Just bought an Auris!

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Yea - I know the ROI get shafted by an extra tax, the VRT, when buying new or importing cars, but didn't think that was an NI thing too! People are trying to get them to abolish it as it's hit the car market hard there, raising the cost well out of reach of most normal people (14 to 30-something% extra!!).

As for diesel, I always felt the japanese companies did't like diesel but just did it because of its popularity in Europe due to government incentives. Toyota bailed out long before dieselgate and have been trying to go all-in on hybrids (Unfortunately got shafted by the EV cutoff date being moved back 10 years), and it made sense to leverage their partnership with BMW (I still think BMW got the better deal! Getting access to hybrid tech for their diesel tech...), but dieselgate and the sharp decline in diesel purchases has let them cut out their diesel passenger lines completely and focus on hybrids as they've always wanted.

It's a shame, as IMHO the diesel cycle is superior in every way, apart from emissions; The worst thing is there are already inventions that mitigate it that don't require stupid things like AdBlue (Mainly air-blast injection and ducted injection, which both virtually eliminate soot and allow use of a petrol-style 3-way cat to remove NOx), but thanks to VW diesel has become a poison pill and everybody is dropping it like a hot potato.

It helps that the new generation of Toyota hybrids have finally caught up to diesel-levels of efficiency tho'!

So far the 1.2T has been bucking the reliability (Or lack thereof) trend for a small turbocharged petrol engine - As usual Toyota were late to the party so they learned from everyone else's mistakes and made it a bit more reliable; It does suffer from carbon buildup on the valves due to only having direct injection, but as long as you keep a lid on that it should be as reliable as any Toyota engine!

 

I see a lot of reference to VRT on car ads at local dealers / UsedCarsNI and autoTrader here but never looked into it. I'm surprised they import our UK / NI cars down there as much as they do, given that they'd be driving with mph instrument clusters in a KM world across the border. It was a bit of a nightmare on the DS3. I hope the Auris is handy to switch the central LCD screen to KM for driving down south as I'd be across often enough these days. The CLA I had for a couple of months was handy as it showed KM cleatly on a huge digital instruent cluster display so I'll be over the moon if the Auris can do the same 🙂

I can't recall, but who all lied with the diesel scandal, I remember VW of course, and I heard Fiat at the time were involved... who else / how big was it all? I remember getting a marketing email form Ford at the time, saying something along the lines of 'you can trust our diesel engines' so I believe they'd have kept their mouth shut if they were remotely involved in it! lol 

The DS3 I had with the 120 BlueHDI engine claimed to eliminate 99% of the harmful fumes (not sure if harmful to humans in a lung way or the planet in a bigger way or both) which I thought was an interesting claim. It needed AdBlue which I never had to top up in the year and a half I had it (and 17,000 miles). Come to think of it, the dealership I bought it from probably had it deleted / removed...  Allegedly, the only known issues of that engine were the AdBlue injectors failing or the fluid crystalising. I think that's the same 1.6 "1.5" diesel in the Focus with 118hp too.

Glad to hear Toyota did a stellar job on the 1.2T. Should I get the Auris I bought and it turn out to be a lemon for any reason, I'll be exchanging it for one of the other 5-6 Auris in stock at that dealership (one of the reasons I'm opting for the car I am, at the price I am) and they'll all be 1.2T's so it remains a possibility for me as a backup choice.  Other companies like Fiat have backtracked on their small petrol turbos (the TwinAir) with newer engines replacing them entirely but it's been a while since I was following that world so I'm not sure what they changed, but they seemingly admitted defeat over the original 'future' engine plans they came up with about a decade ago. I'm hearing horror stories from Ecoboost owners now too who have reached 5-6 years into ownership.. 😞

[Cyker]

It did make some sense tho' - I had a Mk1 Yaris D4D and it was definitely the best Mk1; More economical than the 1.0 petrol and much more powerful than the 1.3. It was a car you could literally have your cake and eat it! I know of no other car that could thrash 600 miles on 40L of fuel, or 800 (!) if you really hypermiled it (My all-time record thanks to a run of airport-taxiing many relatives and lots and lots of 50mph roadworks zones!)

And even with the higher diesel prices (Now they're almost neck and neck, but back then it would be 6-10p more expensive!) it was still vastly cheaper on fuel than even 1.0L petrol car, and unlike 1.0L petrol cars it had grunt!

Having 170Nm of torque at 1800rpm in a car that weighed less than a ton never got old  

The Mk4 is great - 4-500 miles on 26-30L is equally ridiculous, but the Mk1 D4D will always be fondly remembered... I'd still have it now if it wasn't for our idiot mayor of london, who seems hell-bent on driving everyone out of London...!

