Toyota Yaris review

Those travelling in the front of the Yaris are well looked after. It has generous head and leg room even for the very tall and the doors open wide, so climbing into and out of the front seats is easy.

The door bins are deep but a little narrow, although there is a special slot for water bottles to fit into and two large cupholders at the base of the dashboard.

There is a small cubby for loose change and other small items, but nowhere to comfortably pop a mobile phone. Still, the glovebox is a fairly decent size and there are even two small shelves to put receipts or parking tickets on top of the door handles.

The Yaris doesn’t really shine in this area, because it offers only average space compared with the best superminis for accommodating people in its back seats.

While three children will sit across the back without much problem, a couple of adults will find their knees resting against the front seatbacks - although at least there’s a decent amount of space left in reserve above their heads. Three adults side-by-side will be a real squeeze across the rear bench.

There aren’t many storage spaces around the back seats, with just one shared cupholder and very small door pockets either side.

Every version of the Yaris comes with 60/40 split folding rear seats, but that’s your lot. So, unlike rivals such as the Tardis-style Honda Jazz, there are no flip-up seat bases.

The seatbacks themselves are easy enough to fold down, but none of the back seats slide or recline and there is no adjustable-height boot floor, so once folded they lie at a slight angle, leaving an awkward step in the loading area.

The Yaris’s actual carrying capacity is above average and the loading bay is quite long and deep with the rear seats folded down. It’s bigger than a Volkswagen Polo’s space, but smaller than that of the class-leading Skoda Fabia.

As with most small cars, the Yaris has a pretty large loading lip, over which you need to lift luggage before dropping it into the boot. The Yaris does not have a variable-height floor to get around this issue.

Hybrid models have a slightly smaller boot due to the battery pack under the boot floor. All models get handy touches, including a couple of bag hooks and some under floor storage.