Toyota Auris Test Drive verdict

pc-guy

pc-guy

pc-guy

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I was looking for a Tdi car for work, and needed a 5 door car to fit family and friends, and needs to be Diesel and economical. But also need to look good and have AirCon etc as standard...for that comfort and luxury. and needs to be < £15k

The cars i considered were...

BMW 3 series (Used)
Audi A3 (Used)
VW Golf (Used)
Toyota Auris (New) (was looking at this for the fact that i own a toyota car and like the brand)

Admittly i haven't test driven all these cars but i have drived my friends BMW and an A3.

But i am very impressed by this Auris. I think it's got a lot of value for the money.

First exterior:
It looks sporty, and its very curvy aerodynamic. looks very stylish and it is WIDE very WIDE. I got the Tspirit as the test car which i think is the best the model i will buy very soon. It features a metalic grey paint (tho i prefer the black) and a spoiller at the rear end. The A frame is enlarged give the car that bit more aggression...however it means its got a longer wheel base than ususal. The car has a nice set of Alloy wheels better than the standard BMW and GOLF ones.


Interior:
It is amazing. very very well designed and very ultra modern. no cluter and looks very neat. the feature is the centre console with the gear knob in a similar position to the Civic Type R (which is very easy to get used to and very comfortable) the interior i got is finished in Beig, which is neutral and soothing. the room inside is plenty and the seats offer loads of comfort positions, which confused me as to why my bum wants so many positions. in addition the HUD is very nicely illuminated and very futuristic.

The Gadgets:
The Tspirit has Dual Zone auto AC, Cruise Control, Smart Keyless start which is so great the sales person forgot the conresponder in his pocket and asked me to drive away. and i realised half way down the road that i dun have the means to open the door again :) the car also features on board computer which has trip computer and tell you how badly u r doing in terms of MPG and how much miles you got left in you tank. The lights are auto sensing which is kinda cool.

The car insides:
I am testing the 2.0D-4D 126bhp version. this version comes with 6 speed gear box, which is very nice and smooth to change...the engine is powerful enough to pull away in 3rd gear. However there is a fair bit of lag before the beef is release. It takes that second or two to get the enginer move from 1000rpm to 2500rpm at which the enginer really flies, and overtaking becomes an ease. This is is the better performing out of the 3 cars i drove. the BMW was heavy and the golf was nippy but ain;t great. this felt really light and the power was delivered quite well. being a diesel car, the economy need not to be mentioned. IT WAS GREAT.

However saying all of that i only drove it pas 60mph so i yet need to take it to the faster roads to see how it fares. but overall i am utterly humbled by it so far. and costing just under 15k it is quite nicely priced.
 
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But you must remember the Auris is really just an uprated and re-branded Corolla. The world's best selling car and you can see why, solid, reliable and built well but not as well as earlier Corollas though. Nice car for the average family, it ticks a lot of boxes.

Rob H
 
Most of the things you praise it for are found on every other new car on sale. Most consider the Auris a dissapointment compared to its rivals, is this the first new car you have driven?
 
tbh it just screams to me "yet another toyota" though thats not always a bad thing as i imagine the average person wants good reliability, decent running costs and a respectable economy for the type of car


tbh sounds like a perfect replacement for the corolla even if it makes bugger all difference except for giving marketing something new to work with
 
it is the first NEW car that i test drive. generally i buy 3 year old cars so i dun fork out too much in terms of depreciation and nor do i get a heap of junk.

Saying that my mind is realyl split between the A3 and this car. Granted most of these gadgets are found on all the new cars, but not at the value Auris are offering. All these AC etc are optional extras for most popular makes, such as BMW, VW and Audi. you only really get them on the top of range models.

Granted the T spirit is not mid range or entarnces range, but the T2/3 or the TR all feature similar options as standard.

However i do see a slight problem with the interior of this car, being the fact that the boxes say for your mobile mp3 players and sunglass are in very very awkward places. the interior is beautiful (its like inside of a Lexus) but so impractical. and they say that the sound damping has been improved...in all honesty i can't tell the difference. The engine noise still penetrates.
 
I cant understand why toyota made such a fuss about dropping the corolla name and the auris in general, it loos very similar to the corolla, driving dynamic are pretty much the same, ie welcome to dullsville.

Theres nothing revolutionary about it.

If you want Jap and TDI why not look at the Civic CDTI.

Ps the interior is nowt like a Lexus, its actually very boring.
 
I really dun like the shape of the new Honda Civics or their eccentric styling...maybe its just me...but there are way too much shiny plastic at the front which makes it look like a toy car and make people not want to take you seriously
 
It's funny, when I saw the TV ad I immediately thought "hey, isn't this the old Corolla?".

If you want a reliable, safe, unassuming car to get you from A to B it gets the job done well enough but it has no defining qualities.

On the plus side - buy a used one. You're bound to get a fantastic deal.
 
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