GR Yaris v AMG A45 v Civic Type-R battle: 0-60mph, lap time & brake test!

which is the ultimate hatch well in this video we're going to find out because i've brought together my three favorite the mercedes amg a45s the new toyota gr yaris and the recently revised honda civic thai park now what we're going to do is compare them across a range of categories i'm going to tune them around a lap i'm going to test their braking performance i'm going to compare the sound that engines make i'm also going to see how close they can get to the claimed manufacturer not 260 time i'll also drive them in different conditions and do some tests that will matter to car enthusiasts then what i'm going to do is mark each car for how well it does in each test three points for a win two points for a second place and just one point for the car that comes last i'm going to toss up all the points and the car with the most points overall wins simple let's get on with it buying a new car then head to car wow and my team will help you find your next car at a fair price car wow your one-stop car buying comparison site let's start off by talking about the prices because a hot hatch should be relatively affordable and this toyota gi yaris starts at just under 30 000 pounds which may seem like quite a lot for a yaris but it's a yaris basically in name only it's a very very bespoke car however you are going to want to spend an extra three and a half thousand pounds on the circuit pack so you get a limited slip diff up front at the back and some better forged alloy wheels you have to have that pack otherwise you're an idiot and that takes the total cost to 33 and a half thousand pounds which is quite a bit now the civic tie part is a little bit more expensive 34 and a half thousand pounds but when you consider that it's a bigger car it does seem like better value than the yaris finally we come to the a45s and it starts from just over 51 000 pounds which is hell of a lot of money for a hot hatch as a result it comes last in terms of value for money so scores one point the yaris is second with two points but the overall best value car here is pacific type r so he gets three points now if you are thinking about buying a new car if you click on the pop-out banner and sit there it should be popping out now or there's a link below the video if you want to click on that instead you can get a car wow we can save an average of 3 000 pounds on a new car now if you don't want to do that right now and just maybe at a later date all you have to do is simply google help me car wow i'll take you straight there and then my team will help you choose the right car for you and get it for a fair price from one of our trusted dealers this next category is all about fanboy pleasing facts you know the kind of information that you can bore your friends with about your car fanboy pleasing facts in the case of this a45s it's the fact that it has the most powerful four-cylinder series production engine ever produced turns out 421 horsepower and it's hand built by men and women in alfalter back germany this one is actually made by a chap called mark i can't read his last name he's got a weird signature but well done mark you built it with your hands the honda civic type r is the quickest front-wheel drive production car around the nurburgring with a time of seven minutes 43.8 seconds wow we've got to stop doing this thing where i get kicked in the ass when i say nurburgring times anyway bizarrely this car is actually five seconds quicker around the ring than the a45s which [Music] i think i lost him anyway if you want the ultimate fanboy car it's got to be this reason being this is a homologation special it was built to go rallying and toyota had to build 25 000 of them as a road car i mean it's really special it may be called the yaris but the only thing it shares with the normal yaris its headlights its door mirrors and its little roof aerial it's bespoke it's hand built by specialist engineers at toyota's special moto machi plant in japan this car actually takes 10 times as long to build as a normal yaris and it's got loads of trick stuff like clever switchable four-wheel drive system and stuff like that it is insane and that's why it scores three points the civic scores two points and the mercedes mg one point for the fanboy pleasing facts each of these cars has a feature which allows you to be a bit of a hooligan so that honda civic it's front wheel drive breaks traction really easily so you can do smoky burnouts away from the line even though it is just the front wheel spinning still annoying for people around you that mercedes omg it's got a really clever drift mode which allows you to overspeed the rear wheels and slide it like a rear wheel drive car you can do donuts in it it's amazing though you never actually use it that often you see this yaris actually has the most useful feature and it's a manual old-fashioned handbrake and when you use it it actually decouples the engine it's designed to be used like your rally card doing handbrake turns and that means that if you're going one way and suddenly think no i want to go the other you can quite easily turn it around that's why the underscore is one point the mercedes two points and there's the rs three points brilliant [Music] this next category is all about looks and for me my favorite is easily this gi yaris it's so special so unique it's a three-door for starters which is instantly more sporty than the other two and then there's features such as the aggressive face the wide haunches the sloping roofline it's insane there's really nothing else like it i love it now don't get me wrong this a45s is a really nice looking thing as well for starters the normal a-class looks great but this one with all the aero on it just way more aggressive it does stand out and i do like this yellow paint the only problem for me with it is the fact that it's identical to