auris touring sports hybrid - improving mpg

[jonb87]

Got my new (ish) auris touring sports hybrid, business edition, in January 2017 - 4 months old, 2.5K on the clock, ex lease.

Things I really like:

• superb transmission engineering resulting in barely noticeable transitions between electric motor and petrol engine.
• quietness with or without petrol engine running
• mpg - now we're learning how to drive it (see below)
• fairly smooth ride

Things not quite so good:

• visibility (particularly rear view) compared to our previous focus estate
• smaller inside compared to the focus estate
• irritating bleeps from the lane crossing system if you dare to cross while lines without indicating
• very irritating collision avoidance disabled warnings. This has been discussed a lot here - basically the TSS laser system is very susceptible to misting up in cold weather, and the software associated with this is badly designed. If the system gets disabled automatically, then fair enough (I suppose). If I then accept this via the steering wheel button, then the warning light should go off - I, the human in charge, know about the problem and the machine should stop warning me. But it continues to flash the warning light, producing the very opposite of a safety system - it is now a serious distraction system. Extremely poor human interface design here. If I disable it completely via the button on the dash it still flashes amber at me! That is terrible!
  So, as soon as toyota have a decent fix for this poor design in place, I will be testing the 5 year warranty system and getting this design defect fixed (for free). If anyone has any experience of the right way of going about this I'd appreciate help on the process.

Getting good fuel economy with the hybrid:

• My first four tanks of fuel have improved, showing brim-brim mpgs of 50, 56, 56, 60.
• 60mpg is probably about as good as can be expected based on "honest john" real mpg numbers here.
• I find the mpg calculator for a trip reads 6-7% optimistic which is a bit disappointing. I can understand it's pretty error prone calculating consumption on the fly, but they've erred on the side of marketing hype. As a driver I'd prefer it to read pessimistic rather than optimistic. When I Shell out hard cash at the pumps and find I'm getting much worse than expected, I am disappointed!
• Here's the driving method I've learned (forget reading the rather bland and useless guides on the toyota blog etc):

1. use cruise control. The control system way out-performs me. On motorway driving, A-roads, even long 40mph stretches, this is the best means of getting good mpg (and avoiding speeding tickets  )
2. Accelerate up to speed at a reasonable rate using the petrol engine - don't bother trying to accelerate on the electric motor only - it's too under-powered and you'll use the Battery up and fail to accelerate anyway. Once you're up to speed, take your right foot off momentarily and then reapply to get it on electric (if under 50mph). By keeping half an eye on the "Hybrid system Indicator" (left of the speedo) keep the needle below the half way point in the "Eco" area. Don't get too anal about this, but this keeps you in EV mode and maintains speed pretty well. I also tend to drive with the "Drive Information" display (next to the speedo) showing current fuel consumption.
3. Use Eco mode all the time. OK, the accelerator doesn't really do anything till you hit the floor, but it does seem to deliver mpg. Again, use power mode when you need to on busy roundabouts etc - periods of petrol engine acceleration are just fine, and pretty efficient at getting up to speed.

All in all I really like driving this car - the fundamentals (engines, transmission) seem fantastically well engineered.

The bells and whistles with the business edition and irritating alarms and TSS warnings are pretty awful though. I never really considered them when making the purchase. It's a shame they're such a detraction, since the electronics industry is extremely mature nowadays, and there's little excuse for this level of poor design letting down the excellent car underneath.

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Hello Jon - welcome to Toyota Owners Club.