Performance cars and automatic transmissions go together like caviar and popping candy… Or at least, they used to, but as the market shifts to autos, could there be a place for an auto in Toyota’s wildest hot hatch?
2025 Toyota GR Yaris GTS
The Toyota GR Yaris is arguably the purest expression of Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division.
Cars like the GR Supra may be more powerful, and the GR86 might be more purist-focused, but neither would exist without extensive DNA from other car makers.
Even the GR Corolla, which is all-Toyota, is a regular Corolla made to go fast. The 2025 Toyota GR Yaris, on the other hand, is technically a race car for the road.
Built to fulfil a never-realised World Rally Championship homologation requirement, the GR Yaris wasn’t cancelled when its race program was. The GR Yaris may bear a family resemblance to other Yaris models, but under the surface, Toyota has built a dedicated race and rally-ready hot hatch.
Because of the strong focus on customer racing, the 2025 GR Yaris carries a number of revisions to make it a better, more adaptable car. Feedback from real owners sees the updated model score a more easily repairable front bumper, a more user-friendly dash design, and improved forward visibility from a more compact rear-view mirror housing.
But the headline act from the revised specifications is the optional availability of an eight-speed automatic alongside the continuing six-speed manual.
Rather than just slotting in the eight-speed automatic from cars like the Kluger, Toyota essentially re-engineered an entirely GR-specific transmission for the GR Yaris and GR Corolla to ensure it met the expectations of enthusiast drivers.
While it may not seem like the logical choice for motoring purists who wouldn’t dare abandon three pedals, the new GR Yaris automatic proved a compelling alternative during our time with it.
How much is a Toyota GR Yaris?
Pricing for the GR Yaris range has risen with the newly updated model. Whereas the cheapest GR Yaris GT manual used to cost just over $51,000 before on-road costs, the more recent model’s entry price is $55,490 plus on-road costs.
Order your GR Yaris with an automatic and the price climbs by $2500. In the case of the top-spec GR Yaris GTS automatic being driven here, you’ll be up for $62,990 before on-road costs, or almost $70K on the road with metallic paint.
The GTS upgrade is worth it for any serious driver, with the addition of front and rear Torsen limited-slip differentials over the open diffs of the GT. You also get 18-inch forged alloy wheels with stickier Michelin tyres, an additional sub-radiator and intercooler spray button, plus ‘high-performance’ suspension.
All GR Yaris model come with a new 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, 8.0-inch infotainment with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, manually adjustable sports seats, aluminium pedals, a heated leather steering wheel, auto-dimming interior mirror, LED head and tail-lights, auto high beam, keyless entry and push-button start, and more.
Power for the 2025 GR Yaris climbs from 200kW to 221kW and torque rises from 370Nm to 400Nm.
Despite technically being classed as a ‘light car’ based on its size, the GR Yaris is almost without peer.
Hyundai still offers the i20 N in Australia, but its 150kW/275Nm outputs, front-wheel drive and $35,500 price tag mean it’s unlikely to be a cross-shop candidate.
Moving up a size class to something like the Subaru WRX brings all-wheel-drive performance and a more willing 202kW/350Nm engine, but it’s still not as sharply honed as the GR Yaris, despite originally being born from rally competition decades ago. Pricing for the 2025 WRX range runs from $48,190 to $63,290 in a choice of sedan and wagon body styles.
Toyota’s own GR Corolla isn’t a leap away on price and feels like the smarter choice for anyone who plans on carrying passengers with five doors, a slightly bigger boot, and the same engine and transmission options. The GR Corolla runs from $67,990 to $70,490.
At the very pointy end of the hot hatch market, few cars feel as precisely dialled in as the Honda Civic Type R. It’s a true joy to drive, and while it may only be front-wheel drive, it has the punch of 235kW and 420Nm to keep it feeling lively.
The price seems high at $74,100 drive-away, but ends up being somewhere around $5000 more than the GR Yaris with on-road costs factored in.
| Key details | 2025 Toyota GR Yaris GTS |
| Price | $62,990 plus on-road costs |
| Colour of test car | Liquid Mercury |
| Options | Premium paint – $575 |
| Price as tested | $63,565 plus on-road costs |
| Drive-away price | $69,207 (Melbourne) |
| Rivals | Hyundai i20 N | Honda Civic Type R | Subaru WRX |
Toyota GR Yaris best deals
With the updated GR Yaris range still fresh in showrooms, there’s a solid range of used GR Yaris models for sale on Drive Marketplace. Right now it’s the best way to pick up a bargain with no discounts or offers on the updated model at the time of writing.