 

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Stopeter44 said:

It also depends on how diesel is taxed vis à vis petrol. In France, it's cheaper than petrol, for historical reasons, and any attempt to change the status quo is met by furious demonstrations (cf. Hiviz jacket demonstrations of 2018/2019), people are prepared to die to keep diesel cheaper than petrol over here ! Some people around here needed the cheapest personal transport they can find, and that means old Renault DCI 1.5 or PSA 1.6 HDI.

Mea Culpa, I bought a Clio III 1.5 dci in preference to a petrol automatic, I was doing 20k km pa at the time, because of the price difference with the fuel, and the better fuel economy? I didn't figure in the higher maintenance cost though. (Ultimately that car didn't cost me anything because of the expenses allowance I could claim for it).

I have to admit, I think the French make the best diesels. I had a lot of issue with my DS3, but the engine probably would have long outlasted the car itself. Great machine and gearbox though. It seems PSA invested heavily in their diesel designs in the last decades and it shows.  There were many horror stories from the petrol PureTech engines in the DS3 and 208 community. Even the non turbo lower end ones. In fact, my mother has a 2015 208 bought in 2018 and it has been leaking oil since day one and it is a 1.0 very low pressure engine 3 cylinder. I feel like PSA did not care about the petrols and only offered it as an option for countries where it was the status quo / cheaper as it was in the UK all the years when diesels were 'the good engine choice'.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Cyker said:

It did make some sense tho' - I had a Mk1 Yaris D4D and it was definitely the best Mk1; More economical than the 1.0 petrol and much more powerful than the 1.3. It was a car you could literally have your cake and eat it! I know of no other car that could thrash 600 miles on 40L of fuel, or 800 (!) if you really hypermiled it (My all-time record thanks to a run of airport-taxiing many relatives and lots and lots of 50mph roadworks zones!)

And even with the higher diesel prices (Now they're almost neck and neck, but back then it would be 6-10p more expensive!) it was still vastly cheaper on fuel than even 1.0L petrol car, and unlike 1.0L petrol cars it had grunt!

Having 170Nm of torque at 1800rpm in a car that weighed less than a ton never got old  

The Mk4 is great - 4-500 miles on 26-30L is equally ridiculous, but the Mk1 D4D will always be fondly remembered... I'd still have it now if it wasn't for our idiot mayor of london, who seems hell-bent on driving everyone out of London...!

 

My relatives who had the Yaris bought it new in 2013 because of how impressed they were with one of the first Yaris's which held on a long time and had an insane mileage (it was a basic petrol one) but of course, futuristic for its time.  I'm so disappointed it was written off this year (rear-end low speed incident). Over the 8 years they had it, not a single issue. Servicing and brakes. That was it. A DPF issue was sorted by the dealer at one point.  In that period, we'd have people around us buy new DS3's and then in the second year end up with bearings, resistors needing replacing and all sorts of similar issues. The D4D 2013 Yaris never missed a beat, it was at 130,000 this year and had a pretty non stop life.

Now that you say it, I can imagine a 1.4 diesel in a small car being quite the experience!  The 1.6 BlueHDI in my DS3 was a pretty fun experience with the power to weight.. compared to my Fiat Panda's anyway!

[Cyker]

Yeah, most people look to the germans for diesel engines but the french ones are very underrated. The rest of the car would fall apart, but the engines were usually pretty robust and efficient. Definitely much more refined than the japanese ones!  

It helps that the turbos in diesel engines are under a lot less stress than in petrol, which is why you have all sorts of fancy tech like variable geometry turbos in diesel engines, which are impossible to do in petrol engines without very expensive ceramics. (AFAIK the only variable geometry turbo in petrol cars was on a porsche!)

[Stopeter44]

22 minutes ago, SB1500 said:

There were many horror stories from the petrol PureTech engines in the DS3 and 208 community. Even the non turbo lower end ones.

Mine (110bhp turbo) was fine, didn't leak and had no issues with it, mine was a rare 208 built in France, maybe they were more careful with those, but it had just 70k km when I sold it.

[Cyker]

More likely you weren't hooning around like a maniac enough in it!  

 

[TonyHSD]

If the car turns to be a lemon,  just think about a hybrid if you are still about Toyota and if you are after a diesel think about Peugeot or Citroen, they make a good small 1.4-2.0 Diesel engines. My colleague drives only Peugeots , last one he changed was 207 59 plate 1.4 d done 460000 miles, the car still in use as learner car to his friend’s daughter. , the car came out of service with many original major components like turbo, exhaust, some suspension parts, he is a careful driver though. 👌

[Guest]

On 12/30/2021 at 12:01 PM, Stopeter44 said:

Mine (110bhp turbo) was fine, didn't leak and had no issues with it, mine was a rare 208 built in France, maybe they were more careful with those, but it had just 70k km when I sold it.

