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Toyota Yaris vs Toyota Prius C

What's the difference?

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Toyota Yaris
Toyota Yaris

$27,990 - $39,999

2023 price

Toyota Prius C
Toyota Prius C

2018 price

Summary

2023 Toyota Yaris
2018 Toyota Prius C
Safety Rating

Engine Type
Inline 3, 1.5L

Inline 4, 1.5L
Fuel Type
Unleaded Petrol/Electric

Unleaded Petrol/Electric
Fuel Efficiency
3.3L/100km (combined)

3.9L/100km (combined)
Seating
5

5
Dislikes
  • Might as well buy a Corolla?
  • Noisy engine under load
  • Diminutive back seat and boot

  • Feels record-player old in places
  • Some cabin materials feel cheap
  • Standard safety is underdone
2023 Toyota Yaris Summary

Small cars aren't what they used to be.

For the most part, I mean this in a good way. A lot of the remaining cars in this ever-diminishing segment are safer, higher tech, and better to drive than ever before. The problem is, they're also much more expensive.

Don't feel like you, dear reader, are to blame. Yes, demand has heavily shifted to the realms of SUVs for reasons most buyers can't properly articulate (they're just trendy, okay?), but there are also safety, expected equipment, and design pressures pushing once-cheap small cars out of Australia.

Maybe you're SUV-resistant (good on you), and you're wondering why the once-ubiquitous Toyota Yaris is now so expensive, and whether it's worth its newfound asking price. Let's find out.

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2018 Toyota Prius C Summary

See if you can guess the name of the world's first ride-sharing app. You're thinking Uber, right? Nope. It was a company called Sidecar. It's broke now, shuttered for good in 2015. What about the first video-on-demand service? Netflix? Nope. Amazon beat them to it, for starters, but so did many other, now-defunct companies who tried it even earlier.

The point is, being first on the scene is no guarantee you'll be the best, or the most successful. I mean, just look at electric cars; plenty of manufacturers were doing all-battery models before (and arguably better than) Tesla, and every one of them is now parked in Elon Musk's gargantuan shadow.

Before full-electric there were hybrids, and first to arrive on that particular scene in any meaningful way was Toyota and its awkwardly shaped Prius, back in 2001. And they had that field to themselves for a while, but soon enough the other manufacturers trotted out hybrid and plug-in hybrid models of their own.

And so Toyota shook up the Prius offering, launching the seven-seat Prius V, and the bite-sized (and Yaris-based) Prius c we've tested here, in 2012, hoping to broaden the appeal of its hybrid offerings. Problem is, 2012 was an awfully long time ago, and so Toyota has waved its wand over the ageing Prius c for 2018, changing its design, tech offering and interior in an effort to keep it fresh.

So, is the Japanese giant still head of the hybrid class? Or has it been beaten at its own game?

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Deep dive comparison

2023 Toyota Yaris 2018 Toyota Prius C

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