A Toyota Yaris hatchback, seen on a parking lot in Beijing. The Yaris was in a reasonable shape, a bit dirty and dusty, with its paint a little faded, but yet on its original wheel and with a very cool 京P·68989 license plate. All of these numbers have a lucky connotation in Chinese culture, so this must be one lucky Yaris indeed.
The second generation Toyota Yaris was made in Japan from 2005 until 2010. Production in China started in 2008 at the Guangzhou-Toyota joint venture, today known as GAC-Toyota. They only made the five-door hatchback, not the three-door. The sedan version of the Yaris, called the Toyota Vios, was made in China. But the Vios was made at FAW-Toyota, Toyota’s other Chinese joint venture.
The interior was in a fine shape, with the door upholstery a bit faded. The plastics of the dashboard were okay, and the seats were protected by after-market covers. The center console was a center piece of the Yaris’ interior design, with three rotary dials on the lower end and a centrally located instrument panel on top.
Back in 2008, the Toyota Yaris was a comparatively modern hatchback on the Chinese car market, and it was affordable as well, so sales were pretty good. The Chinese name of the Yaris was 雅力士, Yalishi.
The characters say: 广州本田, Guangzhou Bentian, Guangzhou Toyota. It was available with two four-cylinder petrol engines: a 1.6 with 118 hp and 150 Nm and a 1.3 with 86 hp and 121 Nm. Both engines could be had with a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic. Price in 2008 started at 92.000 yuan for the base 1.3 model and ended at 125.600 yuan for the top 1.6.
Production of the second generation Guangzhou-Toyota Yaris ended in 2012. In 2013, it was succeeded by the third generation Yaris, which in China was called the Yaris L. It has been updated a couple of times and it is still in production today.
In 2015 the sec-gen Yaris unexpectedly returned as an electric car in the form of the Leahead i1, the second car of the Guangzhou-Toyota Leahead sub-brand. Sadly, the i1 was only made in very small numbers and only sold to local governments and the like, and never on the mass market.
The Yaris proved to be a pretty strong car and many are still around on the road nowadays, even in the big cities.