Perhaps whoever owned my mums for the first 3 years abused it?  Or maybe just bad luck. But it did put me off the PureTechs along with the people on the DS3 FB pages with the 110, 130 engines. Their THP 1.6 turbos 165hp and 210hp in the performance models (BMW Mini engine funnily enough) also seemingly was made out of chocolate from the stories I heard 😕  But MUCH more troublesome than the people having issues with the PureTech. 

[Guest]

On 12/30/2021 at 12:57 PM, TonyHSD said:

If the car turns to be a lemon,  just think about a hybrid if you are still about Toyota and if you are after a diesel think about Peugeot or Citroen, they make a good small 1.4-2.0 Diesel engines. My colleague drives only Peugeots , last one he changed was 207 59 plate 1.4 d done 460000 miles, the car still in use as learner car to his friend’s daughter. , the car came out of service with many original major components like turbo, exhaust, some suspension parts, he is a careful driver though. 👌

I'd love to buy a Hybrid, but they add a few grand to the used value. Certainly in NI and certainly now with the chip shortage used car price bubble. 

I enjoyed the 1.6 BlueHDI in my DS3, but I don't think I would buy a PSA car again. The engine was bulletproof but as discussed I'd say it'd outlast the cars body and other components by lightyears 😞  The corroding alloys, rusting wing mirrors and things like the bumper mounts being prone to breaking every 3 years, things like that are why I'm coming to Toyota for the first time. 

I hope Toyota did their homework and calculations right before going to BMW for the 1.6 'D4D'. And that the only reason it's gone now reflects Europe's push away from diesel at large rather than any trouble being quietly swept under the carpet from peoples experience with them....

[Guest]

Here are the photos of the car (from the dealership). Unfortunately not the best quality, will post my own when I get it 🙂

[TonyHSD]

The car looks very good inside out. 🚙👌

[Catlover]

Nice colour, I like that.

you mentioned earlier in response to Tony saying if this is a lemon see if you can get a hybrid, and you responded by saying you pay more for a hybrid. True, the initial list price is higher, mainly because apart from a petrol engine it also has hybrid engineering adding to cost. But you know some cars with high list price loose a lot of money in the first year. Toyota hybrids hold value better, so for sure you pay more for a good used hybrid then just a good petrol car, however it holds its price better, so when you come to sell you will find you get more back for a Toyota hybrid then a pure petrol car.so don’t just make a judgement on purchase price.

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, Catlover said:

Nice colour, I like that.

you mentioned earlier in response to Tony saying if this is a lemon see if you can get a hybrid, and you responded by saying you pay more for a hybrid. True, the initial list price is higher, mainly because apart from a petrol engine it also has hybrid engineering adding to cost. But you know some cars with high list price loose a lot of money in the first year. Toyota hybrids hold value better, so for sure you pay more for a good used hybrid then just a good petrol car, however it holds its price better, so when you come to sell you will find you get more back for a Toyota hybrid then a pure petrol car.so don’t just make a judgement on purchase price.

If I wasn't saving for a house deposit at the same time (and trying to really get that maximum £1,000 bonus for every £4,000 I put in per tax year) as well as paying finance for the car, I'd definitely go for that as a smarter investment as I get what you're saying.  

I hope this Auris lasts me another ten years from now and by then, that Hybrids are still around and more efficient than ever from Toyota to move on to next. Not fussed on electric how it stands today (maybe by then will be different, we'll see if Toyota makes many of em, that'll be my indicator on whether they're going somewhere).  Definitely onboard with the Hybrid thing 🙂

I'm sure that if I were to sell the diesel I'm buying it'll be worth less than in the past (probably spectacularly so) in the coming years.  Though I'll try to enjoy owning it as much as possible as it might well be my last ever ICU only car, something we have to explain to the young folks some day .. though today, I'm 25 so that's a long way off! lol

[Catlover]

Ah, your just a young wippersnapper Shene. I wish you well I saving for your house deposit. I remember when we got married in 1970 we were moving into a brand new semi detached. For sure we had to have a mortgage, but the new price (£3250) is less then what you trying to save in a tax year.!
 

I am like you, looking with interest where EV vehicle market goes. At the moment I despair. During that storm about 3 weeks ago we were without electricity for a whole 3 days, Friday evening till Monday evening. We went to bed Friday evening with residual heat from the day. It was a cold miserable Saturday relying just on 4 gas ring hob for heating. Saturday evening/night was horrendously cold and really miserable. Fortunately Sunday we managed to get some freezer space at my brothers (managed to save 50% of fridge/freezer food), and some friends put us up Sunday night so we had not food and a warm bed. Monday night we had the bed offer again but y 9pm we were back home. The news was saying there were still thousands for the rest of the week without electricity - it must have been terrible for them. Yesterday evening, around 5:15pm, for an hour, the electric supply in our area was on/off at least 15 times, some only 10 seconds off, others as long as 90 seconds.            
My point is, if we cannot have a reliable source of electricity now, how on earth will we cope in the future, especially as new houses In the future are not going to have gas (so we are told). and when a power supply does go down it must be up and running again quicker then it was a few weeks ago.

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, Catlover said:

Ah, your just a young wippersnapper Shene. I wish you well I saving for your house deposit. I remember when we got married in 1970 we were moving into a brand new semi detached. For sure we had to have a mortgage, but the new price (£3250) is less then what you trying to save in a tax year.!
 

I am like you, looking with interest where EV vehicle market goes. At the moment I despair. During that storm about 3 weeks ago we were without electricity for a whole 3 days, Friday evening till Monday evening. We went to bed Friday evening with residual heat from the day. It was a cold miserable Saturday relying just on 4 gas ring hob for heating. Saturday evening/night was horrendously cold and really miserable. Fortunately Sunday we managed to get some freezer space at my brothers (managed to save 50% of fridge/freezer food), and some friends put us up Sunday night so we had not food and a warm bed. Monday night we had the bed offer again but y 9pm we were back home. The news was saying there were still thousands for the rest of the week without electricity - it must have been terrible for them. Yesterday evening, around 5:15pm, for an hour, the electric supply in our area was on/off at least 15 times, some only 10 seconds off, others as long as 90 seconds.            
My point is, if we cannot have a reliable source of electricity now, how on earth will we cope in the future, especially as new houses In the future are not going to have gas (so we are told). and when a power supply does go down it must be up and running again quicker then it was a few weeks ago.

You're 100% right.  Electricity in this country and climate (where it's relatively cold a lot of the year) isn't suitable with how batteries work. People seem to forget that we don't use ICE and fossil fuels in vain... The amount of good for people, animals and the planet we've achieved burning fuel to make it possible far outweighs the cons list.  I picture people in ROI beside us in County Donegal, where there is one town (not even a city really) and most of the land is baron / spaced out. Or our friends in the Scottish Highlands in the most remote rural areas, what good are electric cars to them? Range and charging etc just isn't practical, double todays figures and half the charging times and that still wouldn't help them out much. 

It's unfortunately a political bragging point at the minute leading to all sorts of legislation. Well, it's a tad before my time, but look how diesel went and that wasn't the answer. It so obviously just diverts the fossil fuel burning from in our engines to the power station fuelling our part of the country. Plus, it makes no improvement to raw metals, oils used in lubrication and other parts of cars that are 'bad'. Unfortunately, just like with diesels - when the manufacturers figured out how to make them efficient and fast / powerful - electric cars deliver one hell of an experience with the silence and instant power. However, range anxiety and your first dead Battery on the M6 on a summers day... I think that'll outweigh it for most people. Our brains are more sensitive to losing £5 versus finding £5, we'll see how it goes lol 

Toyota (and in general, the Japanese attitude) is right. Maximise the return on every drop of fuel used, a Hybrid does that with the lest compromise. I was kind of disappointed to see their announcement for an all-electric vehicle. I think they are preparing for the situation where the EU or UK government (air headed politicians from any/all sides) legislate that "10% of all manufacturers range MUST be full EVs" - didn't they do something like that in the last 15 years? I remember reading that's why Land Rover built a bunch of 2 wheel drive lower power options in the Evoque and Freelander 2 at the time.

I was also reading the other day that a large group of climate scientists (from actual reputable universities and not editors at news outlets) are assessing whether the increased CO2 in the planet in recent decades have actually helped our rainforests and other parts of ecosystems that thrive on CO2.  The science is always evolving, that's why personally, I think at any point in time going 'all out' in the likes of wind power... electric cars... etc, is a bad move. A billion pounds spent today won't give the same return or result as a billion invested in ten years.  I think the trajectory towards EVs is a little too fast for something that might or might not solve the problem. 

Woah, I'm jealous of how cheap houses were back then! But I suppose that was a harder sum of money to accumulate then compared to now. I'm saving £4,800 per year of my pay and sometimes that leaves me tight.