the a35 which is cheap but the only difference between the two are the fact that this one has quad tail pipes and the a35 has just dual tailpipes and that's it so people might get them confusing you don't want that when you spend all that money finally we come to the honda and i'm not going to mince my words here this car looks sorry it just does it's as though a 10 year old boy has designed it after eating about a kilogram of sweets it's a little bit embarrassing to be seen to tell you the truth i think they should probably just change the h on the number plate to a y and it'd be about right yuck that's why this car scores one point for locks the mercedes two and the little toyota rig points [Music] now you come to the sound test because you want your sport your hot hatch to sound good so let's hear them first the honda [Music] soft limiter see what it's like when you're actually driving on the outside it's so so and on the inside so so it doesn't sound great this now let's try the gi yaris so revving at a standstill oh another soft limiter sounds sort of all right in here because you've got fake noise played to the speakers which i don't like the idea of but it's actually slightly pleasant on my ears i know that on the outside it sounds like a diesel 3's linda rattle let's see what it's like when you're driving it yeah i know it sounds bad on the outside probably worse than the civic but inside it's slightly better and that matters as the driver because you get to enjoy the sound more even though it's fake and that makes me feel dirty finally then the amg or you can read it all the way up so for the stationary noise test this definitely wins oh a little pop there [Music] all right let's see what it's like when you're driving it here we go [Music] well i know it sounds better on the outside and it definitely sounds better on the inside than the other two cars so it's a clear win for the amg it sounds the best no question so he gets three points and i think in second place it's the toyota just gets two points and the honda comes last with one point [Music] now let's talk about interiors and there's a clear winner here it is the mercedes it's just head and shoulders above the other two the design is super cool it's got the best tech the best infotainment you've got electrically operated seats i've even got a lovely glass roof as well beautiful beautiful cabin love it in second place is the honda the general design of the cabin is pretty nice quality is good i like the way they've lifted it for this type r with the red flashes here red on the steering wheel and on the seats and the driving position itself is brilliant i really love it and the alcantara steering wheel that is just so racy i like the fact you've got digital dars as well the only real complaint is infotainment system which is poor thankfully you just use apple carplay android auto so it doesn't matter so much it's nice the worst interior is the yaris it's all just a bit dark and miserable and the material quality isn't as good as the other two there are some nice things like i do like these seats they're very supportive however they do seem mounted quite high so if you want to wear a helmet it's a bit of a tight squeeze and if you're really tall you're not going to fit in this car at all another thing that's a bit annoying is this look the pod for the forward-facing camera for the safety systems extends quite far down so this rear-view mirror is quite low and so you get a little gap between there and the top of the dash which is a bit annoying kind of ruins your forward visibility so this car gets one point for the interior the honda two and the mercedes three points this next test is about acceleration and how easy it is to get close to the manufacturers claim not to 60 time so this iris is supposed to do not just 16 5.5 seconds but i'm going to see what i do in reality and to do that i'm going to use my specialist timing gear up here now this car has a 1.6 liter turbocharged petrol engine with just three cylinders so it puts out 261 horsepower and 360 newton meters of torque four-wheel drive should help me off the line but i'm going to put the car's four-wheel drive system into sport mode so now 70 of the power goes to the rear wheels which would help when launching but let's find out shall we come on decent launch not so decent gear change what did we get naught to 60 in 5.86 seconds let's try again see if i can do better best out three not so good off the line oh dirty gear change what did he get yeah it wasn't as good 6.14 let's go i've now got the car in track mode and the stability office if that helps decent start oh that's better yes we got a time not 60 in 5.43 seconds 0.1 of a second quicker than toyota claims now let's try the civic so it has a two liter turbocharged forced into petrol engine with 320 horsepower and 400 newton meters of torque six-speed manual again but being front-wheel drive this may be harder to launch and achieve the claimed naught 60 in 5.8 seconds see what i do [Laughter] not spinning that's crap [Music] 6.8 seconds whole second slower than it's supposed to do but it was just spinning its wheels let's try again that's even worse [Music] oh yes 5.89 quite pleased with that for this last launch i'm going to try just side stepping the clutch see what happens oh i didn't like that [Music] oh yes yes that was wicked 5.62 seconds so that is 0.2 of a second quicker than the manufacturer claims so i did it in the yaris 0.1 second quicken the manufacturer claims so this isn't the lead so far finally then we come to the amg and just like with the honda you've got a two liter four-cylinder turbo petrol though somehow the germans they managed to get an extra 100 horses out of their four-cylinder 2 liter it has 421 horsepower it's mad have they done that it's also got 400 newton meters of torque as a result mercedes says it will do naught to 60 in 3.9 seconds but remember