Toyota awards 2025: praise for our cars and people

After an incredible awards haul in 2024, how many accolades can Toyota GB collect in 2025 for its cars, services and people? Watch this page as we regularly update it with each new award won throughout the calendar year.

Toyota awards 2025:

Land Cruiser sets a ‘gold standard’ in Scottish CoTY

The latest Land Cruiser has been acclaimed for setting the “gold standard” for go-anywhere SUVs, winning the Utility/4×4 title in the Scottish Car of the Year Awards. 

Ally Ballingall, president of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers, said: “The Toyota Land Cruiser earned this award for its legendary toughness and exceptional off-road capability. Our judges praised its robust build, advanced four-wheel drive system and impressive reliability in demanding conditions. Its spacious interior and practical features make it equally at home on rugged trails or daily drives. The Land Cruiser remains the gold standard for versatile, go-anywhere utility.”

Earlier awards…

GR Yaris extends its award-winning success to the used car market

Following multiple new car honours, the GR Yaris has collected its first award for its appeal as a used car. Our thoroughbred performance hatch was named Used Performance Car of the Year at the recent Car Dealer awards ceremony.

Announcing the win, awards host Mike Brewer said: “Previous winners of this award have been sleek coupes or big-power saloons, but this year’s choice proves incredible performance can come in a much smaller package. I absolutely love this car.”

Editor in chief James Baggott added: “The GR Yaris is a truly special machine. Developed with direct input from the manufacturer’s World Rally Championship team, it’s a rare example of a modern homologation-style hot hatch – built not for mass appeal but for pure driving brilliance. That alone gives it a special something on the used market, but factor in Toyota’s reputation for building high quality cars and you have an ultra-desirable used performance car.”

Yaris voted best hybrid in Auto Express Used Car Awards

The lasting quality of our model range was demonstrated with multiple successes in the 2025 Auto Express Used Car Awards. Yaris led the way, taking the honour of Best Hybrid and being doubly commended in the supermini class, while RAV4 and the Proace City compact van also earned commendations.

Auto Express editor Paul Barker said: “Toyota’s reputation for building cars that are bullet-proof reliable, technologically advanced and backed by a great warranty served it well in our used car awards. The Yaris’s victory in the Best Hybrid category and its commendation in the Best Supermini class show how highly we rate the super-efficient small car with lots of passenger space. The RAV4 also being commended in the hybrid category illustrates the brand’s prowess in hybrid tech, while the Proace City showed that Toyota can offer great value vans as well as cars with a commendation in the van class.”

Learn more: Search for pre-owned Toyota models through our Toyota Approved Used programme

Toyota is the UK’s best automotive company to work for

Toyota (GB) has retained its first place ranking in the automotive category of the Best Companies 2025 survey for the fourth year running. We maintained our three-star World Class status and moved up 15 places from last year – to 13th place – in the Best Large Companies (200-1,999 employees) category. This positions Toyota (GB) among the top 25 large companies within the whole of the UK.

Toyota (GB) was also ranked tenth place in the Best Companies survey for companies based within the south-east, having moved up seven places from our position in 2024.

Toyota Relax judged the UK’s best used car scheme

This year’s What Car? Used Car Awards has judged the Toyota Relax used car scheme the best on the market. Commenting on the quality and peace-of-mind offered by this warranty, used car editor Mark Pearson said: “Toyota Relax was one of the first used car schemes to offer the luxury of a potential ten-year warranty period and probably the first to do what it says on the tin.

“Take your Toyota to a franchised dealer every year for a service and you’ll be rewarded with another 12 months of additional warranty, applicable to all models up to a maximum of ten years old or with 100,000 miles on the clock. Few others can match that, and when you throw in a 145-point check and 12-year hybrid battery warranty too, the Relax scheme stands supreme.”

Toyota Approved Used vehicles are available from Toyota centres nationwide and can also be purchased on-line. For full information and to use the vehicle search facility, visit www.toyota.co.uk/used-cars.

