Toyota GR Yaris Aero Performance
There's no denying that the sublime Toyota GR Yaris deserves all the plaudits it has hoovered up, to date, in the six years it has been on sale. When it launched in 2020, we were stunned by the
Circuit Pack car, given it was only a smidge beyond £34,000. Even the 'basic' car, retailing for less than 30 grand, didn't prove to be a disappointment during a
week on test. And then, in 2024, the Japanese firm made a host of detail changes, ramped up power to 280hp, and somewhat incredibly managed to make the tiny Toyota tearaway even better to drive - albeit a monster
UK price increase to £46,000 was difficult to stomach.
So does adding some aero gear to the bodywork and even more pounds to the windscreen sticker manage to push the GR Yaris back to the pinnacle of its powers? One week with the GR Yaris Aero Performance should answer that question.
Styling
The Aero is one of those products that car nerds, like us, are going to adore for the laser-focused Japanese dedication that has gone into its creation, and about which everyone else are going to erroneously assume that you've badly modified a regular GR using nothing more than a combination of a Demon Tweeks catalogue and no self-restraint. The socking great variable rear spoiler is the hardest feature of the Aero Performance to miss, but also note the new duct on the bonnet (to suck hot air out of the engine bay when you're 'on it'), as well as a jutting front splitter, vents located both just aft of the front wheel arches and also either side of the rear bumper, and then (something you can't see) a new floor undercover to smooth off airflow below the car. All rendered in Precious Machine grey, it wasn't as if the GR Yaris needed an injection of additional in-yer-face attitude, but with the addenda of the Aero Performance model, that's precisely what it has got. It looks sensational.
Interior
The best thing to happen to the GR Yaris' interior came as part of the 2024 model-wide updates, as the driver's seat was mounted usefully lower to the floor. We're less enamoured with the cliff-face slab of shiny silver plastic in these newer GRs, but one thing you're sure to quickly note in the Aero is the relocation of the handbrake. It's almost vertical and right next to the steering wheel. And yes, it's there for precisely the reason you might think: easier handbrake turns. What a glorious conceit in a car from any era, never mind one from the mid-2020s, with its draconian legislation seemingly out to eradicate all driving fun whatsoever from the world.
Practicality
No changes to the practicality of the GR Yaris for the Aero Performance, which remains a four-seater more in theory than practice, while the boot weighs in at a mere 174 litres. Toyota used to say, though, that if you folded down the 60:40 split rear bench, the resulting cavern in the back of the GR Yaris was big enough to take four spare tyres. Which tells you all you need to know about the hooligan ethos of this thing.
Performance
Toyota hasn't given the Aero Performance any more power or torque than a 'regular' 2024MY-on GR Yaris, but when you've got a 280hp/390Nm 1.6-litre turbocharged triple powering 1.3 tonnes of car through all four wheels and a sublimely chunky little six-speed iMT 'box, you don't need any more grunt than this. You can utilise every last digit of the Toyota's outputs, too, because of its wonderfully small road footprint, and if you do so you revel in that hard-edged, gravelly voice the three-cylinder motor emits all around the tacho's dial. You'll go through Super Unleaded at a fair old lick if you do, however, as we frequently saw average economy in the low 20s during a quite hard-driven and thoroughly enjoyable 160-mile week at the Aero's wheel.
Ride & Handling
There are no major alterations to this model's underpinnings, the Japanese instead largely happy for the aerodynamic components to sharpen to the nth degree what was already one of the best-driving cars in the industry. But the steering has been retuned, and that, along with the Aero's exterior form (yes, it's all supposed to provide a real difference, even at lower road speeds), makes for one magnificent performance car.
It's so responsive and agile in the corners that it's like an automotive mayfly, able to change direction at the driver's slightest whim. The turn-in is ridiculously keen and the Toyota's noise remarkably faithful, its precise grip on the tarmac more faithfully telegraphed through the majestic steering set-up and perfect-sized wheel. Yet you can toy with the balance of the car by switching the GR-Four dial through its three distinct settings (Normal, Track and Gravel), whereupon the playful side of the GR Yaris is preposterously easy to exploit, even in the dry.
We even think the ride quality was marginally improved in this Aero compared to the last 2024 car we drove, so in all circumstances this bewinged version of the Toyota feels like the clear star of the GR Yaris show.
Value
We docked the 2024 car half-a-star for being £46,000, so you might well imagine that pumping the GR Yaris Aero Performance's price up to a near-£50,000 figure would degrade its overall rating further. But its limited-build status and glittering dynamic prowess makes this one feel emphatically worth the hefty ticket. The thing is, at the time of writing, the GR in all its forms is once again 'on hiatus' as we await another batch from Japan for the UK, and even if it does return the Aero likely won't be making a reappearance. Which just makes it even more alluring, in all honesty.
Verdict
We've never been anything less than thrilled by driving a Toyota GR Yaris, but the Aero Performance is, astonishingly, the best example we've tried thus far. And for that reason, it goes back up to the maximum overall rating, despite the fact it's a breathtakingly expensive thing for something oh-so-distantly related to the manufacturer's
humdrum B-segment runaround.
The fact that something like the GR Yaris Aero can even exist in 2026 is just cause for widespread petrolhead celebration, and as there's nothing even remotely like it to drive on the market today, it's justifiably going to go down as one of the last all-time superstars of the ICE automotive aeon.