this is all about how close or how much you can better the manufacturer's claim time so let's see what i can do with this mercedes and it takes no skill at all it's got an 8-bit dual clutch automatic gearbox with launch control i don't do anything besides put my left foot on the brake throw the throttle going to raise start mode release the brake oh god it's brutal this thing whoa naught 60 first go 3.86 seconds hmm interesting [Applause] that was a bit smoother and what we got is exactly the same 3.86 seconds felt better it was the same final go this time i've turned the stability all the way off see if that makes a difference [Music] did it oh a little bit of a difference nor to 60 in 3.79 seconds so what does that mean well when i do the maths it means that this car did 0.11 seconds quicker than the manufacturer claims the toyota did 0.9 seconds quicker than its manufacturer claims but the honda one overall by doing 0.18 seconds quicker than the manufacturers claimed not to 60 time as a result the honda gets three points this gets two points and the toyota just gets one point this next category is all about features on the car that boy racers like and one of them is badging so that honda civic type r has this many type r badges on it the gi yaris has this many gr badges on it but that's nothing this car has this many amg badges on it 29 amg badges it's just nuts but while badges are important they're not as important as a cool exhaust system and the civic does have the best on it's got three exhaust pipes which is quite unusual and they're completely real and all serve a purpose while three exhausts are impressive they're not as impressive as having a carbon fiber roof which is what this gi yaris has now interestingly this is actually a wrap it is actually carbon fiber underneath but to save money they decided to wrap it rather than lacquer it because that would have been more expensive this is what it looks like underneath anyway having a carbon fiber roof means that this car wins for having something that boy racers love and that's why it gets three points the honda gets two points and the mercedes that gets one point [Music] now i want to see how good these cars are stopping so i'll get a full emergency stop from 70 miles an hour and see how far it takes them to come to a complete halt and start with the civic it's got 350 millimeter disc up front gripped by four pot calipers 305 discs at the back single pot caliper and it weighs 1405 kilos let's go up to 70 there's a 70. [Applause] so it stopped from 70 miles an hour in 48 meters it's not bad that ignore the fact that that's saying kilometers an hour up there for reasons settings so it's in meters not feet now it's time for the amg it has 360 millimeter disc up front gripped by six piston calipers and at the back you've got a single piston caliper gripping a 330 millimeter disc so the largest brakes but then it does have the most weight it comes in at 1 60 kilos it's a bit of a lardass let's see how that affects the braking performance from 70. all right here we go 17. what are you gonna do oh saw it broke from 70 miles an hour in 49 meters which is one meter more than the honda but how will the toyota do this jar yaris has 356 millimeter discs up front gripped by four part calipers at the back you've got 297 millimeter discs gripped by two part calipers think about this car though it's about the weight 1280 kilos so it's by finally the lightest car will that help it with this brake test let's find out i love this engine [Music] okay here we go come on oh i almost pushed the pedal through the floor what do you get so this start from 70 miles an hour in 50 meters so despite being the lightest it lost the honda one gets three points the energy was second gets two points and this just gets one point [Music] one of the main appeals of hot hatchbacks is the fact that they are hot but also hatchbacks which means practicality well it should do however it doesn't here in the case of the gi yaris so much you see it's a three-door only which means it's a pain for people to get into the back seats especially as this driver's seat doesn't slide forward the passenger does but for some reason driver's seat no so i'm gonna have to get in this way and then when you are in the back that sloping roof line which makes the car look so cool means that the headroom is awful then there's the boot really really small you can only fit three airplane size carry-on luggage cases in the boot underneath the low cover not so practical after all thankfully this amg has rear doors which means it's easy to get into the back and it's quite roomy back here it's not massive but it's fine decent headroom decent legroom all good the boots are decent size as well you can fit five airplane style carry-on luggage cases underneath the load cover the most practical car though is this honda civic type r it's really roomy here in the back notably more so even than the mercedes it's a great car for families especially as you can fit seven suitcases in the boot really impressive not so sure about this though take cover five on the seat backs anyhow despite that it still wins three points for practicality the mercedes gets two points and a little gi yaris just one point if you buy a hot hatch you're probably going to want to take it on track at some point so i'm going to compare these cars on a circuit starting with the civic type r now i'm going to drive them around this little sprint course and time them see which one does the quickest lap now it's the middle of winter and it's very very icy so there's my racing driver excuses right there and it's being front-wheel drive only means it's struggling already to put down its power well and it's a little bit larry come on let's go got it in r plus mode but with the stability on just to help me out a bit because it can get a little bit larry this thing come on steady on the power be patient whoa