GR Yaris is News UK’s Hot Hatch of the Year

Five years on from its arrival, the Toyota GR Yaris continues to set the bar for high-performance hatchbacks, winning the Hot Hatch of the Year title in the 2025 News UK Motor Awards.

The award is one of 17 significant honours the model has collected in the UK during its lifetime, sealing its status as one of Toyota’s most accomplished, successful and critically acclaimed sports cars. While the road-going model has been enjoying its plaudits, the World Rally Championship model which inspired it has proved its all-conquering quality with three successive manufacturer titles and two driver’s titles. 

Announcing the award at News UK’s London headquarters, Rob Gill, Motors editor at The Sun, said: “The rally-bred GR Yaris is already the darling of performance car fans, and the new Aero Performance version [announced this week] dials everything up to eleven. Manually adjustable rear wing. Upright manual handbrake. Yes, please. I can’t stop smiling even thinking about it.”

GR Yaris is the UK’s most reliable sports car

What Car? magazine’s latest Reliability Survey has revealed that the GR Yaris is the UK’s most reliable vehicle in the coupes, convertibles and sports cars category. Using information extracted from a survey of more than 32,000 vehicle owners over the course of 24 months, not a single GR Yaris owner (no doubt including rally driver Elfyn Evans pictured below) reported any faults whatsoever. It was also the only car in its class to have achieved a 100% dependability rating in the seven-year history of the survey.

Akio Toyoda inducted into The Motoring Hall of Fame

Toyota’s chairman and former president, Akio Toyoda (below), has been inducted into The Motoring Hall of Fame in recognition of his lifetime work in the Japanese and global automotive industries. The honour was announced during the weekend of 15-17 August at The British Motor Show.

Mike Rutherford, founder of The Motoring Hall of Fame, commented: “Akio Toyoda is one of the biggest, most productive, talented and influential car company bosses in the global automotive business. His induction is long overdue.”

Akio Toyoda studied law and business administration before joining Toyota Motor Corporation in 1984. His career included postings in every area of the company’s automotive operations, working both in Japan and internationally. He served as president from 2009-2023 when he became chairman of the board of directors.

Toyota is highest ranked car-maker in UK customer service survey

Toyota is the highest ranked organisation in the UK automotive sector for customer service and trust, according to the July UK Customer Satisfaction Index – a twice-yearly independent report published by the Institute of Customer Service. Delving into the online survey of more than 15,000 adults, Toyota was the highest scoring car-maker for emotional connection (85 out of 100), customer ethos (84) and customer experience (83.5). We were also highest scoring for the specific metric, ‘helpfulness of staff’.

Our mission to deliver business the way customers want was also endorsed by receiving the highest auto company score for ‘ability to interact in the way the customer prefers’, ‘caring about customers’, and ‘designing the experience around its customers’. We believe the survey findings are mirrored by our current advertising campaign, which highlights the quality of Toyota’s aftercare service. The Toyota Fanatics campaign (see video above and image below) shows our market-leading service being so extraordinary that customers deliberately create reasons to return.

Rob McKendrick, Toyota GB’s director of customer services, commented: “The survey results reflect the tremendous efforts made by our centres across the UK to ‘Go Beyond’ in terms of the products and service we provide. Achieving such strong levels of customer satisfaction and building long-lasting relationships with our customers provide a firm bedrock for business growth in the future. We’re going to build on this and continue to look for new ways to do business the way customers want.”

RAV4 voted the UK’s best plug-in hybrid

The Toyota RAV4 has been named the best plug-in hybrid car in the Autotrader Drivers’ Choice Awards 2025. Significantly, this honour was based on the real-world experiences and opinions of more than 225,000 UK car owners who took part in the online survey.

Autotrader’s editorial director Erin Baker commented: “Toyota is no stranger to hybrids, and it shows in the plug-in iteration of the RAV4, which is clearly winning over owners with its affordable running costs, smooth driving experience and strong reliability record.

