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Toyota drops three-door Yaris

Toyota is hoping the sharp new nose alone will appeal to a broader range of buyers.

Toyota will drop the three-door version of its Yaris hatchback when the face-lifted model goes on sale in September because nine out of 10 customers prefer five-door models, the company says.

The daring new look and simplified model range is designed to reverse the Yaris’ two-year sales slide.

The former king of the tiny-tot city cars is ranked third in its class this year, having been outsold by the Mazda2 and Hyundai i20. Indeed, the last time the Yaris topped the sales charts was in 2012.

The current model Yaris, released in October 2011, was criticised as a step backwards compared with the model it replaced.

Developed during the peak of the Global Financial Crisis, Toyota deleted the prior model’s digital speedometer, sliding rear seat, full-size spare tyre and the dozen or more storage cubbies when it introduced the 2011 model.

Toyota has not addressed those concerns and is hoping the sharp new nose alone will appeal to a broader range of buyers.

But the new Yaris will face strong competition from the next-generation Mazda2 -- the current top-seller in the category -- due on sale at the end of this year, and the updated Volkswagen Polo due in local showrooms within a few months.

Volkswagen is understood to be planning a price attack with the new Polo now that the company has dropped its cut-price Up city car from the local line-up.

Toyota Australia executive director sales and marketing Tony Cramb said the decision to drop the three-door model was driven by customer demand.

“Five-door hatches have gained in popularity and now contribute close to 90 per cent of total sales in the light-car segment,” Mr Cramb said in a media statement.

“Customers are telling our dealers they … (want) the flexibility of having two extra doors,” he said. “Easier access to the back seat … offers greater convenience for young singles, couples and ‘empty nesters’.”

Toyota says the change in buyer tastes has seen three-door sales in the segment fall from about one-quarter of total demand in 2008 to less than 10 per cent so far this year.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling