A Week And A Bit With My New Auris Ts Hsd

[Heidfirst]

There I am complaining about the headlights on the Auris and the new 2015 model due out later this year apparently has led headlights, Yey! I bet it also includes rear heating ducts and Adaptive cruise control options too to compete with other EU manufacturers offerings. Its a pity the timing is just not right for me this time around.

http://blog.toyota.co.uk/toyota-safety-sense-a-new-level-of-active-safety-for-the-toyota-range

[DarrenM]

Its a nice looking car and I very nearly got one to replace my Prius which goes back in May. What put me off though was the lack of certain options that are readily available in the rest of Europe such as HID headlights & the JBL Stereo. I cant go back to Halogen after having LED lights!

Also no option available for Adaptive cruise control and no heating to the rear seats either. With the options I could have my Auris TS would have cost £26.500 car and yet all these missing features that I wanted. I don't know why Toyota UK do what they do but they seem to think UK customers want or deserve less and that coupled with Toyotas fairly steep pricing on certain options just put me off.

Toyota UK have a lot of catching up to do I think. When I looked at Seat and what they offered on their ST, the massive choice of colours and interiors, reasonably priced extras (£550.00 for Adaptive Cruise with the safety system, £350.00 for a 10 speaker sound system with sub woofer for example) I just could not justify getting an Auris which I would never be happy with and the Prius is just too expensive. I save £70.00 a month with Seat over the Prius and that buys quite a lot of petrol!

I know what you mean. If it was coming down to the Prius v a Leon ST, I would've plumped for the SEAT. But the Auris was £18k with 0% APR. Even with SEAT trying to do lots of deals, the 7% APR from VWFS couldn't get the payments down to the same level as the Toyota. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would choose a Prius over an Auris now though TBH. Certainly not if you're looking for practicality. It's the exact same drivetrain/power unit and it's an estate. I found the extras to be 50:50 between a Leon ST and the Auris TS actually. For everything like no ducted rear heating vents on the Auris, there was a no cup holders in central rear armrest in the Leon. Each one has slightly strange omissions.

If you're doing a few miles, then it wouldn't take long to swallow that £70 difference in petrol in a month, if say the hybrid gets 55 MPG and the Leon TSI gets 35 (roughly by fuelly figures http://www.fuelly.com/car/seat/leon/2015)

VAG products also come with a lesser warranty (3years/60,000 miles), with exclusions after six months (seat and floor coverings, shock absorbers, etc).

And VAG reliability is definitely nowhere near Toyota. Toyota is legendarily good, VAG heading rapidly the other way. Almost every VAG engine seems to have a design fault that only becomes apparent after 60k. I've had a few VAG cars and have always found out these things afterwards. Whether it's coilpacks, plastic water pumps, conrods, gearboxes etc, you're always risking something going wrong if you decide to keep one past 2 or 3 years.

I didn't say anything about heated rear seats, I said heating to the rear seats. Unless something has changed there is no ducting through the central console delivering heat to rear of the cabin in the Auris and passengers have complained that it gets cold on a long journey. Is that acceptable in a car costing over £20,000? I think not!

The profitability of Toyota or Seat matters not a jot in my selection of a Vehicle but since you raised it, like Scoda, under the VW ownership Seat will make profit, particularly as their EU market share grows. Seat offer their customers lots of choice too which Toyota unfortunately do not. The myriad of extras and packs you can have with a Seat Leon ST is truly inspirational. Toyota take note!

Sure Vag vehicles come with a 60,000 mile 3 year warranty but here the maths from my perspective driving less than 5,000 miles per year:

Lease 1: 4 Years Prius £423 per month with servicing, 10,000 miles per year. (Last year of warranty and 85,000 miles of no real interest to me)

Lease 2: 3 years Seat Leon ST DGI £353.00 per month with servicing, 5,000 miles per year (3 Year Warranty is ample for term of lease and 45,000 miles of no real interest to me)

And I get LED Headlights, Seat 10 speaker sound system, adaptive cruise control and heating to rear of cabin, all features the Auris lacks.

The ducted rear heating was something I've found a little bit of an omission. It should be there really.

