Auris Sport Hybrid Review

[Nicolai]

Here's hoping owning the car won't be quite as scary as Halloween lol

Cyker, you DO have to make an effort in a hybrid. From what I've read on this forum, the Yaris Hybrid varies a lot mpg wise compared to the Auris and Prius. Perhaps due to a smaller engine?

[Ten Ninety]

Driving for economy is as much a learned skill as track-day driving, but it's a skill that UK motoring journalists are universally lacking. They would argue that they are presenting the figures which a 'normal' driver would achieve. However, they don't test manufacturer's 0-60 times by pulling off at half-throttle and granny-shifting up the box like 'normal' drivers do, so it seems odd that they should test economy with a 'normal' driver's lead foot and lack of forward planning!

It would be nice to see them conduct a test where they made a skilled attempt at maximising economy just to see what can be achieved away from the EU nonsense test.

As for the person doing 35 in a 60... if they were doing it for mpg then they were doing it wrong!

[Cyker]

The problem is, how would you go about measuring the mpg?

We already know the onboard mpg computers are woefully inaccurate.

Personally, I think people doing the reviews should NOT be driving to try and achieve maximal MPG, but rather just drive normally.

If, as part of the review, they just trying to see what the maximal mpg you can get is, then fair enough, but you can't just print a car's maximum mpg value because that will only achievable in very specific conditions which won't be what people buying the car will be doing!

If, by driving normally, hybrids don't get great mpg, then we should know this. Any driver could get good mpg in my Yaris; It doesn't really need any special treatment. I used to be under the impression the HSD's were the same... :(

[Uncle Buck]

My main issue with many hybrids is that you shouldn't have to drive woefully slowly or accelerate at a rate where cyclists are passing you, just to attain an MPG figure anywhere near the official stats. Any hybrid car that can be driven 'normally' and still achieve good MPG is thus excellent as far as I'm concerned. The Toyota hybrids do appear to be better than most at this which is great.

Sitting at 35 mph is not in the best interests of economy or other road users. We all know that cyclists might be doing 20 mph, LGVs 40 mph, buses 50 mph, etc. But a car doing 35 mph in a 60 mph zone is plain ridiculous. No he/she doesn't have to do 60 mph, but if they're going to travel at a significantly lower speed than everyone else, they should at least pull over at regular intervals to allow others to make decent progress. Just ask any truck driver or bus driver doing many hours a day at the wheel how it can upset load/delivery times/schedules, or add half an hour to their journey which means they run out of tacho time. Now that really upsets things - it can start a chain of events outwith your control. All because of a few inconsiderate car drivers .....

[johalareewi]

But a car doing 35 mph in a 60 mph zone is plain ridiculous.

We have many 60mph roads round here where you would be dead if you tried to drive them at 60mph. The laws of physics would see to that.

Just ask any truck driver or bus driver doing many hours a day at the wheel how it can upset load/delivery times/schedules, or add half an hour to their journey which means they run out of tacho time.

Lots of things can hold up delivery drivers. Not just cars doing 35mph on a 60mph road but also traffic lights, road works, inconsiderate parking, breakdowns, buses and lorries!!, the weather, and not forgetting accidents. They can close roads for hours which really mucks things up.

[Parts-King]

My main issue with many hybrids is that you shouldn't have to drive woefully slowly or accelerate at a rate where cyclists are passing you, just to attain an MPG figure anywhere near the official stats.

Ive had several Hybrids, a few Prius, an Auris, and recently a Yaris. You don't have to have to drive so slow a bike can overtake you :D: that is just a nonsense

In my Prius I would get 57, in the Auris 55, and that was without really trying. In the yaris, I wanted to get the best out of it and my driving consists of about 15 miles on an A road dual carriageway and about 6 on an A road, on the dual carriageway I'm doing 70 MPH and the A road probably never more than 40 MPH, but by keeping the acceleration light, I am easily able to get 60 MPG, I have also found the display reasonably accurate too, they are not "woefully" inaccurate at all

Kingo

[Cyker]

Sorry, was being needlessly tabloid It's pretty well documented in this forum that the mpg reader is not matching up with calculated readings and tends to over estimate. (Not just in hybrids but in general). However, we're only talking 1-5mpg out tho' so it's nothing major.

The point everyone seems to be making from both sides is that you don't need to drive super slow to get good mpg, and you're both right! I think bucky's issue is he more frequently comes across hybrid drivers who think you have to drive super slowly to get good mpg and considers this very discourteous to other road users (Which it is in a 60mph zone!). But that is more driver fault than the car.

If by driving normally, as you would in a regular car, you can get mid 50's then that is enough for anyone (Esp. since petrol is cheaper than diesel here!).

Any more than that will NOT be achieved by driving slowly - The trick to getting high mpg is by going as fast as you can with the minimum fuel use; The sweet spot for this is usually somewhere between 50mph and 70mph depending on the natural engine torque and aerodynamics of your car.

