SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We ponder the hybrid vs. diesel question in Toyota’s 2013 Yaris HSD

  
Demands attitude adjustment

Posted on February 1, 2013

Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday February 2, 2013

There are two main schools of thought on the subject of hybrid cars: those who say that they’re the only currently workable way of saving our air and those who reckon they’re a waste of money if a small diesel can do the job better. There are side issues like the cost of the battery and its carbon footprint, but the world is presently drowning in millions of smaller NiMH batteries used in phones, ‘pods, ‘pads and cameras. No-one is being strident about those.

Toyota, while actively researching other possibilities, reckons that a “budget” version of its Prius hybrid is the best alternative at present. Let’s look at some numbers. Price differences between small petrol engines and similarly sized diesels are around R20 000. The premium for a small hybrid’s Atkinson-cycle engine, electric motor and special battery is around R35 000.

The on-cost is more than that of the diesel, but Yaris HSD’s (Hybrid Synergy Drive) official CO2 figure is only 88 gm/km and it doesn’t emit nitrous oxides as diesels do. Haven’t heard of NOx? Oh, you will; as soon as some flag-waving lobbyist convinces Government to tax it. Then the trucking industry will collapse, bringing the country's economy down with it and we will all retire to caves somewhere. Kidding.

Is there a manual version? No. Motor manufacturers believe that CVT transmissions, despite being dreary, use a touch less fuel and that’s what this car is about. One feature missing from this particular constantly variable device, however, is manual override. You cannot grab a lower ratio and zip past slowly moving obstacles; you need to plan ahead or cringe as the engine howls while waiting for the wheels to catch up. Toyota says it has dialled out some of the flare, but it really needs to work on the rest.

Apart from badges and minor trim details, the Yaris HSD looks the same as any other Yaris and comes in either XS or XR trim. Even the boot volume remains unchanged, because the electric motor’s battery is small enough to fit under the back seat. Dedicated fans might notice an extra couple of centimetres in bonnet length – to accommodate the hybrid helper.

Living with one of these takes adjustments in attitude:  First is the silence as you switch on, dashboard symbols light up and nothing happens. Ease the stick into drive and the car oozes forward soundlessly. Harley, the tabby tomcat, was petrified and had to be plucked to safety. Second is the fact that you are doomed to driving like a little old lady forever. You still get from A to B, but it’s clinical. Third, your writer's recycled-teenager persona admits reluctantly, you can save fuel. Over the period of this review, driving carefully but reasonably, the computer showed that the car used an average of 5,6 l/100 km. A competitor’s stick-shifting 1300cc diesel, although much more fun to drive, used 6,2.

Toyota claims that the Yaris HSD can get you through your day in the city using only 3,1 l/100 km. The theory is that it’s a busy city and you creep around on battery power most of the time. When gaps open and you need to accelerate to over 50 km/h, though, pure NiMH juice is no longer an option so you have to use the engine or be an obstacle. Few of us will see Toyota’s claimed number, we think.

Apart from that, it’s a Yaris. The boot is pretty big for a small car at 286 litres and you get a fully-sized alloy spare. It’s comfortable, easy to drive and park with its 10,4 metre turning circle and it’s well equipped. It has all the usual stuff like powered mirrors and windows, automatic air conditioning, fog lamps, radio and CD with USB, auxiliary and Bluetooth, touchscreen audio controls, follow-me lights, ABS with BAS and EBD, stability control, plenty of airbags and central locking. The more expensive model adds pushbutton starting, cruise control, self-dipping interior mirror and lights on the makeup aids. It also gives you rain sensing wipers and automatic headlights.

As a small city car that’s well equipped, safe and economical, the Yaris HSD might cost a little more but it’s worth an unbiased look. And the green-tax people can’t touch you.

Test unit courtesy of Toyota SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R230 600 - R253 400
Engine: 1497cc, Toyota 1NZ-FXE, DOHC four-cylinder
Power: 55 kW at 4800 rpm
Torque: 111 Nm between 3600 and 4400 rpm
Electric motor: 45 kW/169 Nm
Combined power: 74 kW
Zero to 100 km/h: 11,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 165 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 5,6 l/100 km
Tank: 36 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with 8 years/195 000 km on hybrid components
Service plan: 4 years/60 000 km


What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.


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