My budget for the Auris was £11,000.  My maximum stretch would have been £14,000 but I'd have felt that each month. Having had a £34,000 2021 Mercedes CLA220 - one of the most immersive / cutting edge experiences inside, and pretty advanced compared to the cars I've owned - for 8 weeks, I have to admit, one month in, once I'd shown everybody, the novelty wore off.  So I'm sure it'd have well wore off anything I could have bought leaving me regretting stretching my budget.  I think the Auris was a smart move. When the novelty wears off, and I'm still paying for it in 4.5 years time,  at least it'll be holding up well (I hope, being a Toyota) and practical enough to cater for what might come next in life - compared to the very pretty, very fun to drive, but totally impractical 3-door rough to drive DS3 which at 4 years old, was already seemingly falling apart.  I hope I'm making the right move. 

I am so, so excited for Monday to roll around to call up the dealership and find out how fast they'll get it serviced, cleaned up and delivered up to me 🙂 Hoping by the 5th otherwise I might have to ask for money off or threaten to walk away in favour of some made up other Auris for sale in NI ready to go faster 😉 

[Guest]

Hey people. For anyone following this, I've been doing my homework on the BMW 1.6 D4-D engine in the Auris. 

I'm getting a little worried, actually. Many of the instructions say things like "All Toyota engines use XYZ antifreeze - Note, Excludes 1WW engine". There was also a clause about how "1WW Engine only - drain water from fuel filter procedure". 

This BMW engine seems to be pretty picky compared to the Toyota engines (even the petrols and diesels which Toyota manage to keep as similar as possible in maintaining where possible). 

Am I reading too much into this? Or am I about to sign for a lemon car that might look like a Toyota, drive like a Toyota and feel like a Toyota but NOT live up to the one single most important Toyota principle: reliability? 

Any 1.6 D4-D owners - Auris, Avensis, Verso or otherwise, if you're reading this can you either confirm that it's a lemon or confirm that I'm reading too much into it? lol 

[TonyHSD]

59 minutes ago, SB1500 said:

Hey people. For anyone following this, I've been doing my homework on the BMW 1.6 D4-D engine in the Auris. 

I'm getting a little worried, actually. Many of the instructions say things like "All Toyota engines use XYZ antifreeze - Note, Excludes 1WW engine". There was also a clause about how "1WW Engine only - drain water from fuel filter procedure". 

This BMW engine seems to be pretty picky compared to the Toyota engines (even the petrols and diesels which Toyota manage to keep as similar as possible in maintaining where possible). 

Am I reading too much into this? Or am I about to sign for a lemon car that might look like a Toyota, drive like a Toyota and feel like a Toyota but NOT live up to the one single most important Toyota principle: reliability? 

Any 1.6 D4-D owners - Auris, Avensis, Verso or otherwise, if you're reading this can you either confirm that it's a lemon or confirm that I'm reading too much into it? lol 

The thing is that you wouldn’t have know if it’s a lemon before you have the car delivered and tested and perhaps live with it for some time. Any car can turn to be a lemon , even a brand new Toyota with hybrid engine., it’s all just a luck imo. 👍

[Cyker]

It will be slightly different to 'normal' Toyota procedures as it is a BMW engine, so the maintenance will be more BMW than Toyota.

It's not a BMW turbo-petrol, which are the ones that always seem to have turbo failures, so you'll probably be okay - Most modern diesel engines are a lot more robust than petrol engines because they have to be built stronger and to a higher standard, esp. because of all the emissions control junk shoehorned onto them, which is why they cost more to make. Germans do tend to over-complicate their engines which is why they've lost their rep for reliability, as stupid little ancillary things are what normally fail, but the engine itself will be pretty robust.

As long as you change the oil on schedule and use it regularly on proper dieselly journeys (i.e. don't drive it short distances all the time - This is a death sentence for modern DPF-equipped diesels) it should last just fine.

The only reason I ain't driving a diesel any more is purely down to greedy scumbags like the idiot London Mayor Sadiq Khan trying to shaft drivers out of more money under the pretence of pollution.

 

[Guest]

19 hours ago, Cyker said:

It will be slightly different to 'normal' Toyota procedures as it is a BMW engine, so the maintenance will be more BMW than Toyota.

It's not a BMW turbo-petrol, which are the ones that always seem to have turbo failures, so you'll probably be okay - Most modern diesel engines are a lot more robust than petrol engines because they have to be built stronger and to a higher standard, esp. because of all the emissions control junk shoehorned onto them, which is why they cost more to make. Germans do tend to over-complicate their engines which is why they've lost their rep for reliability, as stupid little ancillary things are what normally fail, but the engine itself will be pretty robust.

As long as you change the oil on schedule and use it regularly on proper dieselly journeys (i.e. don't drive it short distances all the time - This is a death sentence for modern DPF-equipped diesels) it should last just fine.

