Toyota Yaris vs Mazda 2 vs VW Polo vs Hyundai Accent 2019: city car comparison review

Each of these hatchbacks has five doors and five seats, but there are some marked differences in how usable the space in each is.

Look, you may not care too much about the boot space if you’re buying a city car - it might be a second car, or you mightn’t load much more in than your weekly shopping - but here’s how these four compared when we put in our levellers - the CarsGuide pram and our three-suitcase travel set.

Luggage capacity figures for these cars show a bit of a difference in terms of boot space. Here’s a rundown on the boot space dimensions for these models:

The Mazda couldn’t fit all three cases - only the two biggest. The rest managed all three (the Toyota at a squeeze, the VW and Hyundai more comfortably).

The Yaris and Polo both have removable dual-level liner sections which essentially allow you to increase the amount of space. Each has a cargo cover to keep prying eyes away.

If you need more storage, you could consider a roof rack… or a bigger car, like a small SUV, which may even come with roof rails as standard, because none of these models do.

There’s more to storage space than just the size of the cargo hold, though - interior storage and space is important, too.

The Polo and Accent both have door pockets for bottles, but none have fold-down armrests with cupholders.

There is one cupholder for back-seat occupants in the Yaris, but it’s down low and could be hard to get to. As for map pockets, the Yaris has twin fabric ones, the Accent has one mesh one, the Mazda2 has one and the Polo has none!

Plus, the Polo misses out on grab handles, but it has huge door grabs that make up for it, while the Mazda2 has no rear lighting.

As for occupant space, we set the driver’s seat for my height (182cm) and all took the same spots in each of these cars - Lily up front, Pritchard and Jarryd in the back.

The Toyota was found to be “a nicer place in the back” than the Mazda, because it’s “ just more pleasant”. The seat is flat and spongy, and the knee room was found to be the best of this mix - unexpected, given it has the shortest wheelbase. It was “surprisingly roomy”.

The Mazda, by contrast, “feels confined” and “not comfortable at all” - the sort of car that would need “regular breaks on any road trip”. Knees were hard up against the seats in front, and the raked windowline was raised as a concern because it makes you feel “confined” and “a little claustrophobic”.

The Polo’s second-row space was better than the Mazda but described as “pretty squishy” for knee room, compounded by the largest transmission tunnel of this group - although the seat comfort and headroom were commended.

The Hyundai was found to offer a lower seating position, making for the best headroom and offering back seaters “a good, supportive seat”. The guys weren’t fans of the hard-wearing plastic sections on the backs of the front seats - depending on who is sitting where, you might end up rubbing your knees on them.

Up front there are cupholders down low in each of these cars, but none have a covered centre console or armrest, plus all four have decent door storage with bottle holders, the VW’s being the biggest of the bunch.

Speaking of which, the VW also has the biggest media screen - as standard, you get a huge 8.0-inch unit: here’s a breakdown of how that stacks up against the other cars here:

None of the models have a satellite navigation system or GPS fitted, but the real talking point here is the lack of any form of screen for the Mazda. That’s right - the Neo model still comes with a dash top radio tuner style set-up, which our guest testers were disgusted by.

“That looks like it’s from 2002,” said one. “This is so much easier than CarPlay,” another remarked, drenched in sarcasm. “Should you need to feel like you’re programming a VCR when you change radio station?” Precisely. And the answer is no.

These are all viable criticisms from target market customers - Mazda really ought to be ashamed. But hey, if you want a screen, you can buy the Maxx model (and you’ll also get a lot more gear for that extra expense). We’ll get into the specifications and equipment levels below.

None of these models have beautiful materials used - all have lots of hard plastic that feels cheap to the touch, including the VW. But the VW does have a more modern style to the dashboard, and from a perceived quality standpoint, it was found to be the best by a long, long margin.

Its steering wheel is leather covered and lovely, too (unlike the fake leather on the Hyundai wheel, where the other two cars have hard plastic tillers).

Plus it’s the only one with a digital speedometer as part of its MFD driver display, which we all know could be the difference between being ‘fine’ or being ‘fined’. Sure, it’s compact inside, but it feels well thought out and expensive, and that’s what helps it score well in this section.

Our potential buyer judges said the simple layout of the Yaris was plain, but pleasant, while the Hyundai was criticised for having a few odd elements - not just the tiny screen, but some odd controls and plastics. Our judges couldn’t get over that screen in the Mazda, which “brings down the whole feel of the cabin”.

You might care about engine specs, or you might not. A torque rating might be second language to you, or it could be absolute gibberish. Either way, here’s how these four models compare in terms of specifications.

All four of these models have a petrol motor, though there is some difference in terms of engine size and outputs. Only one has a turbo, all of them are front-wheel drive and, as tested, all have an automatic transmission, and one is a bit of a horsepower hero.

And even though we wouldn’t recommend fitting a tow bar, we’ve included the relevant details below.

There are manual transmission options for all four of these cars - so if you prefer to take matters into your own hands, that could appeal to you. You can’t get 4x4 or AWD or rear-wheel drive for any of these models, either.

Forget petrol vs diesel, none of them have diesel as an option (which means the diesel particulate filter is one less thing to worry about…). There is no LPG, EV or plug in hybrid of any of theses either.

If you’re concerned about automatic transmission problems, clutch, suspension, gearbox, engine, injector, oil pump or turbo troubles, be sure to search “ [model] problems”.

These cars are made to be driven in cities primarily, and that’s exactly what our testing procedure focused on. Potholes, road joins, roundabouts, traffic lights, speed bumps, traffic - it was all part of the sequence.