“One owner couldn’t get enough of their RAV4 Plug-in, telling us: ‘It’s difficult to pinpoint one thing I like the most. This is an excellent car, beautifully finished and with plenty of technology to make driving a pleasure.'”

Three years, three wins for the Corolla Commercial

The British-built Corolla Commercial has retained the Small Van of the Year title in the Van Fleet World awards for a third successive year. Based on the regular Corolla Touring Sports estate, this full hybrid small van continues to continues to set the bar for convenience and performance.

John Kendall, Van Fleet World editor, explained further: “It’s a third-time win in succession for the Corolla Commercial, which, for the moment at least, has no real competitors. Its load area is accessible from both sides and the rear and it’s easy to drive with Toyota’s latest generation hybrid system. This brings 60mpg within reach, and at petrol, not diesel, prices.”

The Corolla Commercial offers a 1,326-litre load space, protected by a full metal bulkhead and rubber-lined cargo bay. In common with all other Toyota models, it comes with a 10-year or 100,000-mile warranty, while other benefits provided with new Toyota Professional vehicles include five years of free roadside assistance and transparent service pricing. 

Winners of annual Best Retailer in Town awards

Toyota’s annual Best Retailer in Town (BRIT) awards are designed to acknowledge exceptional customer-facing performance in a wide variety of retail categories. This year’s top accolades were won by FRF Group in South Wales (below), which was named the Best Toyota Group for the second year running, and Steven Eagell Peterborough, winner of the individual Best Toyota Retailer title.

Two retailers in the RRG Group, based in North West England and Yorkshire, won Ichiban awards for excellence in customer service. RRG Rochdale won the Large Retailer award, and RRG Bury the Medium Retailer category. Meanwhile, the Ichiban award for Small Retailers was won by Helensburgh Toyota, which was credited with having big ideas and a big heart. Congratulations all!

Toyota duo win Institute of the Motor Industry awards

Paula Cooper, the recently retired director of Consumer One at Toyota GB, and Carolyn Bundey, senior manager of strategic projects at Toyota GB, were among the winners in the 2025 Institute of the Motor Industry awards. The awards are presented in recognition of an individual’s dedication to delivering best practice and commitment to driving change and future-proofing the motor industry.

Cooper (above) won an IMI President’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Motor Industry, in recognition of her 30-year career and pioneering initiatives in customer experience and talent development. Meanwhile, Bundey (below) won the Contribution to the Work of the IMI award for championing diversity, inclusion and equity in the automotive industry.

Double success for Corolla in What Car? awards – again

Corolla remains the undisputed champion of family motoring in the UK, with the Hatchback and Touring Sports versions repeating their success in the prestigious What Car? awards. The hybrid models retained their respective titles of Best Family Car and Best Value Estate Car.

Announcing the awards, editor Steve Huntingford said: “The Corolla is well priced and delivers remarkable real-world fuel economy. Nothing shouts ‘economy’ when you sit inside it, because Toyota has used high-quality materials and the standard of assembly is excellent. Ride comfort also impresses, while the steering is well weighted and the handling composed.”

Turning to the Touring Sports model, he called it “a unique and convincing proposition in the estate class, offering exceptionally low running costs, great resale values and lots of standard equipment for a very attractive price.”

New Land Cruiser voted ‘Best 4×4 and Pick-Up’ among WWCotY judges

Still fresh from its UK launch, the latest generation Land Cruiser is already making an impression within the motoring community. Though the iconic model was strongly referenced within both of Toyota’s manufacturer of the year awards in 2024, the all-new model’s first dedicated award came from the Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year (WWCotY) panel. The judges voted Land Cruiser their Best 4×4 and Pick-Up, commenting that it “combines classic off-road capability with modern safety features, making it a standout in the 4×4 category.”

Winning this award qualifies Land Cruiser to be considered among other category winners for the overall WWCotY title. The winner of this prestigious award will be announced in March.

Learn more: What awards did Toyota win last year?