Excel VVT-h 116 E-CVT Auto Start/Stop 5dr

Superb car but some annoying issues.

Plenty of reviews already and I agree with most namely super economical comfortable easy to drive and so on. I do agree that the ride on the larger alloys is quite firm but not as detrimental as others have found.

I don't regret the purchase but have in the three months of ownership noticed some problems which the manufacturers (customer service mainly) are not that good at dealing with. In this industry listening to customers is paramount, which cast a shadow over the their boast of continuous improvement. Only, I have found that the better the car the worse customer service can be - remember some years ago Lada were rated the best UK customer service but the cars were, lets say interesting to drive.

Background if it helps - motor industry 25 years 55 years driving experience A and CD license holder.

The Yaris is very complex and whilst the special features are superb they take some time to understand mainly because of the overuse of acronyms and the manual which refers to all the model variants rather than specifics - not just Toyota though. On some facilities even Master Technicians have had to look up answers which kind of highlights this issue. the cross traffic alert is however superb especially when playing bumper cars in supermarket car parks.

The much vaunted MyT Smart Connect system constantly forgets who I am and requires re-entering every other day - no solution offered and the usual brush off that nobody has noticed this.The phone app works ok but can be a little slow to respond. Best bit is the messaging if you forget to lock the car as the auto lock system is a bit unreliable. The Navigation is still not up to modern standards - my three year old TomTom with traffic is still easier to use and more accurate. Honest John's review says no Yaris has Navigation but in fact the Excel does. I know I could use Google but it sucks the life out of my phone. Interesting that the TT phone app will not pick up through Apple Play.

The B pillar is very obstructive and one has to be cautious with other traffic from the offside - my old 19 reg model was better.

This is the most annoying thing - the auto headlight system is to sensitive causing motorist to think you are signalling them (a road traffic offence) This facility is adjustable on every model in the range EXCEPT the Excel. Nobody believed me about this except the dealer who realised their own demo model did the same. The owners manual does say it can be adjusted in dealer - wrong. Toyota Customer Service after being asked repeatedly about this no longer reply to correspondence and previously offered no guidance other than it is adjustable but could not say how and I don't think they even talked to the dealer.

I guess these are just annoying points that have been clouded by the attitude of Toyota themselves. On balance is is quite a superb car for my purposes but I wish these issues could be addressed.

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