If you’re ready to test-drive the GR Yaris, you can search for your nearest Toyota dealer here.
Check here to find out more about the entire Yaris range, including price, specifications, deals, and any updates or changes Toyota has on the way.
How big is a Toyota GR Yaris?
Don’t buy the GR Yaris expecting gargantuan interior space.
Based on a light hatch, and trimmed down even further with a lower roof to optimise its aero profile, the three-door GR Yaris isn’t the most roomy or versatile car you can buy.
The front seats feel normally proportioned, and Toyota has made changes compared to the original GR Yaris. These include a lower driver’s seat, higher rear-view mirror, and lower top edge of the infotainment surround for a more open view forward.
Gone is the perched feeling of the old car, thanks to the lower driver’s seat, although my passengers did remark that the left seat still feels a little too lofty.
Its front seats are fully manual, and the seat base and backrests are surprisingly flat, with nicely proportioned, grippy bolsters for your torso, but low support on the base, making it easy to get in and out.
The driver’s seat lacks lumbar support, and it badly needs it. The front seats also lack a shoulder-height release lever, and position recall, so you need to tilt and slide them in two stages to get into the back, then manually reset your preferred position.
The new dashboard design, the result of customer feedback, is specific to the GR Yaris and not shared with mainstream versions. In pictures it looks a little slabby, but the much smarter positioning of controls makes it easier to use.
Then, of course, there’s the possibility that you might remove the touchscreen altogether and place in a bank of auxiliary switches for competitive use. Here, the centre driver-facing arc makes solid ergonomic sense.
The plastics used in the interior are all hard, and don’t feel as premium as the $63K price demands. The passenger faces raw edges where the dash meets the centre stack, and the overall look and feel is too close to a basic Yaris for the price premium.
The rear seats, as mentioned above, could be much easier to access, but once you’re in, prepare to suffer. The side windows are tiny and there are no air vents, cupholders, or centre armrest.
I’m 169cm tall and my head is firmly pressed into the roof, with little knee room on offer. Forward visibility is severely restricted too, with the broad front sports seats impacting the view out.
Like the rear seats, the boot isn’t multi-functional or generously proportioned either. Toyota claims just 174 litres with the seats up. Compared to 270L in a regular Yaris, or 310L in a Hyundai i20 N, the GR Yaris takes compact to new levels.
The boot floor is high, and underneath it you’ll find the car’s 12-volt battery, tyre repair kit, and the reservoir for the newly added intercooler water sprayer. No hope of extra storage here.
The rear seats are easy to fold, with a 60:40 split for larger items, but they don’t have a pull-up strap on the back, so you’ll need to open the side doors to hurl the seatbacks into position.
All of this sounds terrible from the perspective of small city hatchbacks that might need to carry household items or passengers regularly, but in a dedicated rally car, it’s a lot easier to forgive some of the packaging shortfalls.
| 2025 Toyota GR Yaris GTS | |
| Seats | Four |
| Boot volume | 174L seats up |
| Length | 3995mm |
| Width | 1805mm |
| Height | 1455mm |
| Wheelbase | 2560mm |
Does the Toyota GR Yaris have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto?
The good news about the GR Yaris is that it uses the latest-generation Toyota infotainment system, which is responsive and smart to look at. The bad news is that it shows on an 8.0-inch display with huge black bezels that could clearly accommodate a much larger screen.
The system is packed with wireless and wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus integrated satellite navigation, AM/FM/Digital radio, and two USB-C ports for the front-seat passengers.
The low-res CarPlay implementation isn’t my favourite, with barely enough room to show detail on the homescreen. The PlaySchool-sized text and graphics really could come down a touch to show more info.
The GR Yaris also comes with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster that can be configured to show a range of crucial engine info (like oil and coolant temp, transmission temp, and oil pressure) or just mundane elements like fuel consumption.
Unfortunately, configuring the display isn’t as quick and easy as Volkswagen’s exemplary driver’s display, which can be tweaked on the go. Once you dial in your preferred settings, though, the Toyota cluster is a handy improvement over the old model’s traditional gauges.
The GR Yaris lacks a few items, including a head-up display for the driver, a wireless charge pad, and any form of armrest or centre console storage, apart from two cupholders. That makes more sense for the manual version, but the auto could surely provide a lidded armrest.
A six-speaker JBL-branded sound system is standard, but there’s no upgrade option here. Despite the name-brand logos, the sound system is weak, tinny-sounding, and not really punchy enough to drown out tyre noise on extended highway trips.
