One of this year’s most hotly anticipated performance cars, the Toyota GR Yaris, is set to reach South African showrooms in July, in limited numbers, and the big question on everyone’s lips is: how much will it cost?
Toyota has yet to officially confirm pricing for the GR Yaris, but a recent post by Twitter user @stevefromafrica piqued our interest. The post listed a price tag of R606 000 for the base model and R715 000 for the Rallye version. We contacted a few dealers for verification and although most told us that pricing would only be released on July 1, one did mention a starting price of R602 000 and another said he’d heard it would be in the R600 000 to R800 000 range. Once again, nothing is official but based on our conversations the prices mentioned earlier certainly appear plausible.
Developed to be something of a rally car for the road, the GR Yaris is powered by a brand new 1,6-litre three-cylinder turbopetrol engine that produces 200 kW and 370 N.m. Power goes to all four wheels through a six-speed manual transmission and permanent all-wheel drive system – which allows up to 70% of the torque to go to the back axle, depending on the mode selected.
This is clearly no regular Yaris beneath the skin, with Toyota’s motorsport division having completely overhauled the suspension, which is fully independent front and rear. The weight-saving effort is impressive too, with the GR Yaris sporting a carbon fibre roof, while aluminium is used for the doors, bonnet and tailgate.
The Rallye version (as per overseas spec sheets) receives specially tuned GR suspension with stiffer anti-roll bars, Torsen limited-slip differentials on both front and rear axles as well as 18-inch BBS alloy wheels.
Watch this space for official pricing and specs when Toyota releases these numbers next week.