The Auris has LED DRLs but not full LED but I'm not sure what practical difference it makes. I doubt I'd pay the extra for the 10 speaker system as the standard Auris system is very good. I wouldn't have adaptive CC. The rear vents are the only major thing, but as I said, I preferred to have centre armrest cup holders for the kids. I couldn't figure out how my kids were going to have drinks in the back of the car with a Leon so that was a big mark against it.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

I'm not entirely sure why anyone would choose a Prius over an Auris now though TBH.

Spec I suspect. Last time I checked Auris doesn't have HUD, LED or HID headlight options and still doesn't quite match the Prius for MPG due to different factors. I could go on

[DarrenM]

I'm not entirely sure why anyone would choose a Prius over an Auris now though TBH.

Spec I suspect. Last time I checked Auris doesn't have HUD, LED or HID headlight options and still doesn't quite match the Prius for MPG due to different factors. I could go on

The HUD perhaps. But it's a draw to a small number of people I think. The lights again a small difference maybe. I'm not sure why the MPG is different, perhaps just drag of the shape?

So those bits for an extra £5k and a much smaller boot and (apparently) a much worse ride.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

So those bits for an extra £5k and a much smaller boot and (apparently) a much worse ride.

Can't say the boot is smaller than the normal Auris from what I've seen, and not sure what people are on about with the ride, seems fine in the mk3 facelift Pruis, I believe it was only the prefacelift Prius that some people had issues with the ride on.

[DarrenM]

So those bits for an extra £5k and a much smaller boot and (apparently) a much worse ride.

Can't say the boot is smaller than the normal Auris from what I've seen, and not sure what people are on about with the ride, seems fine in the mk3 facelift Pruis, I believe it was only the prefacelift Prius that some people had issues with the ride on.

I'm coming from the perspective of the Touring Sports against the Prius, where there's a massive difference in the boot size. I wouldn't be able to get by with the Prius boot, I need the space for camping and luggage etc.

I don't know about the ride quality. While I don't believe everything I've read, it's quite a common theme that the Prius is criticised for 'crashy' rear suspension. Toyota make a big deal about the Auris suspension being tweaked for British roads and mine seems absolutely perfect between decent handling and soaking up bumps.

[PeteB]

And those with 17" wheels

[cbcdesign]

Darrenm, with regards to Prius spec versus missing items on the Auris TS, there is LED Headlights, Head Up Display, Adaptive Cruise Control and rear passenger heating. I think just about everything else was more or less the same across each model.

On the sound system: I do wish car reviewers would include the sound system in their reviews. Its very important for me and trying to find out how good a system is from one vehicle to another is not easy unfortunately.

Using similar methods of calculation that Toyota UK use in Europe to measure MPG by the way the 1.8 Petrol Leon is quoted at 39.8 Urban, 58.9 Extra Urban and 49.6 combined. If I get half that which isn't unreasonable based real world driving figures, my monthly petrol bill climbs by £46.00 a month maximum still leaving me £24 a month in my pocket. The 1.6TDI Diesel Leon is quoted at 72.4 to 91MPG! That's easily comparative to the Prius or Auris but I opted for performance instead and being a low millage driver petrol is a better option in my case.

[DarrenM]

Yeah the latest diesels from all the big manufacturers have some eye-opening figures. I do sometimes hear a little voice telling me I could be doing a lot better MPG with a diesel as I'm struggling to get above 45 in the Auris because of being loaded up with bikes or holiday stuff and I'm pushing it a bit because I want to get home.

But I then reassure myself that I didn't get it for the economy. I got it for the smooth and comfortable drive. And with how troublesome diesels are with DPFs etc these days, I'd always be going for a petrol anyway.

[Mike169]

Hi All.

I'd just like to say i have enjoyed reading how much you all seem to enjoy your Toyoya Auris cars althought which source of power to chosse i'd have to drive the different variants first.

I drive a Rav4 myself, almost 3 years old and done less than 8000 miles but where i live i need the 4wd facility otherwise i could of been tempted to change sides so to speak.

Good luck to you all, Mike.

[cbcdesign]

My neighbour has a VW Passat and at 65,000 miles, just outside the warranty of course, his DPF went and it was £1500 for a replacement. Ouch! He was lucky, as a lease vehicle the lease company had to pay but he is a high millage driver and his filter went so what chance would a low millage driver like me stand? Petrol for me every time too and besides, they are quieter with more coherent torque over a wider range of RPM so I am told anyway. Being in the right gear on the really efficient Diesel engines is quite important to avoid lag and power loss apparently.