'Tis the season for the hot hatch.
It seems like everyone's hopping aboard the hot hatch train, with Hyundai's i30 N and Honda's Civic Type R dominating the column inches as manufacturers hop onto the performance halo car hype train.
In the midst of that, the entry-level hot hatch market has sort of been cast into the shadows. But Toyota's bucking the trend, via their upcoming Toyota Yaris GRMN.
While the pint-sized hatch looked good on paper — supercharged 155kW 1.8-litre engine more powerful than the Ford Fiesta ST and Volkswagen Polo GTI — only for people to write it off based off its mild appearance package when it was launched at the Geneva Motor Show in March.
But, don't underestimate anything that sports the 'Gazoo' name. A new promo clip for the GRMN has been revealed, profiling, among other things, its ability to do reverse doughnuts, its ability to navigate dancers, and the incredible noise that pops and bangs from the exhaust.
And while that noise could well be augmented and enhances for the clip, the GRMN will reportedly have quite the bite. Toyota have claimed market-leading acceleration for the class, with a 0-100 time of ‘just over six seconds’.
Sadly, we're unlikely to see the GRMN land in New Zealand, short of the few that might sneak over as independent imports. That's if you're lucky enough to locate one ... as production is reportedly limited to just 100 cars per country of sale.