Volvo V40 vs Toyota GR Yaris

What's the difference?

I’m going to miss this V40 like I do my old phone, and for many people this hatch really could really be close to perfect: excellent safety equipment, enjoyable to drive, cool prestige styling and some lo-fi buttons and dials that are far easier to use than swiping a screen. This is your last chance to own an old, new V40.

Put simply, this is a car we love made better, and if track driving is in your future, this is the GR Yaris you want. 

Whether the changes make it harder to live with is yet to be seen, but if it's fun you're after, the Rallye delivers it by the high-octane bucket load.

The V40 has been around forever (well, since 2012) but somehow it still looks great – it’s the Nicole Kidman/Rob Lowe of cars.

The thing is Volvo’s new-generation vehicles now have a different look, which will be worn by the next V40, and that seriously dates the current car.

Sure, in 2016 this V40 was updated and given 'Thor’s Hammer' LED running lights like the new-gen cars, but it’s clear the V40 has the old look.

The question is: are you the type of person who would be annoyed if this time next year somebody in the latest ‘new-look’ V40 pulled up beside you at the lights. If yes, then stop reading now… we’ll just wait a moment for you to leave.

Okay, it’s just us now. We don’t need those shallow people anyway, right? They don’t know what they’re missing out on – like an interior with lots of buttons. I’m serious the centre console actually has a numerical key pad for making phone calls. There are also lots of dials for the climate control and seat warmers and for the auto parking system.

All of these buttons will be replaced by a sexy, large touchscreen in the new V40, which will make the screen in the current one look like the slot in Ned Kelly’s helmet. Wait, don’t leave. See, I’ve road tested the new X60 and I missed just flinging a dial to make the cabin’s temperature cooler, instead I had to go into the screen’s menu, find the climate functions, and then slide my finger down a little digital ladder until I found 21 degrees. It’s a frustrating design and potentially distracting in that it takes your eyes off the road longer than twisting a dial does.

I’ll stop the rant. So, yes, the interior of the new V40 will look so sleek and minimalist, decluttered of its buttons and sporting a large vertical screen, but there are functional advantages to keeping it simple.

That said the current V40’s cabin is still special and elegant. The Inscription grade brings milled aluminium trim to the centre console and that leather steering wheel. Volvo owners would be aware of that solid, well-built feeling with a high-quality fit and finish.

What are the V40’s dimensions? Compared to the Audi A3 Sportback the V40 is 59mm longer at 4369mm end-to-end, 72mm wider at 1857mm across, and 5mm shorter in height at 1420mm.

It looks almost exactly like the regular GR Yaris, with a couple of minuscule changes that the eagle-eyed will spot. 

For one, there's two new vent openings in the front grille to aid brake cooling, and there's a numbered plaque in the cabin so you know which Rallye you've got (though Toyota concedes this is more of a vanity project than any indication of the numbers actually being limited).

Most noticeable, though, is the bespoke paint colour - a shimmery pearlescent white called Frosted White, which makes the bright-red brake calipers pop. 

Elsewhere, though, its the same swollen, angry-looking hot hatch we've come to know and love.

Umm, next question. Okay, the V40 is not very practical. Those small rear doors don’t open wide, making entry and exit potentially difficult for older or less limber folks.

Legroom in the back is limited – although at 191cm I can just sit behind my driving position and headroom is getting tight, too – but still there’s just enough room for me.

The V40’s cargo capacity is 335 litres and that’s smaller than the A3 Sportback’s boot space (380 litres) and the BMW 1 Series’s luggage capacity (360 litres). The aperture of the boot itself is also small.

There’s even a practicality issue with the driver’s doorway – that windscreen is so slanted that the A-pillars either side of it are hard to dodge for taller people when trying to get in, but especially when climbing out.

Next question, please. This is a three-door, manual-only performance hatch, so practicality is not really at the top of its to-do list.

In terms of the basics, you get four (two up front and two in the rear) seats, twin ISOFIX attachment points in the back, and a 141-litre luggage space that swells to 737 litres when the 60:40 rear seats are folded flat. 

While the backseat is fairly sparse, with no fold-down centre armrest or cupholders, you do some connectivity options in the vehicle, with a USB-A port and 12-V power outlet. 

The rear seats are fairly tight. My 175cm frame can fit into either easily enough, but you probably wouldn't want to spend too much time back there. 

Conversely, though, the front of the cabin feels spacious enough, and the seats are appropriately figure-hugging for when you're tearing through corners. 

Speaking of which, the steering wheel, gear shifter and pedals are all nicely positioned so that you feel a part of the vehicle, and while the manual gearbox offers rev-matching on the up and downshifts, true heel-and-toe driving is a very real option, too.

