Toyota announces dealer fit GR Yaris upgrade
£995 software fettle brings more torque, new modes, keeps warranty
Better late than never and all that. After four years of the aftermarket desperately trying to sate customer demand for wilder Yaris GRs, from big turbos to sequential gearboxes, Toyota is to offer Gen1 GR customers a dealer-fit, fully warrantied software upgrade. It isn’t one for those after huge gains, but looks like a nice concession for those who were unable to get a Gen2 (or couldn’t justify the price hike).
It’s been emailed to customers (thanks ecsrobin for the heads up), pitched as a ‘software update not to be ignored.’ For £995, the while-you-wait update brings another 14lb of torque - from 266lb ft to 280lb ft - bringing the original much closer to the 288lb ft Gen2 in terms of pulling power. It also offers up more configurability from the rest of the package, with Light and Heavy steering modes offered as well as Original, Quick and Control throttle ‘personalised throttle settings’. Presumably quite a lot has been directly translated from the Japanese release, a market that has had this upgrade available for a while.
It sounds like there are even more possibilities with the GR-FOUR all-wheel drive introduced also, with 55:45 and 45:55 mentioned alongside the default 60:40, Track that split it equally and 30:70 in Sport. ‘Born directly from our participation in motorsports’, reads the email, which has long been the promise of Gazoo Racing road cars, ‘the upgrade delivers more engine torque for enhanced driveability and more personalised driver settings, letting you tailor your car’s handling and controls to your driving style.’ Whether you’ll be able to tell the difference between a 60:40 torque split and a 55:45 one remains to be seen, of course, but dealer fit, manufacturer backed performance upgrades sound like great news to us. It’s almost like the good old days of Mountune fast Fords.
The GR Yaris warranty is unaffected, and CO2 is unchanged as well. According to our forum intel, the package is going to be offered at 10 GR centres from next week. We’ll do some digging to find out exactly what’s what - and hopefully drive an upgraded car too, of course. This news surely makes those £25k early cars look all the more alluring…
As for charged software updates, I think this is different to mobile providers. Mobile provides have to offer a level of ongoing service to maintain customer loyalty, so it is in their best interests to make sure their systems work well.
This GR upgrade is just if you fancy it, the original car doesn't need it and will function as normal until the tin worm has eaten it or something has blown up, it doesn't need a software update so it is chargeable, at least that is how I see things.
Mind you, just look at manufacturers now charging subscription for heated seats etc...
Android is (sort of) FOSS.
I sold mine, as ultimately found it boring, lacking that sparkle that makes me want to drive and own a car.
It was fast, and capable, but ultimately unless you were on it on track or back road giving it 9/10 just not fun.
You can read the Official Toyota information using your browsers translate button although the torque figures are 10nm down due to GPF on EU cars. https://toyotagazooracing.com/jp/gr/yaris/2020mode...
Just need to find the Japanese or German reviews.
This I suspect will appeal to those who like the warranty over driving the car.
Android is (sort of) FOSS.
Android is (sort of) FOSS.
My experience is that the car is at its best in the 50/50 setting and then you just get on with driving it and maximising what is available
Having 27 options of torque distribution, throttle gain and steering effort is going to deliver you diddly squat compared to just driving what you have better and the torque increase is of marginal benefit as the engine spends almost all of its time between 4000 and 7000 RPM on track
I shalln't be investing £1000 in this, I'll spend it on more tyres and brake pads personally !
Android is (sort of) FOSS.
They update their software to fix security issues (you would be wailing if they didn’t) and to roll out new features.
Naturally they will develop more powerful software to match the latest handsets and older phones will struggle with that more. That isn’t controversial.
You can always choose not to apply the update and at some point the latest updates aren’t available to the older tech as they can’t handle it, if the object was to render them obsolete they would keep allowing updates. You can still use them though. The idea that there is deliberate action to render them obsolete is tinfoil hattery of the highest order.
I’ve happily typed this on a 5 year old iPhone with the latest software update. It runs perfects adequately.
My experience is that the car is at its best in the 50/50 setting and then you just get on with driving it and maximising what is available
Having 27 options of torque distribution, throttle gain and steering effort is going to deliver you diddly squat compared to just driving what you have better and the torque increase is of marginal benefit as the engine spends almost all of its time between 4000 and 7000 RPM on track
I shalln't be investing £1000 in this, I'll spend it on more tyres and brake pads personally !
Track use is excluded on the extended warranty so for those that want to go quicker can just get a proper remap.
I think £995 is strong, and a lot of of profit in there seeing as a tech just plugs in a laptop, but as some don't like the indie remaps and want to keep warranty, I think many will go for it.
You can read the Official Toyota information using your browsers translate button although the torque figures are 10nm down due to GPF on EU cars. https://toyotagazooracing.com/jp/gr/yaris/2020mode...
Just need to find the Japanese or German reviews.
This I suspect will appeal to those who like the warranty over driving the car.
Track use is excluded on the extended warranty so for those that want to go quicker can just get a proper remap.
It's a minor upgrade that will appeal to owners that want to personalise their cars a bit without voiding the Toyota warranty. It's as simple as that. There is no need to make aspersions about people just because it's not the route you would go down yourself. Choice is a good thing.
We should be thankful that Toyota are offering these options given that most manufacturers are shying away from producing cars for enthusiasts.
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