Thinking Of Taking The Plunge - 2014 Auris

[Dabooka]

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking of taking the plunge and chopping in our '56 RAV against a new Auris. The Rav, lovely car though it is, has proved problematic since purchasing it some 20ish months ago, and changes to our work etc mean our mileage and driving pattern has changed.

initially we looked at the Yaris, but had our head turned by the Auris which we feel is a far nicer place to be. I generally hear only good things about the Auris online but don't know anyone who owns one and just want some opinions.

One question though is engine choice. I'm not interested in the 1.6 petrol, find it most uninspiring, and am currently looking at the 1.4 diesel. However we only just creep into the diesel mileage bracket, say about 15,000 pa, and wonder about the hybrid. Not much of our typical journey is stop / start city driving, and we found the hybrid Yaris we had as a courtesy car would rarely engage electric drive anyway, so I wonder if anyone here uses a hybrid as a commute car with long stretches on dual carriageway / motorway and how they find it in terms of performance and mpg.

I do confess to preferring a diesel normally, but the Hybrid does seem to offer better value.

Thanks for reading,

Dabooka

[Wiz201]

if you're doing more motorway driving I'd go for diesel. Petrol engines and particularly hybrids would be more forgiving on short journeys and stop start, but if your journeys mean that the car is always going to be warmed up to temperature every time then I'd go for diesel.

I've had a yaris hybrid as a courtesy and that rarely went into electric mode. Most of the time it stayed in eco mode with power mode to get up to motorway speed.

good luck choosing, I've just ordered a 2014 Aygo so I'm going down from a 1.3 yaris. Will take a bit of getting used to with the engine power lol

[Dabooka]

Cheers Wiz, I think I'm almost certainly going to go for the diesel, but prudence says I need check first. I liked the hybrid Yaris we had, the only real reason I suppose I asked first is the +7/8p per litre premium on diesel real does narrow the differnece between the two.

Regarding the Aygo, I love 'em! Had a couple (again on courtesy) and my pal has owned a C1 for 5/6 years now. 60mpg easily achievable from his Citreon, and quite fiesty if you get the revs up :-)

[RunningInPleasePass]

I currently drive an Auris Hybrid and my previous car was an Auris Diesel 1.4 d4d, while I do not commute, I do drive about 36k miles a year, mostly on motorways and fast A roads.

The Hybrid is the better place to be when driving, and when you do have to negotiate traffic it's far more relaxing.

As to the hybrid not giving very good MPG on motorways, I have not found this at all, my average over the last 10k miles has been 56 MPG, even at motorway speeds the electric motors help.

When I swapped my, nearly 3 years old 85k miles, diesel it was having problems with the DPF regenerating every 100 miles or so, and my MPG had dropped to 50, previous to that it had been 60 MPG doing the same sort of runs as the hybrid is now.

After saying all that the hybrid costs more then the diesel so you will have that to take into account, as well as the difference in diesel over petrol..

Some owners are having problems with the 12 volt Battery going flat, Toyota are working on this but you may want to wait until it's sorted out first?

Ask to borrow an hybrid Auris for a day or so and give it a few trips on your daily commute to see what you think?

[Dabooka]

Cheers RIPP, very insightful although it's maybe complicated the decision more! :D

We'll see if they have a hybrid we can try out.

Have you seen this on HJ regarding the Battery issue?

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/toyota/auris-2013/?section=good

[RunningInPleasePass]

If it's any consolation, it took me three months to make my mind up.

Toyota will have a hybrid for you to borrow, they are pushing them hard at the moment.

When you do drive it, just leave it in normal drive mode, perhaps with the very occasional use of PWR on a steep hill, that way you will let the car decide how and when to use it's electric motors and Battery, I've found this simpler and gives the best results.

At this time of year, with it being cold, the car will return the least MPG you can expect so it's a good time to try one out.

Yes I've seen the Honest John site, as I say Toyota are working on this at the moment, so perhaps it will be sorted soon.

Perhaps you might want to post your question on the hybrid forum, that way you will get some other owners opinions?

[Wiz201]

Are you thinking of going with an automatic even if you don't go for hybrid? Noticed they don't do diesel automatic in the auris so you would have to have a manual transmission for diesel.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Given that Toyota have introduced the BMW 1.6 diesel engine into the Verso (on sale this month), wonder whether they will shortly introduce the same into the Auris.

[Dabooka]

They definitely have the hybrid Yaris in stock so we could have for a day, I'll suggest the missus books that out as it's predominately her car anyway.

More than happy with an auto as standard, but wouldn't spec one as new, so having a manual diesel is fine (assuming it's better geared than the 1.3 petrol, which I find a bit tragic to be honest...). The lack of cruise control is a bigger pain!

The mileage most reviews and comments quote are suggesting little difference between the diesel and the hybrid, and if we just allow the difference in purchase price will be cancelled out by the cheaper fuel (thanks for pointing that out RIPP), it just comes down to the difference in the engines on the road I suppose. But the hybrid does have a slightly better spec too...

Finally can't really wait for the potential new engine option, the Rav needs to go sooner rather than later. unless they manage to fix it THIS time!

[Dabooka]

Well the missus has been to crunch the numbers at the dealership at lunchtime, and as it stands we're looking at a diesel Auris. We're hoping to get one to try for a day or two first, but it looks like they only have an MY13 in. Not sure of the difference in reality, I'm assuming it'll be good enough a comparison?

So, how're you all finding life with the Auris? Any regrets?