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Auris TS Hybrid test drive


MetManMark
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Having spent hours reading and watching reviews we finally had a test drive in a auris hybrid. First time I've driven a hybrid (or automatic for that matter) and it was a little odd to start with. Some observations:

Living in Devon we inevitably went up and down some hills. The B mode seemed to work brilliantly. Our current manual saab would have run away with itself but the B kept the car in check nicely. Going uphill the car seemed to cope fine. I was keen to hear how noisy it was under heavy acceleration - it wasn't nearly as bad as I had been expecting. You notice it when you floor it on our current car and this didn't seem much different.

I found the lack of gears meant I found it more difficult to gauge how fast I was going. Typically I use 1st to get it rolling then 2nd up to 20 or so, sometimes skip third and use 4th to 40 or 50 etc. With the hybrid I felt I didn't really know where I was (this was partly compounded as there wasn't any traffic to follow etc).

The central display was left on the graphic that shows the energy usage. I found that a little disconcerting. I think I would choose another display when I drive!

I found the dash itself less clear than our saab. The spedo dial was quite small and the rev counter equivalent flitted around somewhat such that it caught my attention all to often. The hap from the dealership had set up the central dash with the digital spedo in the centre. I found this more useful such that I didn't other with the analogue spedo. I was a bit disappointed with this as Mum's yaris has a brilliant dash setup.

I noticed that the Battery seemed to stay between 80-100% full. This is fine but I was wondering whether I should somehow use more of the range of the Battery. My thinking is that surely this means I wasn't using all the Battery and was therefore guilty of lugging the battery around and only using a small amount of it. Maybe this means I need to alter my driving style?

The difference between eco, normal, power was noticeable. With eco there seemed to be a lag whereas power was much more responsive. Driving around town on EV only was nice although I'd have to experiment with seeing how much acceleration is permitted before the petrol engine kicks in.

Great to have a proper "get you home" spare tyre. None of thi can of gloop stuff.. Although I was a bit disappointed that the rear seats didn't fold down flat.

Servicing costs of £180 / £330 / £390 seem a bit steep but I take our saab to  specialist rather than a dealership - not that there are any anymore :(  

Getting back in our (very) old saab did feel like getting home to something you knew and trusted. Having said that on the way home I was following a couple of cars up a long and steep hill and I was urging them to speed up as otherwise I would need to snatch a lower gear. I thought that in a hybrid I would even think about that....

The car we drove was the Design edition. I had been thinking that the Icon would meet our needs as I am not that bothered about bigger alloys / privacy glass or cruise control. PReumably these are the only difference with the Icon? The dash looked pretty well put together so I am just checking that the Icon wouldn't have other subtle difference.

Now to try the civic tourer....

 

Mark

 

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Very good test review. I like how you compare the Hybrid to the Saab.

Out of interest, are you looking to buy new or slightly older? The reason I ask is would the new 1.2T version or the older 1.6 valvematic version be considered? Different dashboard to the Hybrid as well as the different engine characteristics.

The Honda Civic will be interesting being a rival to the Auris. Can you add that test and compare to the Auris?

 

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Hi,

First of all I think you are right about the alloys as I have them on my Design model and the part they don't tell you with this choice is it affects MPG (more about that in a minute). The power buttons are pretty much useless in my mind as when you are economy aware you tend to take things easier anyway but when sat on a dual carriageway or motorway when you need to overtake with some purpose there is no power available so you end up running the car in power mode anyway to feel more safe and comfortable.

The Battery equation really only comes into being at low speeds and around town and is perfectly adequate for its intention of providing some level of economy and efficiency. The charging equation is a lesser known specification as they never reach 100% as they run more efficiently around 70% charge rate and also increases their longevity by charging between a range so they are never depleted and never fully charged so this can be a bit confusing to understand from the printed blurb.

Bearing in mind there is no conventional gearbox in play here and no real automatic transmission train, the overall understanding of how Hybrids work gets confusing but on the whole they are well documented elsewhere and are all pretty much the same principle (apart from plug-in electric charging hybrids) Take a look at YouTube!

Where this particular car falls down dramatically is the overall published MPG figures. This is no where near what they should be. If you take a look at the internet you should see a trend of around 80% of published figures (depending on your driving style) My Design TS has published figures of 74.6MPG and an expected return of around 59MPG but in reality I only get an average of 45MPG! Which is diabolical compared with my old Prius that I had at least 55MPG.

Another thing to remember is that in exchange for the 17" alloys on the Design is they take away sat-nav ?? and a must for all Touring Sport editions is parking sensors as the reversing camera is a bit of a chocolate teapot, especially with a build up of road dust and muck!

I know that there are changes afoot in the EU to change these downright lies that are published by all car manufacturers and at least Mitsubishi have come clean on this but selling cars that are supposed to be economical and planet friendly are a drag on anyone's intelligence. My suggestion to you is forget the Auris and go for the new Prius or even dare I say it, another make!

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5 minutes ago, conspicprius said:

Where this particular car falls down dramatically is the overall published MPG figures. This is no where near what they should be. If you take a look at the internet you should see a trend of around 80% of published figures (depending on your driving style).

I know that there are changes afoot in the EU lies that are published by all car manufacturers and at least Mitsubishi have come clean on this but selling cars that are supposed to be economical and planet friendly are a drag on anyone's intelligence. 

Mitsubishi admitted using the wrong fuel consumption tests for four models sold in Japan (two Mitsubishis and two they produce for Nissan) - nothing to do with the EU fuel consumption tests.

The EU fuel consumption test information was never intended to provide information on real world fuel consumption. The EU tests are a laboratory based testing regime that is intended to provide a standardised comparison for one to compare different models.

The disparity between the test information and what owners actually achieve has widened over the years, and there are changes to the testing regime to address this issue.

Vehicle manufacturers who sell within the EU legally have to use the official EU fuel consumption information in place of any other information. Most manufacturers now include the proviso that these figures may not be representative of real world fuel consumption.

For any prospective owner to expect to match fuel consumption figures for a recently introduced model, to those obtained through a laboratory testing regime is extremely naive, and this is a drag on anyone's intelligence.

 

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9 hours ago, conspicprius said:

Where this particular car falls down dramatically is the overall published MPG figures. This is no where near what they should be. If you take a look at the internet you should see a trend of around 80% of published figures (depending on your driving style) My Design TS has published figures of 74.6MPG and an expected return of around 59MPG but in reality I only get an average of 45MPG! Which is diabolical compared with my old Prius that I had at least 55MPG.

 

Honest John's RealMPG suggests 53mpg for the Hybrid Auris TS & 57mpg for a Gen 3 Prius. So possibly your driving style or usage differs from most peoples.

The difference between official EU tests vs real world results has been growing by vehicle generation - you can see it from the results for Fords, Toyotas, Vauxhalls , VWs etc. where ~2000 they would be very close in % terms, ~8 years later they would be middle or low 80s & now in 2016 well into the 70s. I also suspect that hybrids show an even larger disparity between the test regime & real world e.g. the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV at 48% & the Gen 4 Prius at 60%.

Clearly change in the official test is needed.

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Definitely; The mpg figures they get given are now so irrelevant that they are bordering on useless. You can't even compare one car with another with the official figures because on one car the figure might be a bit out whereas on the other car it might be on a different continent for all you know!

On paper most modern cars should equal or beat my 12 year old Yaris D4D but in reality I'm at least a good 5-10mpg up on most of the highest rated modern cars! </smug mode>


 

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Thanks folks for your useful comments. A bit disappointed to read negative comments about the rear parking camera. I thought that was pretty nifty - and potentially handy as my revering leaves a lot to be desired. I totally agree with comments about low profile tyres. Maybe I am ageing before my time (sadly turned 40 this year) but comfort over seat of your pants motoring wins for me every time.

