Toyota Yaris Cross review - Practicality, comfort and boot space

The front seats in the Yaris Cross offer good support, while standard kit such as a central armrest, a reach and rake-adjustable steering wheel and front cup holders help to make things more comfortable. The Yaris Cross is taller and rides higher than the Yaris hybrid supermini it shares its underpinnings with, so the driving position is raised up too, which many drivers like.

Storage could be better, with the Cross featuring a relatively small boot and not much space to keep odds and ends secure in the cabin. The fabric parcel shelf appears rather cheap, too, which adds to a feeling that Toyota approached its small SUV with a certain cost firmly in mind.

Slightly unusually, seatback pockets and underfloor boot storage are only standard on Excel trim and above, and if you want cupholders in the back, you have to upgrade to the Design trim level.

Size

At 4,180mm long, the Yaris Cross is 240mm longer than its supermini sibling, but the 2,560mm wheelbase is the same for both. They’re similar widths too, with the Yaris Cross measuing 1,765mm wide, but the compact SUV stands 1,595mm tall – 95mm taller than the regular Yaris.

To get a sense of how the Yaris Cross sizes up compared to its close rivals, the Ford Puma is a little longer and wider, although has a lower roofline, while the Renault Captur is the longest of the three and sits between the Cross and Puma in terms of overall width and height.

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Leg room, head room & passenger space

Entry to the rear of the Cross’s cabin is more awkward than it should be, due to the tight door openings and sloping roof line. You may also find carrying three adult passengers in the back is asking a bit much of the small SUV as both knee and legroom is limited. Bulky child seats won’t be easy to accommodate either, but if you’re just ferrying kids to and fro, then you’ll be fine.  

When we tested the Yaris Cross against the Honda Jazz in our twin test, we found that the Toyota has the advantage when it comes to headroom and its rear cabin is wider, too. However, the Jazz does have more knee room and rear passengers get two USB-C ports to charge their devices, while the Toyota doesn’t have any in the back.

Boot

If you’re prioritising load capacity for the Yaris Cross, then you’ll probably want to go for a front-wheel drive model which provides 397 litres of luggage space versus the all-wheel drive version’s 320 litres. Fold the rear seats down and the load volume expands to 1,097 litres, although it’s worth noting that entry-level Icon cars get a 60:40 split-folding rear bench, while all others get seats that split 40:20:40.

Similarly, more expensive models include a false boot floor that sits flush with the load lip and folded back seats. That’s pretty handy because when we drove the Yaris Cross we found that the opening for the boot is nice and wide, however, during our twin test against the Honda Jazz we noticed that the Toyota’s load lip was quite high which could make loading heavier items more difficult.

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Rivals have the Yaris Cross beat in this area, though, with the Ford Puma offering a 456-litre boot and the Renault Captur providing 422 litres – although the ace up its sleeve is its sliding rear bench, meaning you can push capacity to 536 litres if you need it.