oh just wants to lift off oversteer come on oh the brakes are so nice though it really does just feel flat solid and race car like if only it was summer and dry i reckon it'd be amazing feels like a racing car you did a 31.82 i'll take that all right let's see what the toyota can do so i've got in track mode because i'm on a track i've got rev matching on because the pedal is a bit too far apart for me to confidently heal and tow and i've got stability off because i've got all-wheel drive come on see if that's a mistake hopefully i won't crash it oh it feels whoa it'll slide a bit so in trap mode it sends 50 of the power to the rear wheels which is great because it means you can just get on the power a little bit earlier than i could in the civic it feels a little bit more pointy because it's shorter slightly less race car like i don't think you get quite as good feedback to the controls as you do on the honda and the gear shift while lovely isn't quite as snappy that's across the line was it quicker though you did that one in 31.27 ooh slightly quicker than the honda then finally we come to the mercedes so i've got in race mode with the stability and sport handling mode so let me fall around a bit but should gather me up if i get a bit too carried away let's find out it will slide around this thing well it's very clever how larry it can be oh that's not gonna be good for my time but maybe the engine's performance can help bail me out it feels a bit more electronic than the other two this car like all the systems are just helping you be a bit better than you really are but let's find out if that actually works out to a quicker lap time you did that in 30.36 this is the quickest car and it was also a lot of fun sliding it around this wins the track test [Music] well timing these cars around a circuit is all well and good what really matters for a hot hatch is how much fun it is to drive on a twisty road and this a45s is an absolute monster it covers ground so quickly and so effortlessly you'd be amazed how quick it can go in fact in some ways you can go too quick in it because you're hooning along having fun you look down at the speedo and you realize that you're going quick enough to go straight to jail now that is a slight problem because you have to be absolutely hammering it to really get the thrills from it and sometimes it's just too hard to do it safely on the roads another slight detraction is the fact that it's automatic yes you can change gears yourself by pulling on the paddles but it's not as involving as having three pedals and a manual gear shifter but still this thing is epic i'm really good fan jumping out the mercedes and into this this feels a lot more analog whereas the mercedes more digital you feel that its systems are just helping you a bit more this the starters has a manual gearbox and three pedals and the placement of the pedals is perfect for heel and towing which just adds to the fun and this is an amazing car there's just so much feel through all the controls it's absolutely epic i think had it been completely dry on the track this would have put in the quickest time the problem comes though when the conditions aren't quite so good it can all get a little bit sketchy it starts spinning up its wheels and look it's a bit terrifying and really on an unfamiliar road you can't cover ground as quick as you can in the mercedes however generally most of the time on a twisty road you just get a little bit more back from this car you feel like you have to work harder at it and so ultimately it's just a bit more fun finally then we come to the gr yaris and what an amazing little car so this combines the short-footed ground covering capability of that amg but with all the tactility of the honda i'm absolutely in love with it now being small you can really thread it down a twisty backroom full of confidence and obviously you've got all that grip from the four-wheel drive system it's insane how quick he can go in it you can still have fun at lower speeds than in the other two cars there's just something about it part of the reason for that is that you can change the four-wheel drive system from sending 60 of the power to the front to having 70 at the back when you're in sports mode so you get pushed out of turns and it feels like a sports car not like a yaris hatchback of course it's not really a yaris hatchback at all is it it's a homologation special rally car what a little thing it's just nuts cars like this will not be built again this is a watershed moment anyway enough of all that i need to give you some scores i'm gonna give the yaris three points it's just so epic two points go to the civic because it is a load of fun it's just marred slightly that if the conditions aren't bang on it can be a bit of a pain to drive and one point to the mercedes because while it is brilliant on a twisty road it's almost a little bit too easy it's not as involving as if the two cars [Music] the final challenge is what these cars are like as daily drivers because the thing about hot hatch is it's often the only car so you need to be able to use it for just general commuting and driving around town and it shouldn't get on your nerves i'm going to start off with this toyota and it's actually surprisingly good around town being small makes it dead easy to drive and nip through traffic makes it easy to park the only downside is that the rear window is quite small but it doesn't matter because you've got parking sensors and a rear view camera which is fairly decent another thing that's good about it is the fact that while the suspension is on the firm side and it's even firmer still with this track pack it's not bad it can cope with speed homes it can cope with potholes it's an easy car to drive around town and that beeping you here there is that you've got all the safety systems such as lane departure warning now what's even more important is that when