Toyota provides access to Toyota Connected Services, including SOS emergency call, and automatic collision notification. Additional services like stolen vehicle tracking, remote vehicle status checks, and other additional features are included for the first 12 months, then switch to a paid subscription.
Is the Toyota GR Yaris a safe car?
Although regular versions of the Toyota Yaris carry a five-star ANCAP rating from 2020, the GR Yaris is excluded from this rating.
In the eyes of ANCAP it is untested, and given that it has a vastly different structure under the skin compared to a more pedestrian Yaris hybrid, the crash test data and protection ratings may not apply to this specialist model.
| 2025 Toyota GR Yaris | |
| ANCAP rating | Unrated |
What safety technology does the Toyota GR Yaris have?
The GR Yaris includes a healthy list of included safety and driver assist technology, including blind-spot monitoring, speed sign recognition, safe exit alert, rear cross-traffic alert and assist, and lane-keep assist with lane-centring that’s quick and easy to deactivate if you like.
The GR Yaris automatic also includes adaptive cruise control that is capable of coming to a complete stop, but it can only hold the car stationary for a few seconds before deactivating. It’s not a full stop-and-go system.
I quite like Toyota’s tune of the lane-assist systems, which aren’t too intrusive and seem to do a good job of picking up faded rural road marks.
The system isn’t smart or powerful enough to let the driver take their hands off the wheel through bends, but in such a driver-focused car, that gives a lot more control to the driver.
| At a glance | 2025 Toyota GR Yaris GTS | |
| Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) | Yes | Includes pedestrian and cyclist detection |
| Adaptive Cruise Control | Yes | Full-speed adaptive cruise control, no extended brake hold |
| Blind Spot Alert | Yes | Alert only, with safe exit assist |
| Rear Cross-Traffic Alert | Yes | Alert and assist functions |
| Lane Assistance | Yes | Lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist, lane-centring assist |
| Road Sign Recognition | Yes | Speed sign recognition |
| Driver Attention Warning | Yes | Driver fatigue alert |
| Cameras & Sensors | Yes | Front and rear park sensors, rear-view camera |
How much does the Toyota GR Yaris cost to run?
Toyota offers a standard five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty across its range, but also provides an additional two years of engine and drivetrain warranty in situations where the vehicle is serviced in accordance with the manufacturer’s logbook.
Service pricing is expensive, compounded by the fact that service intervals are set every six months or 10,000km (whichever comes first). Individual services are capped at $310 per service for the first six scheduled services. After that, prices increase drastically.
Comprehensive insurance for the GR Yaris GTS automatic comes to $1580 per year. You’d pay quite a bit more for a GR Corolla auto, at $2011 per year, but only a little less to cover a Hyundai i20 N, which was quoted at $1426 per year.
All figures are derived from a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.
| At a glance | 2025 Toyota GR Yaris GTS |
| Warranty | Five years, unlimited km |
| Service intervals | 6 months or 10,000km |
| Servicing costs | $1860 (3 services) $2970 (5 services) $4191 (10 services) |
Is the Toyota GR Yaris fuel-efficient?
You might think a fairly light and compact car with a 1.6-litre three-cylinder engine should be fairly fuel-efficient, but the GR Yaris slurps a decent amount of fuel.
Even in mixed running with highway stretches, peak-hour commutes, and a few mountain road blasts, I used 9.6 litres per 100 kilometres. Toyota officially rates the GR Yaris at 9.1L/100km in mixed use.
That’s 175 per cent more than the claimed figure for a Yaris hybrid. In fairness, it’s also worth pointing out that the GR Yaris makes 160 per cent more power than a regular Yaris.
The GR Yaris has a taste for the good stuff too, and recommends 98-octane premium unleaded for its highly strung engine. With a 50-litre fuel tank that’s just shy of 550km per fill at claimed consumption.
| Fuel efficiency | 2025 Toyota GR Yaris GTS |
| Fuel cons. (claimed) | 9.1L/100km |
| Fuel cons. (on test) | 9.6L/100km |
| Fuel type | 98-octane premium unleaded |
| Fuel tank size | 50L |
What is the Toyota GR Yaris like to drive?
The GR Yaris might be dragged down slightly by the weight of the normally mediocre Yaris name. Take everything you think you know about Toyota’s regular compact city car and bin it.
The GR makeover is transformative, and what you end up with is a raw hot hatch brimming with dynamic feedback and exhilarating performance.
The off-beat three-cylinder warble of the GR Yaris gives it a distinct character not heard in any other current hot hatch, and with 221kW at 6500rpm and 400Nm from 3250 to 4600rpm, the GR Yaris packs plenty of shove.