The only reason I ain't driving a diesel any more is purely down to greedy scumbags like the idiot London Mayor Sadiq Khan trying to shaft drivers out of more money under the pretence of pollution.

 

Okay, that's reassuring. I used to change the oil every 6 months or 9,000 miles in my Fiat's and DS3. The funny thing about the Fiats were the oil would just go from gold to dark brown after 6 months (and at least 7,000 miles) those little petrols are so clean / perfected since they've been produced and just lightly modified since the 80s.  The DS3, being a diesel, within a few days you'd pretty much have dark-as-night oil - which wasn't a bad thing, but funny difference. I'll definitely change the oil on the Toyota/BMW engine every 9,000 then! Maybe once a year though, I'm aware 6 months is a little excessive. I'm not a tree-hugger, but certainly wouldn't want to waste oil all the same. 

I watch a guy called Scotty Kilmer on YouTube - is he popular on this forum? He never stops praising Toyota's quality. And I don't think he's too far wrong on it. Him and people in my family with Toyota's are why I'm so sold on them. He also points out the silly / cost saving designs and plastic injectors on BMWs seem to come up a lot!  

I suppose what we said about the DS3 and the PSA cars probably applies. I mean, they're not overly reliable but their diesels are bulletproof. Hoping the Germans, who just like the French, were about as big into the R&D for diesels as anyone in the world. Hope it works to my advantage. I notice the 1.6 D4-D Toyota's including the Auris tend to sell for less... even slightly less than some 1.2Ts. Usually the diesels come in at a premium, unless that's a result of the push away from diesel. Or maybe the Toyota dealers know they need to shift them with a lower price. 

Agreed on Sadiq Khan... not a big fan. Nothing he does affects me, but I see him on the TV a lot and it's hard to see the point in anything he says. 

 

20 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

The thing is that you wouldn’t have know if it’s a lemon before you have the car delivered and tested and perhaps live with it for some time. Any car can turn to be a lemon , even a brand new Toyota with hybrid engine., it’s all just a luck imo. 👍

That's true. Well, I've got the 30 day thing Toyota offer and they have plenty of 1.2Ts in stock around the same price. I notice the 30 day exchange has a 500 mile limit before you've driven it too much for them to take back. That's fair enough, but I bet a few people planning to really test the things in the first month have been caught out by it!  

You're right though, who knows. I know the first night I get it I'll be taking it to my uncles garage, lifting it up and having a proper good look at all the joints, seals and rubber bits and looking for damp spots. The hard bit though will be deciding, if I find something, whether it's something worth letting them fix or rejecting it for another Toyota down there. 

 

[Cyker]

I wouldn't mind either way but so far the man's been a gigantic hypocrite and all his half-baked wishy-washy schemes just haven't been thought through properly, and when they go wrong we're the ones that pay for it. He seemingly doesn't care how much harm his schemes are doing to London's economy and wellbeing, as long as he gets more money from fines. The fact that Boris, of all people, was a better mayor than him, just says it all really.

Diesels are actually much more tolerant of slightly lazy oil changes than petrol - Petrol is a solvent and damages the oil, but diesel is also an oil and even the soot particles act as a carbon lubricant like graphite - Another reason why diesel engines tend to wear much better and have a longer life.

That said the oil still needs to be changed regularly as, like with petrols, the exhaust gas from the EGR and blowby makes the oil increasingly acidic, and motor oils only hold a limited amount of neutralizing additives to stop that happening.

With Toyota engines, regular oil changes it the key to long life, and I suspect the same will be true of the BMW engine.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on - I really miss my old manual diesels, although the Mk4 is surprisingly awesome too. Not many people got the 1.6, partly because of the BMW stigma (Hardcore Toyota people tend to avoid anything with a hint of non-Toyotaryness!  ) but also as they just caught the beginning of the diesel decline what with dieselgate and city centres penalizing diesel owners.

That's partly why they are so cheap now - We've all been trying to tell as many people about the ULEZ extension as possible since KHAAAN! tried to hide it and just did the minimum possible so that people couldn't outright say he'd deliberately kept it quiet - so people in London have been selling off their diesels in droves and even with the high demand for second hand cars, it's swamped the second-hand market with diesels while greatly increasing demand on petrol cars which has brought them much closer in price than ever before.

Stupid really because all it's doing is increase the CO2 levels in London as people switch from lower CO2 diesels to much higher CO2 petrols. And of course busses and older taxis are exempt, despite being responsible for a huge percentage of the emissions he's supposedly trying to combat.

 

[Guest]

23 hours ago, Cyker said:

I wouldn't mind either way but so far the man's been a gigantic hypocrite and all his half-baked wishy-washy schemes just haven't been thought through properly, and when they go wrong we're the ones that pay for it. He seemingly doesn't care how much harm his schemes are doing to London's economy and wellbeing, as long as he gets more money from fines. The fact that Boris, of all people, was a better mayor than him, just says it all really.

