-shifting race car when driving this thing. Low-key, automatic cars are a bit plusher than manuals too, with forged wheels and a  premium JBL sound system coming as standard.

The attitude of the transmission will correlate with whichever of the three drive modes – Sport, Normal and Eco – the car is in. Modes for the GR-Four AWD system remain Normal, Sport and Track. The new GR Yaris should be a sturdier platform than the outgoing car too, with more spot welds and more body adhesive used. That doesn’t mean it’s heavier, either. The new car weighs pretty well the same 1,280kg as the old car, though the auto will bump that by 20kg.