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I don't tow with a 1.4 D Yaris, but, I think the 1.4 D Yaris has a 90 horse power engine. For what it's worth, 20 years ago, I used to tow with a 1.3 petrol vauxhall cavalier. I don't know what torque that engine developed but the engine was 75 horse power and I would bet the torque was less than that of the 1.4 D Yaris. I had the car first, I chose my van carefully, bought an ABI Marauder, 540 kg weight and the cavalier pulled it ok. As long as the total weight of the van loaded with all your things doesn't exceed 85%? of the car weight, you should be ok. (After towing with a 1.3 petrol cavalier, I got a 1.6 petrol cavalier as a company car and I noticed very little difference in towing between the 1.3 and the 1.6) I then went on to get a 1.8 diesel escort, I think that was about 60 horse power and towed the van ok with that.

The 1.4 D Yaris should pull a light weight caravan in theory but it won't be able to tow all day at 70 mph and you forget the van is on the back, for that, you would need a 4 x 4 with a big diesel engine.

Just had a thought.

Try the UK Toyota Owners Club forum, they have a section for each Toyota model, you should find a definitive answer there.

We were pitched next to someone on a north Wales CL last season who was towing with a new I.4 Yaris diesel, and we got chatting to him as my Dad owns one of the older models, which was one of the first Yaris diesels to come onto the UK market, around 2003.

This outfit was towing a very small old Windrush caravan, with a tiny body length of about 10ft, he also told us he had had a demo towing a Freedom microlight caravan, and was considering a trade up in the near future. Performance wise he was ok on straight level roads, but had to plan his route carefully, and indeed had done a bit of a detour to avoid the hill out of Conwy, which is quite long and steep upto the site, 

Having towed with a 1.3 Honda and a lightweight Monza back in the early 80s myself, I can imagine that the Yaris combination may also suffer from a lack of power somewhat when encountering strong headwinds, especially when towing a fairly standard width full height caravan like the Windrush, and it may be a case of having to progress at slow speeds and in low gear on motorways and open roads should these conditions prevale.

The 'Freedom' micro-lights may be better for the simple reason of their narrower width and more airodynamic shape than some older caravans, or indeed newer lightweights such as the Lunar Venus. Another idea would be to look at a lightweight folding caravan, where lack of height = less wind resistance whilst towing.

Julia