MODEL ON TEST: GR SPORT 1.5 VVT-i HYBRID – MILEAGE – 13,266

In our last report I spent a moment pondering where our Yaris Cross may go once our time with it has come to an end – what adventures it might enjoy, the miles it could cover. But I also mentioned the fact we needed to get to a Toyota garage, as we’d started to get little service reminders on the dashboard. Well, if there’s one way of potentially limiting the miles our little Yaris Cross may cover in its future life, it would be never getting it serviced.

Given there are no fewer than eight Toyota service centres within 40 miles of home, we were spoilt for choice. But the obvious choice was Snows Toyota in Chichester, because it’s a short distance away from my second home. By second home, I of course mean my favourite coffee shop on planet earth. If I’m going to wait for a car to have its oil changed, I’m going to do so with a flat white and a cinnamon bun so obscenely good I could cry.

Phoning Snows Toyota in Chichester for the first time, I was shocked when a nice man at the other end of the line addressed me as ‘sir’ – so often people refer to me by a number of other names, none of which are so complimentary. Come service day, we dropped off the keys and made a speedy exit towards the caffeine mothership.

Just a couple of hours later I had an email on my phone that included a fancy video report with a technician walking around the car, plus a breakdown of the condition of everything covered off with a service, like the tyre tread depth and health of the brakes. Arriving back at Snows suitably coffee-infused, a genuine surprise was that Terry the Toyota had been washed and hoovered. Call me cynical, but while I’d hoped something like that might be done, I’d assumed most garages wouldn’t because it takes time and in turn money.Yet here Terry was, gleaming in the sunshine.

Sadly, the pristine bodywork didn’t last for long. A busy week left the front end suitably pebbledashed with every variety of insect the UK has to offer, but the real mess can be attributed to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Well,not specifically the Festival, but the hot weather combined with fields that see constant vehicular movement for the best part of a week. One morning I was very conveniently parked right next to the access road to a car park, which in turn meant that every single car entering the field drove past theYaris Cross.The net result was a car that could have been mistaken for a dune in Michael Palin’s Sahara documentaries, or as a small transporter ship in a Tatooine- based scene from Star Wars.You know, the planet that’s made entirely of dust and sand?

But Terry’s first adventure to the Festival of Speed was a positive adventure overall – how could it not be? The best moment was fooling someone into thinking I had a GR Yaris parked somewhere in the dusty expanse. The Yaris Cross doesn’t drive like a GR Yaris, but it does have ‘GR’ written on the car key. Sometimes that’s all someone needs to know…

SEÁN WARD

WHAT’S HOT: A quick, trouble-free service shows no areas for concern.

WHAT’S NOT: The cabin, because the air-conditioning is glorious.

CLICK HERE TO READ ALL OF OUR LONG-TERM REPORTS ON THE TOYOTA YARIS CROSS

FACTS & FIGURES

ARRIVED: 14th November 2025

PRICE WHEN NEW: £32,245

PRICE AS TESTED: £32,245

ECONOMY: 58.8mpg (official WLTP) 56.1mpg (on test)

COSTS: £174.26 (First service)

FAULTS: None