Saturday, October 31, 2015

Is Toyota Going to Release Hot Hatch Yaris?

Turbocharged Toyota Yaris

Rumor has it that Toyota may be releaseing a hot-hatch version of its Toyota Yaris to go along with its reentry into the World Rally Championship (WRC).  Toyota's rally car is based off of the Yaris, which is one of its most popular vehicles sold globally.

According to Motoring, a publication out of Australia, Toyota's chief engineer for sports vehicle management, Tetsuya Tada, said the company needs a bona-fide hot hatch. Tada is quoted saying that there is an order from Toyota CEO, Akio Toyoda, that "rally is a priority," and that Tada is to come up with a new hot hatch. Apparently they've identified that the Ford Fiesta ST is the benchmark to beat.

Arguably, Toyota hasn't offered a small hot hatch in the U.S. since the spunky Corolla FX-16, which was powered by the famed 4AGE. There is no word if this tarted-up Yaris would be sold in North America.

Rumor has it that the next-generation Toyota Yaris will be based on a Mazda platform, as is the current Scion iA, which is built in Mexico and sold as the Toyota Yaris Sedan in Canada.

1 comment:

nlpnt said...

What was the Matrix XRS? A warm wagon?