We all like to think we're getting something for nothing but when it comes to cars, there's no such thing as a free lunch. More than almost any other consumer durable, cars are ruthlessly accounted for, every last nut, washer and grommet having passed beneath the beady eye of a buyer. The finished product is then passed to the marketers who calculate margins, yields and volumes before fixing a final price. Value is largely a relative concept to the end customer. Some deals however, are hard to ignore and with the Yaris Zinc, Toyota has an intriguing proposition.

Although Toyota can't be accused of putting too many overtime hours into its creation, the Yaris Zinc is well worth your attention. It's basically a Yaris T3, - one grade down from the luxury T Spirit models - that Toyota has fitted alloy wheels to and sprayed with metallic paint. This little lot would normally cost the best part of £1,000 but rather than jack the price up, Toyota has instead slashed £615 from the price of a standard T3. It doesn't take a Masters in Economics to figure that this is a smoking deal.

At this juncture, you might well be wondering why? I know I am. After all, special editions are usually the last resort of the desperate, often a last-ditch attempt to slap a little lipstick onto the corpse of a barely viable model. The Yaris, on the other hand, is going extremely strongly, and sales are on the up. The reason lies in the breakdown of those sales. A big slice of the Yaris pie is going to businesses and big companies often drive very hard bargains on bulk buys, driving down the profit margins. If Toyota can come up with an attractive model that will appeal to private buyers willing to pay full retail, they're quids in. Everyone's a winner, or so it would seem.

"Deals like the Yaris Zinc don't come around too often"

Available with either a 1.3-litre VVTi petrol engine from £9,795 or a 1.4-litre D-4D 90 diesel from £10,745, the Zinc is offered in either three or five-door body styles and a choice of Eclipse Black or Venetian Silver metallic paint finishes. The final box prospective owners will need to tick will be between the standard five-speed manual transmission or the MultiMode automatic box. As well as the wheels and paint, the Zinc benefits from the usual T3 specification which includes front, side, curtain shield and driver's knee airbags, air-conditioning, a six-speaker sound system with CD player and MP3/WMA file recognition, a leather-trimmed steering wheel with additional audio controls, electrically adjustable door mirrors and a height-adjustable driver's seat.

Despite its 11cm growth in overall length, the Yaris is still shorter than the latest generation of larger superminis such as the Fiat Grande Punto and the Renault Clio. Part of the reason why these cars are so large is compliance with pedestrian impact legislation which is adding a few centimetres to the nose of many models. The Yaris gets round this one by arcing the bonnet high over the unyielding mechanicals to provide a deformable surface.

This means that despite being shorter on the outside, the Yaris is competitive in terms of interior space and easy to park at the same time. Fold the EasyFlat rear seats down and you're treated to the largest stowage area of any supermini. This system allows the rear bench to be split 60:40 and both sections to slide independently. Therefore it's possible to transport long, bulky items without impinging on a rear passenger's legroom allowance.

Aerodynamics, once a major vehicle selling point in the Eighties, are again coming back into vogue as manufacturers look for relatively inexpensive solutions to the problem of their wares becoming bigger, heavier and therefore less economical on fuel. A few thousand hours spent in a wind tunnel can claw back those losses and the Yaris benefits from a flat central underfloor, a smooth fuel tank and a cover between the spare wheel and the bumper. The result is a drag coefficient of 0.30, excellent for such an upright car. Toyota claim to have cut frontal lift at speed by 100 per cent, which in turn gives benefits in terms of motorway stability and resistance to crosswind effects.

The 1.3-litre three-cylinder VVT-i petrol engine was carried across from the previous model with modifications to improve its performance and emissions. The 0-60mph sprint is achieved in a sprightly 11.2 seconds. A top speed of 106mph is accompanied with a CO2 emissions level of only 141g/km. Where the Yaris 1.3-litre really scores however, is with its miserly fuel consumption, returning 47.1mpg on the combined cycle. These figures tick all the boxes for the economy-conscious buyers who also expect a reasonable level of performance from their purchase. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 1.3-litre is the most popular Yaris on the market.

Spend a little more and you'll get the 1.4-litre diesel version of the Zinc. The improvements to the turbo-charged engine have seen an increase in the injection pressure to 1600 bar with six-hole injectors. This makes the fuel burn more efficiently, giving increased power and better fuel economy. This has resulted in an engine that delivers 89bhp at 3,600rpm compared to 74bhp at 4,000rpm for the old Yaris diesel. The sprint from 0 to 60mph is achieved in 10.4 seconds going on to a top speed of 109mph. You won't be spending too much time at the pumps either as, despite it increase in size, this Yaris returns a very healthy 62.8 mpg in the combined cycle. The Yaris 1.4-litre D-4D also has exemplary green credentials, emitting only 119g/km of CO2. A five-speed manual gearbox comes as standard but diesel buyers can also specify Toyota's MultiMode transmission featuring automatic or sequential gear selection.

Every now and then a car manufacturer will drop its guard. Perhaps the Yaris Zinc demonstrates the sort of margins these big companies make on their cars if they can slash the price, up the equipment count and still turn a handsome profit. Dwelling on this too long probably isn't healthy. A smarter tactic is to play them at their own game. They say the only way to beat the odds in Vegas is to stay at the subsidised hotels and eat the subsidised food but stay well away from the card tables. I can't guarantee that buying a Yaris Zinc will represent sticking it to the man in quite the same fashion but every little counts.