you get on the motorway this car has a feature which is brilliant and it makes it easy to live with and that's automatic cruise control with lane keeping assist so it'll do all the hard work of keeping you in lane keeping a safe distance from the car in front so those long motorway journeys are just less stressful the only real problem this car has is that the sound insulation isn't great so you do get quite a lot of noise from those tyres echoing around the cabin but really for this kind of car it's surprisingly easy to live with now i've jumped into the civic you might think this is going to be a better daily driver than the yaris but well it does come with adaptive suspension as standard so you can put into comfort mode the difference isn't as much as you might think it still does struggle a little bit with tiny imperfections in the road it's not too bad though and you could quite easily live with it one thing that this isn't as good at as that little yaris is the fact that it's a bigger car as a result it is harder to park it and you do sit really low in the civic type r which is absolutely brilliant when you're driving on track or on a twisty road because you feel part of the car but it doesn't mean that your view forwards isn't quite as good so that lofty driving position which in some ways for sports car fans can be annoying in the yaris is actually a benefit on your daily commute there is one particular thing about the civic type r that does really do my head in when i'm driving it around town and that's the turning circle it's 12.5 meters which is terrible by contrast the yaris is 10.8 meters that means that if you need to do a u-turn or you go around a mini roundabout it's such hard work in this civic type i does my head in every time i have to park this when you're going faster you can calm down just like the yaris this car has automatic cruise control so it uses a radar keep a safe distance from the car in front or still to keep you in lane and it's standard when you're traveling along at speed this car is probably just slightly quieter than the yaris but actually noisier than i imagined and the engine can be a little bit droney at times you don't get quite as much tire noise as the yaris but maybe more wind noise i'd say this has the edge slightly until it comes to the final point being two-wheel drive front-wheel drive especially when you combine that with the punchy engine you can find that you lose traction all too easily when you're driving for half the year in the uk the roads are always a bit greasy and this car can sometimes feel a bit sketchy if you're accelerating out of a turn or if you're accelerating to join the motorway flashing up the traction control and that means it is a car that just requires a bit more concentration when you're driving it every day and it can just get on your nerves a little bit if you're in a dry country absolutely fine doesn't matter that it's only two-wheel drive but you really do feel the benefit of four-wheel drive in the uk last but by no means least we come to the a45s it won't surprise you that this is the best daily driver the ambience of the cabin is better than the other cars for starters being an automatic makes it easy to live with especially around town to be fair sometimes this automatic gearbox can jolt randomly but still it's easier than shifting gears yourself and it's quite maneuverable as well much better than the civic not quite as good as the yaris the visibility is very good in this car better than the civic so it's easier to thread through traffic and let's be honest just being sat inside this cabin for any length of time is nicer than being sat in the other two cars and the infotainment system brilliant easiest to use now this car has the plus package on it which costs an extra six thousand pounds which is a lot of money but it does include adaptive dampers and then when you've got the car in comfort mode it's really good over bumps it's been the civic and it's definitely better than the yaris honestly this is an easy car to live with now when you're going at speed on the motorway it feels the most refined as well it's not dead quiet you do still get quite a bit of noise from its sporty tyres but it is quieter than the other two and better for longer journeys apart from one thing and that's the fact that in the uk you cannot get this car at all with adaptive cruise control with steering assist which is bonkers i don't know what mercedes uk were doing by not making that feature available i've driven this car in germany with that and it's really good and that is really my only gripe with this car most people won't care but i really do love that you can shut up that is another thing that annoys me about this car it's always chiming in when you mention the n-word anyhow despite the fact that you're always interrupted by the voice recognition system and you can't get adaptive cruiser steering assist this is still the best daily driver and so it scores three points the yaris just about edges the civic so he gets two points and let's see if it comes last with one point so then what are the final scores well in third place with 25 points is a honda civic type r in second place with 26 points is the mercedes amg a45s but the overall winner with 27 points is the new toyota gr yaris it is the ultimate hot hatch and i've just proved it mathematically i hope you all enjoyed the video if you did and you haven't done so already please make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the bell icon to turn your notifications on that way you won't miss a single upload now if you'd like to see a video of a yaris jr racing against specific type r in the drag race click on that window there click on that window there to watch the mercedes a45s race against a bmw m2 competition and an audi rs3 and if you click on that box there you can get a car wow to see how much money you can save on new car