Prepare to have your idea of how much you'd pay for a three-door Toyota city car completely rearranged, because the GR Yaris Rallye is not cheap.

How much, you ask? Initially offered at $56,200 drive-away as part of a launch push, the Rallye has now settled at its regular MSRP of $54,500 plus on-roads. 

That's a sizeable step up from the $49,500 (before on-road costs) of the regular GR Yaris, but it's a price increase justified by the extra performance kit.

And a good thing, too, because it shares much of its other equipment with its GR sibling. 

There's a leather-wrapped steering wheel and manual shifter and aluminium pedals, for example. There's a 4.2-inch screen in the driver's binnacle, and there's a second 7.0-inch touchscreen in the centre of the cabin that gets Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which pairs with an eight-speaker JBL stereo. You also get dual-zone climate control, and keyless entry.

Most important, though, you get more go-fast stuff, like those lightweight alloys, he two Torsen limited-slip differentials (one on each axle) and the retuned suspension.

The V40 line-up has three petrol engines to pick from and the T4 sits right in the middle between the most powerful T5 and the least grunty T3. A 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine the T4 makes 140kW/300Nm and delivers it through a smooth six-speed automatic.

That engine is up there with my favourite things about the V40 Inscription. The power figure isn’t huge but 300Nm of torque provides decent shove. A 0-100km/h time of 6.9 seconds isn’t at all slow.

No change to the powertrain here, but that's no bad thing - I bloody love this engine. 

The turbocharged 1.6-litre, three-cylinder engine develops a whopping 200kW and 370Nm (in a vehicle that weighs just 1280kg, no less), which is fed through a six-speed manual gearbox with up-and-down rev matching, and then funnelled to all four wheel via the GR-FOUR all-wheel drive system.

How much power goes where is up to you, with Rallye equipped with Normal, Track and Sport drive modes that split the power between the front and rear axles to 60/40, 30/70 and 50/50 respectively. 

Toyota says all of that is enough to see the Rallye clip 100km/h in 5.2 seconds.

Volvo says the V40 should use 5.6L/100km of premium unleaded fuel over a combination of open and urban roads.

If you’re only going to stick to urban areas you’ll see higher usage – our trip computer was reporting an average of 14.9L/100km on a regular peak hour commute, but motorways drop the figure to about 8.0L/100km.

Toyota says the GR Yaris Rallye sip a combined 7.6litres/100km, and emit 172 grams/km of C02.

The bad news? The Rallye demands premium fuel to fill its 50-litre tank. 

That grunty 2.0-litre engine teamed with that smooth six-speed transmission goes a long way to making the V40 Inscription T4 an enjoyable car to drive.

Good handling and a fairly comfortable ride complete a prestige and easy-to-drive package that’s only really let down by heavy steering and slightly noisy suspension. That heavily sloped windscreen does present some visibility issues, but it’s not a deal breaker.

Short answer? This Rallye takes everything we love about the GR Yaris and makes it better. 

If that sounds like we're waxing lyrical, it's because we are. While our testing was limited to a handful of laps of a race-like circuit, they were enough to feel the most important additions to the Rallye - those twin limited-slip diffs - doing their thing.

Designed to direct the torque to the wheel with the most grip, the system does its best work in cornering, where grunt it sent to the tyre with the most load for extra grip when exiting a bend.

This is a truly exciting hot hatch, full of froth and fizz, and one that you feel intimately connected to when behind wheel. Every moment of acceleration, loss of traction, or wiggle in the rear, is felt in the drivers seat, and it's the kind of vehicle you simply get better at the more time you spend in it.

The brakes are ace, too (356mm front, 297mm rear), and will it's not lightning-fast in a straight line, it's plenty quick through corners. 

How much harsher is the stiffer suspension on a normal road? Is it easy to live with as an everyday driver? Is it too track-focused for suburban life?

Honestly, we don't know. We are yet to drive it on regular Australian roads. But we will, and soon, and we'll update you as soon as that happens.

But in terms of sheer driver fun? The GR Yaris has it in spades.

It certainly hasn't been left behind on the safety front, the Rallye, with six airbags, blind-spot monitoring, a head-up display and a reversing camera.

The tech then steps up, with Toyota's Safety Sense system including AEB, intersection assistance, adaptive cruise control, lane trace assist and road-sign assist.

The V40 Inscription is covered by Volvo’s three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty. Volvo has two capped-price servicing programs – the $1600 Smartcare for three years and the $2950 Smartcare Plus for five years.

The GR Yaris Rallye is covered by Toyota's five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, with the engine and driveline covered for seven years.

Servicing is required every six months or 10,000kms, and will set you back $260 each for the first six visits.