In the cornering bits of city driving, the Mazda was the most fun. Its steering sets it apart from the other models, feeling a bit more involving and lively but also offering really nice weighting at pace.

Its turning circle is tight, too, with a turning radius of just 9.4m compared with 9.6m for the Yaris, 10.4m for the Accent and 10.6m for the Polo.

But while it corners nicely, the suspension is both very low (we scraped at the front more than any other car here - but there are no ground clearance figures offered by these brands) and also very firm and often thumpy, resulting in a punishing ride over broken surfaces. You might excuse it in a sportier model, but the performance of the 2 doesn’t justify the behaviour.

That’s because its engine is a real whinger of a thing. It’s almost reluctant to accelerate, with a wheezy nature to it “that doesn’t sound like a new car”, according to one of our guest testers.

The automatic transmission does a good job of making the most of the engine, and it’s best in sport mode, but even then, it wasn’t a lot of fun in stop-start traffic.

It was also the noisiest of these four by some margin for road noise, and also the hardest to see out of because of its raked window line and badly shaped mirrors (including a weirdly non-convex mirror on the driver’s side).

“The visibility from the driver’s seat is so bad - you really can’t take advantage of the size of the car because it’s comparatively so hard to see out of,” said one of our testers.

It was surprising how little all of our judges - myself included - enjoyed the Mazda. We expected a lot more.

One that surprised us all was the Hyundai.

The engine was what separated it from the rest. It offered the most peppy response without any hesitation, building pace with a fair bit of noise accompanying it, but doing so in a brisk manner.

We didn’t do 0-100 acceleration speed testing as part of this review, but it would have been the winner based on seat of the pants and its performance figures.

The transmission acted pretty smartly, too, though it is still eager to shift up to save fuel. Which it clearly failed at.

Even though it has four-wheel disc brakes, the pedal response was underwhelming.

The Accent’s suspension felt the most sporty and in tune with the road below - you feel a lot more of the little lumps and bumps in the road, and the wheels can sink into potholes with a thump.

The rear suspension rebounds a bit abruptly, though, and I personally found it too sharp for a car like this - but the three other judges on this test rated the drive experience highly.

I found the steering to be a bit dead on centre, but it was generally very easy to turn the wheel in roundabouts and during parking moves.

Driving in the Toyota it’s like you’ve got comfort mode selected.

The suspension is soft, to the point where it’ll wobble and wallow from side to side. That also means that it can be upset by successive rapid-fire bumps - but if you prefer a softer ride in the city, it might be ideal for you. It’s definitely set up for comfort rather than ultimate control.

The steering is light at lower speeds, which is great in tight streets and parking lots, but when you slow down from higher speed it can be a touch odd in its weighting.

The engine is hardly a hero, with modest outputs and relatively meagre punch on offer. It was inoffensive in lower speed urban driving - it’s just when you get up to higher speed on a highway that you start to notice it struggling.

The four-speed auto works decently around town, but it is let down by a lack of extra gears to play with. That said, I’d take a decently configured four-speed auto over a fidgety six-speeder any day.

The Polo was the best of the bunch for suspension control and comfort overall. You notice little lumps in the road, but the suspension does a really good job of isolating the cabin from the worst of the road surface.

The steering was also found to be the best balance of nice weighting and easy usability. It feels like a more mature offering than its competitors in terms of driving manners - like an adult amongst teenagers.

And you need to act like an adult when you’re driving it, because it takes a bit more thinking when you accelerate from a standstill.

The combination of a turbocharged engine, a dual-clutch transmission and stop-start conspire to make traffic clogs a bit more of a challenge. You can’t simply plant the right pedal - you’ve got to manage your throttle.

I can understand why that could be enough to turn off customers, and thoroughly recommend you ask for a lengthy test drive and try and find some traffic to see if you can deal with it.

But once you’re above 10km/h you’ll be rewarded with a thrusty engine, a nice three-cylinder thrum, and a transmission that is snappy and smart with its logic when you ask more of the engine.

Plus the brakes are typical VW - and by that I mean they’re bitey and trustworthy.

All four of our testers felt the VW was the most grown up of these cars. A sensible and smart offering - if you can afford it.

Owning a car that spends the majority of its time in the city could spell a harder life for it. More stop-start driving, harder on the brakes and the body, more fuel use and and more potential for problems.

Those are all factors you need to consider because the city life could spell reliability issues. So you’d want to be backed by a good warranty, right?

Well, happily each of these cars has what equates to an extended warranty relative to the cover offered a few years ago. And you’d also want to know the service cost for each interval - whether its 30,000km or 60,000km down the line.

Here’s a table showing you the warranty plans and capped price servicing rates for each of these cars. Note - the Toyota’s capped price plan only spans three years, so its average isn’t a five-year sum like the others here.

Our potential customer guest reviewers were all more nervous about the long-term ownership of the VW than any of the other cars here: with its more complex powertrain and more expensive servicing, that concern is justified.

It’s clear that the Hyundai is the winner for potential ownership - the brand really backs its buyers, and that’s half the reason this car has sold so well.

The Mazda isn’t bad but requires more regular maintenance if you do a lot of kilometres, while the Toyota needs servicing every six months. The VW appears pretty good, but just a bit expensive.

If you have concerns over common problems, common faults, issues, complaints, defects, resale value, the reliability rating of these cars or just how much you’ll find in the owners manual, you can check out our Hyundai Accent problems page, our Mazda2 problems page, our Toyota Yaris problems page, or our VW Polo problems page.