Channel: carwow

Views: 1,245,481

Rating: 4.6756306 out of 5

Keywords: carwow, mat watson, car review, car review 2021, new car review, toyota, toyota gr yaris, gr yaris, toyota yaris, mercedes, mercedes-amg, mercedes-amg a45, mercedes-amg a45 s, amg a45 s, honda, honda civic, honda civic type r, civic type r, type r, hot hatch, hot hatchback, new hot hatchback, best hot hatchback, best hot hatchback 2021, best new hot hatch, hot hatchback review, gr yaris review, amg a45 s review, civic type r review

Id: xU_5QmuHSl4

Length: 34min 21sec (2061 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 06 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/King_Porcupine]

Damn you Toyota for teasing the US market

[u/SsP45]

I’d kill for an AWD Type R for our Canadian winters.

[u/Antique-Guidance306]

God he’s hard on those gearboxes. I hope the Yaris is his.

Enjoy the change up from endless drag races though. Hopefully they do more of this, on a longer track.

[u/danlicka]

Imagine living in the 80s and someone tells you, that you will be able to buy a 2 liter hatchback that does 0-60 in 3.8 seconds stock, that’s just crazy.

[u/Imthecoolestdudeever]

TL;DR

Yaris GR - 27 points - small responsive, easy to drive

MB A35 A45 - 26 points - very refined, fast as shit, more expensive

Type R - 25 points - less refined, harder ride, fun to drive

The fact we have these 3 amazing hot hatches to choose from, and each offer the same, but very different experiences at the same time, is fucking awesome.

[u/hO97366e6]

If you're cross shopping these in the US it's an easy choice at least. Type R it is!

[u/Darth--Chungus]

What a damn shame the Focus ST/ RS is gone from these type of arguments.

[u/Kie1522]

Ah yes, the classic, Rally Car vs AMG vs Honda Civic Matchup, and of course we're still beating the dead horse that is Type R styling.

[u/RexximusIII]

Despite it's many excellent points - the fact that the A45S is like £15k/20k more expensive really just chips it away for me. Granted my broke ass is working hard just to afford an old mazda 3 MPS but God damn, that's silly money.