In a city traffic situation, you're stuffed, but by keeping the car rolling (Large forward gap, anticipating lights, coasting IN GEAR) instead of wasting loads of energy in the brakes by start-stopping all the time you can claw back a lot of mpg (The exception here is hybrids, who can obtain ludicrous mpgs in start-stop traffic since they can use no fuel at all during this period! )

[Parts-King]

Spot on

On an A road in traffic, stop / start /up to 40 MPH I can run in EV without trying (in a Yaris anyway), and as you say, you are burning NO fuel at all, I'm certainly not holding up traffic, but I am anticipating the traffic flow, traffic lights etc, that then helps the average MPG no end

King Fuel Saver

[Ten Ninety]

The problem is, how would you go about measuring the mpg?

We already know the onboard mpg computers are woefully inaccurate.

Personally, I think people doing the reviews should NOT be driving to try and achieve maximal MPG, but rather just drive normally.

If, as part of the review, they just trying to see what the maximal mpg you can get is, then fair enough, but you can't just print a car's maximum mpg value because that will only achievable in very specific conditions which won't be what people buying the car will be doing!

If, by driving normally, hybrids don't get great mpg, then we should know this. Any driver could get good mpg in my Yaris; It doesn't really need any special treatment. I used to be under the impression the HSD's were the same... :(

They aren't as different as you seem to think. A quick internet search suggests that your Yaris can be thrashed down to 40mpg or can be hypermiled to 116mpg; if anything it's even more responsive to driving style than a hybrid! Similarly, anyone can get 'good' mpg in a hybrid - indeed the Telegraph journalist managed just that in the review of the Auris Tourer. The Yaris is clearly a brilliant little thing for economy and it's impressive that a 10-year old car can still beat a hybrid with a decade of technological advances behind it. However, along with other similarly-frugal diesels, it's no more immune to the lead-foot brigade than a hybrid.

In any car there is going to be a big difference in technique between getting 'good' mpg (i.e. 50s) and getting 'great' mpg (i.e. 70+). I have a feeling that because all the greenist eco-loons fawned over the Prius so much, peoples' expectations of hybrid economy are artificially inflated. They somehow expect a hybrid to automatically deliver its EU figures without them needing to make any effort at all and then complain when it doesn't. But when you step back and think about it, that's just as ridiculous as buying a Porsche, driving everywhere at half-throttle, and then complaining that it won't hit 60mph in 4 seconds.

My main issue with many hybrids is that you shouldn't have to drive woefully slowly or accelerate at a rate where cyclists are passing you, just to attain an MPG figure anywhere near the official stats. Any hybrid car that can be driven 'normally' and still achieve good MPG is thus excellent as far as I'm concerned. The Toyota hybrids do appear to be better than most at this which is great.

Sitting at 35 mph is not in the best interests of economy or other road users. We all know that cyclists might be doing 20 mph, LGVs 40 mph, buses 50 mph, etc. But a car doing 35 mph in a 60 mph zone is plain ridiculous. No he/she doesn't have to do 60 mph, but if they're going to travel at a significantly lower speed than everyone else, they should at least pull over at regular intervals to allow others to make decent progress. Just ask any truck driver or bus driver doing many hours a day at the wheel how it can upset load/delivery times/schedules, or add half an hour to their journey which means they run out of tacho time. Now that really upsets things - it can start a chain of events outwith your control. All because of a few inconsiderate car drivers .....

It is extremely unlikely that the person sitting at 35mph was doing so for economy, not least because they would be getting much better economy doing 45-55 than stuck down at 35. It is far more likely that they were old, nervous or just enjoying the scenery but you saw they were in a hybrid and made a (perhaps justifiable) assumption that they were getting in your way for the sake of their mpg.

[Cyker]

You are spot on with the expectations thing; I, too, reckon people get disillusioned as they expect they can jump in a HSD and magically get OVER 9000!!!!1111 mpg without trying, but the HSD is not build with magic beans; It still needs the driver to drive properly to get good mpg!

I do wonder how that guy managed to average 40mpg in a D4D; Either he's actually driving a 1.3 and has put it down as a diesel by mistake or that car has never seen 4th or 5th gear

That is an edge case tho; I'm sure you could get the HSD Yaris much lower and much higher too, but I was specifically talking about the range of mpgs people see during normal driving.

I do love my Yaris Mk1 D4D. It's got a nice high driving position, is easy to drive, incredibly cheap to run and accelerates like a dung off a digger when you need it to. IMHO it is clearly the BEST CAR EVER MADE!!!!!1111oneone :D

(This post has been brought to you by the obsessed Yaris Mk1 D4D owner's club)

[wass]

I'm afraid you're failing to see the point here 'timberwolf'.

First of all, if they had just experienced a genuinely scary moment they should have pulled over & taken time to let their nerves settle down again.

Secondly, it's completely unacceptable to be doing this kind of speed on an open 60mph limit A-class road. You're even holding up LGV's & buses for goodness sake - never mind cars going at perfectly legal speeds. If a driver is no longer capable of keeping up with normal road speeds, then they should seek advice or training. That would be responsible behaviour. Many OAPs stop driving when they realise that time has come.

I actually leave for work 10 mins earlier than before to avoid that frustration as best as possible & I'm sure plenty others do the same.

cyclists, horse riders, tractors ? HGVs are only allowed to travel at 40 mph om such roads anyway... is 5 mph such a big deal?