The fat torque is handy, and rather than coming on tap from super-low RPM, it still makes you work to extract performance. I’d have loved this car to rev a little higher, and a little faster, but the package as a whole seems to work fine with its current set-up.
The elephant in the room for manual diehards is the eight-speed automatic fitted to this test car. Apart from a little low-speed slurring and a soft shift from first to second, it’s a good transmission – but perhaps not a great one.
It’s not as crisp between gears as a dual-clutch automatic, nor as immediate in its responses, but it can transition from smooth urban crawler to sharp and purposeful in the blink of an eye.
To get the best out of it, you need to slide the shifter over to manual mode, otherwise the transmission can often ignore driver requests. But once you do, it will hold revs at redline and is fairly quick to downshift with a pull of the steering wheel paddles.
The engine noise is gruff but never intrusive, although it’s markedly quieter inside the car than it is outside.
The GR-Four all-wheel-drive system offers three modes, including Normal with a 60/40 front to rear torque split, Track that sets a static 50/50 split, and Gravel that sits between the other two modes with a 53/47 split. These are all variable, however, with up to 70 per cent of the power able to be set to the rear axle as conditions allow.
It’s a planted little beast, and sticks like a cat to carpet as you wind it through the bends, but you can easily kick the rear out and enjoy plenty of drift action in the wet or on loose surfaces. Normal mode can understeer just a little, but Race mode provides much tighter lines.
The front and rear Torsen limited-slip differentials play a part here too, keeping wheel slip to a minimum, especially when firing out of tight hairpin bends. There’s no inside wheel spin, and no axle tramp unless you’re absolutely brutal with the accelerator.
Driving modes can also be tweaked through Eco, Normal and Sport settings. A Custom mode lets you pick from the three drivetrain settings, two steering modes (Normal and Sport) and two air-con modes (Eco and Normal).
The GR Yaris doesn’t allow you to tweak dampers or exhaust noise, with no active or adaptive settings for these systems.
The suspension tune is quite firm, but not rock hard. It’ll jolt over bumps and potholes, but never really shakes the cabin violently. It’s not isolated from the cabin either, so there are plenty of suspension knocks and thumps that you wouldn’t experience in most cars.
The tight chassis also means you’ll enter every driveway with one wheel in the air. A great way to show off just how dedicated the GR Yaris is. The GR Yaris GTS gets a ‘high-performance’ suspension tune, although Toyota doesn’t elaborate on how it differs from the GT.
The steering is good, but not great. Don’t expect the barrage of information from the front wheels like you get from a Civic Type R. The feel and feedback are a little dulled down, but the steering is quick and responsive, and still plenty of fun to tip into bends.
Road noise is a killer in the GR Yaris. I’ve not yet driven the GT on Dunlop tyres to know if it’s better, but the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S rubber of the GTS kicks up plenty of road noise, and doesn’t make the GR Yaris a very good long-distance traveller.
| Key details | 2025 Toyota GR Yaris GTS |
| Engine | 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol |
| Power | 221kW @ 6500rpm |
| Torque | 400Nm @ 3250–4600rpm |
| Drive type | All-wheel drive |
| Transmission | 8-speed torque converter automatic |
| Power-to-weight ratio | 170kW/t |
| Weight (kerb) | 1300kg |
| Spare tyre type | Tyre repair kit |
| Turning circle | 10.62m (kerb) 11.28m (body) |
Should I buy a Toyota GR Yaris?
The GR Yaris is a really fantastic car, not just because of how it drives, but because of its sheer automotive hedonism.
It isn’t a great all-rounder; in fact, it’s a terrible one. It’s a training ground for rally drivers who want a street car that they can build into a gravel-course terror.
If you need easy rear-seat access and a bigger boot, the GR Corolla, or WRX, or Hyundai i30 N are unquestionably better choices. But at 1300kg, with a compact footprint, and a direct line to Toyota’s motorsport involvement, the GR Yaris is a rare car.
It’s a shame Toyota didn’t invest just a tiny bit more into the interior of the GR Yaris with its latest round of updates. The cabin experience is a big letdown, especially with the rest of the car so well sorted.
As for the auto versus manual debate, this isn’t a car that comes unravelled with its two-pedal option. The eight-speed automatic behaves itself both on the drive to work and during hard use on challenging roads.
It can’t match the driver engagement of the manual version, but it doesn’t destroy the flow and fun of the GR Yaris either.
The post 2025 Toyota GR Yaris GTS automatic review appeared first on Drive.