I was really rather impressed with the car but rather like buying a house I feel as though a second viewing is required. Particularly regarding the dash. I have only owned two cars (both saabs) and driven my Mum's yaris so want to make the right decision :). I should also say that my wife doesn't care a jot so really value people's comments - thank you.

BTW my concern with the honda is regarding the characteristics of the engine (As someone mentioned above). I understand that the petrol engine likes to be revved which doesn't really align with the way in which we tend to drive. Nice to have two good, reliable cars to choose between though. 

Mark

 

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Not sure I understand where the negatives about the reversing camera are coming from! As an owner of a 2010 Auris Hybrid and a 2007 Prius, both of which have reversing cameras, they are a million times better than sensors in my experience. Even without washing my car for a good three months or so, the camera is perfectly useable and I can't say I've even noticed any difference with its quality after a car wash.

The camera allows reversing with much greater awareness of what's behind you than any sensor could provide. Slender objects (bollards for example) are usually completely missed unless they happen to be in alignment with one of the sensors, this is never a problem with the camera!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

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That is good to hear. I just scanned this post and it wasn't mentioned here but I have been reading this forum a lot and there was a posting saying that the camera got dirty quickly and want much good.i definitely found the camera useful on the test drive😃.

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20 hours ago, conspicprius said:

Hi,

First of all I think you are right about the alloys as I have them on my Design model and the part they don't tell you with this choice is it affects MPG (more about that in a minute). The power buttons are pretty much useless in my mind as when you are economy aware you tend to take things easier anyway but when sat on a dual carriageway or motorway when you need to overtake with some purpose there is no power available so you end up running the car in power mode anyway to feel more safe and comfortable.

The battery equation really only comes into being at low speeds and around town and is perfectly adequate for its intention of providing some level of economy and efficiency. The charging equation is a lesser known specification as they never reach 100% as they run more efficiently around 70% charge rate and also increases their longevity by charging between a range so they are never depleted and never fully charged so this can be a bit confusing to understand from the printed blurb.

Bearing in mind there is no conventional gearbox in play here and no real automatic transmission train, the overall understanding of how Hybrids work gets confusing but on the whole they are well documented elsewhere and are all pretty much the same principle (apart from plug-in electric charging hybrids) Take a look at YouTube!

Where this particular car falls down dramatically is the overall published MPG figures. This is no where near what they should be. If you take a look at the internet you should see a trend of around 80% of published figures (depending on your driving style) My Design TS has published figures of 74.6MPG and an expected return of around 59MPG but in reality I only get an average of 45MPG! Which is diabolical compared with my old Prius that I had at least 55MPG.

Another thing to remember is that in exchange for the 17" alloys on the Design is they take away sat-nav ?? and a must for all Touring Sport editions is parking sensors as the reversing camera is a bit of a chocolate teapot, especially with a build up of road dust and muck!

I know that there are changes afoot in the EU to change these downright lies that are published by all car manufacturers and at least Mitsubishi have come clean on this but selling cars that are supposed to be economical and planet friendly are a drag on anyone's intelligence. My suggestion to you is forget the Auris and go for the new Prius or even dare I say it, another make!

 

I live in Athens Greece and I own a new Auris HSD TS (build 04/2016). Until now I have driven 2000km (1500km in heavy traffic and 500km on motorway). The real consumption with normal mode and a/c always on (in Greece this is mandatory :) ) is 63mpg in traffic and 50mpg in motorway (140km/h fixed by cruise control and a/c on - 3 adults with their staff in the back).

So overall I think that the most "real" consumption I can understand is cross 55-60mpg.

P.S. Just to mention that I don't drive slow whatsoever. One day I tried to drive slow and you can easily get 65+mpg... but this will require not to hurry and this cannot by the case Athens/Greece!!

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