The Toyota Yaris's Design Is Something To Write Home About

We find a hundred thousand lumens and focus it on the Toyota Yaris

- Afzal Rawuther

Some time back, Toyota president Akio Toyoda issued a diktat to designers across the company, “No more boring cars”. And ever since, Toyota has successfully set itself on a journey of transformation, from a manufacturer of functional, practical cars to ones that are also great to look at. The transformation is visible right here in India as well, and when I was handed the keys to the bright red Yaris, I sported a thousand- lumen smile.

Years before the Yaris was launched in India, it was a popular nameplate all across Europe. And that popularity was due to a number of reasons. Most strikingly, it was the fantastic packaging and great design that endeared it to consumers. It was packed with all the features you would want in a form that caught the eye. In India, we get the more practical sedan body style and that just adds to the appeal of Toyota’s first car in this segment.

So what makes the Yaris so appealing? The flowing lines across the body combined with the smartly integrated headlight assembly give the Yaris a face that’s hard to miss. And in the shade of red, we had it in, it would be sacrilegious to not spend more time poring over the finer details. With it raining cats and dogs in our part of the world and the sun hiding behind the clouds for most of the day, we headed underground to put the Yaris under the spotlight. And that’s when the best bits of the Yaris’ design came to the fore. With LEDs and their intensity of a million lightbulbs, all the elements of the Yaris that make it special stood out.