Diesels are actually much more tolerant of slightly lazy oil changes than petrol - Petrol is a solvent and damages the oil, but diesel is also an oil and even the soot particles act as a carbon lubricant like graphite - Another reason why diesel engines tend to wear much better and have a longer life.

That said the oil still needs to be changed regularly as, like with petrols, the exhaust gas from the EGR and blowby makes the oil increasingly acidic, and motor oils only hold a limited amount of neutralizing additives to stop that happening.

With Toyota engines, regular oil changes it the key to long life, and I suspect the same will be true of the BMW engine.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on - I really miss my old manual diesels, although the Mk4 is surprisingly awesome too. Not many people got the 1.6, partly because of the BMW stigma (Hardcore Toyota people tend to avoid anything with a hint of non-Toyotaryness!  ) but also as they just caught the beginning of the diesel decline what with dieselgate and city centres penalizing diesel owners.

That's partly why they are so cheap now - We've all been trying to tell as many people about the ULEZ extension as possible since KHAAAN! tried to hide it and just did the minimum possible so that people couldn't outright say he'd deliberately kept it quiet - so people in London have been selling off their diesels in droves and even with the high demand for second hand cars, it's swamped the second-hand market with diesels while greatly increasing demand on petrol cars which has brought them much closer in price than ever before.

Stupid really because all it's doing is increase the CO2 levels in London as people switch from lower CO2 diesels to much higher CO2 petrols. And of course busses and older taxis are exempt, despite being responsible for a huge percentage of the emissions he's supposedly trying to combat.

 

Yeah, politicians are too short-term focussed alright. Just like the EU Euro emissions standards, I get the idea and it's a good idea. But in practice it led to many car buyers buying diesels that produced more than they said.. OR tiny petrols that sh*t themselves early on meaning an entire new car is likely!  Versus, what I think in hindsight would have been better, just continuously improving the technology we had without premature deadlines.  Then again... I suppose big car makers might not have taken it seriously had they not had difficult goals to reach so I don't know.  If the DS3's engine, the BlueHDI 120 truly lives up to its 99% removal of harmful emissions, and doesn't suffer from massive DPF issues then I'd nearly go as far to say they've done it, made a very efficient and relatively clean diesel. So what's the issue with that?!  But it's too late, consumer confidence is gone.   As for the tiny petrols with big turbo's, I'm not sure... though from what you guys have told me, Toyota has managed to do that. Though on the petrol side, the hybrid technology would be a perfectly adequate way of increasingly smaller petrol power plants with increasingly better batteries. Way less of the compromises of electric - but nobody who has experienced electric wants to go back to ICE, let alone a hybrid. Which I think is great, but I'm not one for 'performance' cars or feel. 

[Guest]

Bit of a plot twist on the Toyota Auris sale...

So today the dealership re-opened. Over the last week and a bit, I discovered a few things...

- The car didn't have Toyota Safety Sense (my fault for reading a 2017 brochure saying it was standard) but still less spec than I thought I was getting

- I did one of those Parkers price valuations (the one where you pay a fiver) and used the reg of the car, mileage and metallic paint cost on it. The price they recommended was £9,056 from a franchised dealer. I was paying £11,000 for it!  That opened my eyes a bit. 

- I did a background check on the very car. It was for sale on 02/10/2021 for £8,800 (assumably in mainland UK) and again, me paying £11,000 seemed extortionate.

- It was missing a service from 2019, no service logged or stamped but 8,000 miles done that year... again, for the main-dealer-tax you'd expect nothing less than a full service history, they'd certainly talk you down as a seller without a stamp

- 2 previous owners (not a deal breaker, but 1 would be ideal, right?)

 

Spoke to the dealer. Mentioned most of those, he insisted that the Parkers price guide is for 'trade only' - though it isn't, the site literally says it's a guide for consumers buying a car. He wouldn't budge on the price at all, he said he was still gathering the info on the service history. I asked him how soon it could be ready, hoping tomorrow / Wednesday. He hesitated to give a date but then said end of this week *hopefully* or maybe early next week. We'd discussed it being ready this week for definite before Christmas...  I got the vibe (even before Christmas) that the guy wasn't that bothered or enthusiastic about selling the car to be honest. He wasn't willing to come down on the price for any of the things above or to keep me onboard with it taking longer to prepare... so I just thought screw it, seen a lot of other decent cars for sale in the interim. Wasn't about to be shafted by a car dealer. No more Auris.

