Under the hood of a 2012 Yaris

[CTScott]

This morning I was coming out of Home Depot and noticed that the Toyota dealer across the street had an Absolutely Red 2012 Yaris sitting out front, so I had to pop in and kick the tires (and take some pics).

I test drove it and it really feels and sounds just like the 2nd gen. I personally don't like having the cluster back under the steering wheel, but that's one of those changes that is completely a matter of personal preference.

With the base L package, the car had manual widows, but it was interesting to see that it had power door locks.


Here are some pics from the outside:








Here's a close-up of the new giant front wiper. It looks huge from the outside, but driving it with the wiper going I didn't find any more distracting than with the 2 wipers:



Here's the new antenna. I like it better than the mount and whip on the 2nd gen and might just have to order one:




Here are some pics of the interior (this was a totally base L model with the light gray seats and a non-split rear seat):






Here's the cluster and radio. Note that the Aux Jack is now located in the upper right corner of the inside of the glove box:








And, here are some under the hood shots. Basically it seems pretty well identical under here, with the exception of a new ECM (with different connectors), and a larger right side secondary fuse/relay box. The air intake and manifold are identical, so aftermarket intakes that fit the 2nd gen should fit the 3rd gen. Also, it looks like there is still plenty of room to bolt a Blitz Supercharger on, in place of the intake manifold.













After I test drove the red one and spoke with the sales person for a bit, he mentioned that two more had come in on a truck this morning, so I took a ride around back and found a Super White L and a Wave Line Pearl L sitting there: