It was on the 8th of December that the little one Toyota Yaris reached a significant milestone: the 4,000,000 (four million) unit was produced. The moment happened in France, at Toyota Motor Manufacturing France (TMMF), where the Yaris has always been produced, since the first generation, launched in 1999.
When it first appeared, the Yaris represented a radical break with its predecessor, the Starlet, having been designed with the European customer in mind above all. Compact and visually appealing, it quickly became a hit, both in the market and in critics, reflected in the achievement of the International Car of the Year award in 2000.
The importance of the Yaris for Toyota in Europe continued to grow over time and with subsequent generations of the model, culminating in 2019 with the sale of around 224,000 units (still in the third generation), representing 22% of Toyota sales and a share of approximately 8% in the segment. It is Toyota's best-selling model in Europe.
This year we saw the fourth generation arrive, which turns out to be, also, a substantial cut with the predecessors. New platform (GA-B), new design — much sportier — and also the introduction of the brand's fourth-generation hybrid technology, make the new Yaris have everything to continue the success story of its predecessors. Note that the new Yaris was also the first to achieve five stars in the new, more demanding Euro NCAP tests introduced this year.
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The 4,000,000 unit made in Europe — there are other places in the world where it is also produced — is a Yaris Hybrid, a type of powertrain that we now associate with Toyota and increasingly associate with the Yaris, given the growing commercial success of this version. . In this new generation, the hybrid Yaris achieves the feat of not only being more powerful and offering greater performance, but also further reducing consumption and emissions compared to its predecessor: 3.7 l/100 km and 85 g/km of CO2 .
The original, released in 1999, represented a radical break with Starlet
The "evil brothers"
For many attributes the Yaris has had over its generations that have contributed a lot to its success, emotions at the wheel were not one of them — even though the new generation represents a significant leap forward from its predecessor. But that also started to change with the previous generation, when the very special was released. Yaris GRMN , an old school pocket-rocket, analogue and diabolical in character, but unfortunately rare, being limited to just 400 units.
Toyota and, above all, Gazoo Racing, with the new and fourth generation, aimed at that gauge and exceeded it, creating what is probably the most exciting and trendy machine of the year: the GR Yaris . A diabolical machine, with traces of Frankenstein's monster, a real homologation special — they will only produce 2500 — that always seems ready to attack the next stage in a rally, capable of quickening the pulse of any enthusiast who has a drop of gas in his hands. veins.