Dealers have this 'if you don't buy it, somebody else will' attitude in my experience since 2019. I'd nearly be concerned at this rate if a dealer did seem desperate to get rid of a car to me lol It's nothing really like I thought. I'm bold enough to do the negotiating (and trust me, not coming across as overly demanding or rude at all).

 

What now?

Went out today. Test drove a different Auris (Design, 2016, £9.5k). That particular Auris wasn't great, a bit of a mess (stained fabrics, even the headliner and a smell of damp). But the car itself, interior, way it drove, was really nice. No heated seats though, no TSS, but still a 2016 car and a solid £1,500 less. But it wasn't in a great shape. I got a bad vibe from it. 

I test drove a 2014 A-Class I was interested in which had heated seats, but nothing else - no cruise control, no fog lights even! I saw a few for around 11-12k usually 2015 but basic model, pre-facelift for sale. Having had the CLA I was a tad interested. But it was too old, not in great shape and really spubik. I think I'd have gotten fed up with how basic it is, and then, it was an old car. Dash had a few dents, alloys corroded and repaired poorly, rear door speaker had a hole in it, suppose normal enough for a nearly 8 year old car. But it wasn't worth all that just for the Badge. I will say it drove fantastically and was probably the best   manual gearbox I've ever used though! 

 

What did I buy?

They had a 2018 (68) plate Avensis. Business Edition. 54,000 miles. Silver. £12,300. Managed to get him down to £12,000 for that. Took it for a drive. Neat, clean and modern enough dash. Loads of space - more than the Auris. Smoother, bigger.  Same D4-D engine 1.6 so not as fast, but on the test drive it was fast enough. Unlike the DS3, I think it'd encourage more safe / sensible driving which can only do me good. It has Toyota Safety Sense and dual zone climate control and the auto dimming mirror (something I noticed a few days ago was missing from the Auris B.E. and auto wipers too). It still has Toyota warranty until some time in 2023 which can't be bad!  He said he'd have that car ready by Friday. Going without a car since 24th December shouldn't be as hard as it has felt, first world problems though.

I think I'll start a similar thread on the Avensis section with the details / link / photos. Got some of my own photos too this time. Hopefully some of you folks can be found there too, unless you're Auris only people. But I've enjoyed all the chat so far and hope to keep being an active part of the community 🙂

[Cyker]

Yikes, good job on the due diligence!

Yeah, dealers seem to have much less wiggle-room on used cars compared to the sometimes stupid discounts you can get on new ones if you push enough, but even so if the description was that wrong and they still wanted the same cost, sometimes it's just better to walk away.

TBH it is just not a great time to buy a car still as the price gouging is still happening. It's insane how much some people will pay over the odds for a car - That's what happens when you don't do your research!

Good luck with the Avensis - They're really nice cars too and the interior quality is a step up from the Auris. Never understood why they killed off the line - Maybe they want those customers to look more at Lexus!

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

Yikes, good job on the due diligence!

Yeah, dealers seem to have much less wiggle-room on used cars compared to the sometimes stupid discounts you can get on new ones if you push enough, but even so if the description was that wrong and they still wanted the same cost, sometimes it's just better to walk away.

TBH it is just not a great time to buy a car still as the price gouging is still happening. It's insane how much some people will pay over the odds for a car - That's what happens when you don't do your research!

Good luck with the Avensis - They're really nice cars too and the interior quality is a step up from the Auris. Never understood why they killed off the line - Maybe they want those customers to look more at Lexus!

 

Definitely. Ideally, I'd be able to WFH (as I do) for months until the prices drop but that won't keep the girlfriend happy 😛 

I didn't expect to like it as much, but I loved it. I think I found one of the reasons why people don't seem to be buying them though... after 2017 the tax for that engine goes from £20 a year to £155!  Monthly payments it is! And perhaps I'll start paying it in one go along with my insurance, started paying that in one go this year, something I've wanted to do for a while. 

My assumption was because of the Camry... but a quick check and it's nowhere to be found on the UK website. I knew it was a US (not in the UK, anyway) model but I'm sure it appeared on the UK site for a while in recent years?! 

The industry trend seems to be away from big saloons (even the Mondeo is on thin eggshells) and toward crossovers. Even on the "high end" (read: regional manager car end) with the BMWs and Merc's having these unruly big elevated saloon / crossovers.   I haven't been in any of those high end ones, but I know the normal ones like the Captur and Mokka are very comfortable to some, but others seem to get sea sick in em!  I like the idea of the regular old saloon, plenty of space, wide and long stance, stable... I never considered them usually until now for price and they were 'too big' for me. But the Avensis took me by surprise! 🙂  Two steps up from what I'm used to, should be good 🙂