Toyota reverse-engineered a rally car to suit normal roads to create the Toyota Yaris GR. Does it warrant the price tag of roughly US$46,000?
THE NEW 2020 model of the Toyota Yaris GR (Gazoo Racing), which is set to be launched in South Africa by mid-2021, has a price tag of around R700,000 and has left South Africans with mixed opinions.
In a thread on Twitter, Motor Magnet, a motoring social media page, said they think the Yaris GR price is “worth it”, getting virtual tongues wagging.
Comments ranged from “hell nah! 700K for a yaris…sek!” to “whoever wants to buy this car must donate their money to charity”.
However, there were several tweeps who praised Toyota’s high standards of car manufacturing.
“Just my opinion here, but I think 700K is well worth the price of the car you’re getting. It has more than enough power/weight/AWD (all-wheel drive) to compare to a Golf R, so I think it’s worth the price,” said Twitter user @itsKarMz.
Toyota has no doubt over the years created astounding pieces of engineering, from the legendary Supra to the never-say-die Corolla, but with such a high price tag you may begin to ask yourself, why exactly does it cost so much?
President of the Toyota Motor Corporation, Akio Toyoda, an avid rally racer himself, said he had always wanted to design a sports car purely made by Toyota, which is what gave birth to the new Yaris GR.
The overall design of the vehicle originated out of the World Rally Championship (WRC).
Toyota wanted to design a “race car” that you could use for daily driving.
What makes the Yaris GR even more special is that when designing most rally cars, companies engineer a factory car to suit the off-road terrain. But with the GR, Toyoda and his team reverse-engineered a rally car to suit normal roads.
The Yaris GR is the first car to undergo this process at Toyota.
At the heart of the GR lies a 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine capable of delivering 257 brake horsepower and 192kW.
The new Yaris will get you from 0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds in a six-speed manual gearbox.
With a four-wheel-drive system, the new Yaris GR is able to hug those tarmac bends as well as some off-road terrains.
The GR also features a trailing double-wishbone rear suspension to provide optimum performance.
– AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA)
