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THEY ARE THE SURVIVORS OF THE DECIMATED LIGHT-CAR CLASS – ‘PREMIUM-LITES’ THAT SUGGEST YOU LOOK PAST THE PRICE TAG, AND FOCUS ON FORM AND FUNCTION

- LOUIS CORDONY

AMONG MELBOURNE city’s towers, the all-new generation Toyota Yaris lapping the block for photography is just a small blue dot. One that’s almost lost among the toxic-green bike lanes and dinging trams that rumble through the city streets.

But it’s much harder to overlook the significance of the Yaris’s rebirth in the light-car segment. New powertrains and advanced safety technology have almost priced the nameplate out of the entry-level segment it’s belonged to for so long.

Go for a base Toyota Yaris today – still offered in Ascent trim as before but no longer with a manual transmission – and it’ll cost you $23,630. That’s a generational price increase of over $7K; a staggering 35 percent.

Upgrade to SX trim for $3390, then tick the box for the hybrid-assisted 1.5-liter three-cylinder petrol powertrain, adding another $2000, and suddenly you’re looking at $29,130 before on-roads to buy our tester. Add $600 for Eclectic Blue paint, and that’s a grand short of an equivalent trim Corolla.

However, this swell in price is not contained solely within Toyota’s ranks. With the segment losing everyone from Honda to Holden and Hyundai in the last five years, taking a cluster of sub-$20K models with them, it’s rocketed the average vehicle price from around $23K to $31K. And the rearranged territory brings fresh conflict.