So from time to time after a drive in it I get a comment I like, these are my favourites:
“Bonkers!” Steve – Lotus Emira (the good one ,meaning supercharged V6 and manual gearbox)
“Thank-you for the GR Yaris experience!” Alan – M2 Performance.
“Oh, it’s just an ordinary car!” A workmate of the wife who’d clearly been primed with “he’s picking us up in his stupid sports car”. Dunno what she drives. I guess the point here is the anonymity of the GR Yaris from the viewpoint of non petrol types.
Rob – GR Yaris Circuit Pack Red.
“The most motorbike-like car I’ve ever been in” Mark – Triumph Bonneville. Trust me, that’s a compliment!
“The most terrifying experience of my life” Dave – Jaguar XE
On a rare Saturday off in March ’22 Rose surprised me saying she thought I was due for a new car. The faithful Peugeot 107 was getting long in the teeth at this point. I climbed into the CHR and Rose set off telling me she’d arranged a test drive of a Supra for me at Motorline in Crawley. After a brief pause I thanked her but said I didn’t want a Supra, at the time they were only available as automatics and I drive manual.
So we get to Motorline and Rose surprises me again when she tells the salesman she’d made a mistake, I didn’t want to test drive a Supra, I wanted to drive a GR Yaris. I hadn’t even realised she knew what a GR Yaris was. The salesman gave me a serious look and said “Er, you know they’re sold out right?”. I glumly nodded. He smiled and said not to worry, it just so happened he had a demo GR Yaris I could take out.
The demonstrator
Set off and let’s just say it was exactly what I’d expected it to be. We get back to the dealership and the salesman reminds me they are all sold out. Then he smiles again “if you could have one, which colour would you have chosen?”. I reply red, and he smiles again “it’s your lucky day then, I can get you a Circuit Pack in red”. Ended up being a bit more than the £33000 retail price, even factoring in the Scarlet Flare paint Toyota charged £800 for. It also had 6000 miles already on it. I wasn’t phased – this was the car I wanted, the paperwork got signed.
Turns out the car I bought (GY70 GNK) was a press car. Chris Harris had it for a week for one. For some this might be off putting – the car had definitely been “tested”. What Car claim GY70 GNK hit 60mph in 4.6 seconds! Haven’t had any problems with the car at all as we hit 4 years of ownership.
Rob – GR Yaris Circuit Pack Red.
