My Auris Tr 1.6vvt-i 5-dr 5-speed M/m Experience

[Hal from Wales]

The reason for my posting a new topic for the forum is that I felt, having only recently collected my new AURIS TR 1.6VVT-i 5-dr 5-speed M/M, I ought to share my experiences with potential AURIS buyers.

It is my intention to post my observations over the next few weeks, but let me say right away that so far both my wife and I are very happy with our choice.

We are specially impressed by the surprisingly smooth automatic changing of gears of Toyota’s new AURIS M/M transmission in the ‘E’-mode which suits our particular driving style.

We have not used the ‘M’ feature as, having bought an ‘automatic’, we have no need for it, but more about that in detail in a future posting.

For the readership’s better understanding where we are coming from and what led us to choose the above product I will start next week by first stating my personal Toyota product ownership history since 1993.

This will be followed by a detailed personal view of the AURIS MULTIMODE feature and my thoughts on automatic versus manual transmissions in general.

I look forward to any comments to my contributions.

Regards Hal

[garyg]

Hi Hal

I ordered a Auris 3door 1.6TR M/M on 16th March Was told it would be in 30th April, then told it would be another4-6 weeks. So am now only 1 week from their deadline and still no news??

Am interest to hear your thought om thr M/M It dosn't seem to popular on this forum?. I test drove a M/M for 2 days and thought it was great, hence I ordered one

Hope you have alot of fun and look forward to your reports

[Nir Hendler]

Well, about the M/M gear i can tell you that here in Israel they sell the auris with just the M\M availble, no manual gearbox here.

becouse of that there alot of people talking about it.

Young people how agree to adjust them self to this gear (Like me) really enjoy it.

Old people really hate it ! and becouse of that the new corolla and auris sells will be lower then previews model (most people now prefer the Mazda 3, Ford Focus and Citroen C4).

I can say that the ride is a bit bumpy compare the my old Automatic 2003 Corolla, the transission between 1st and 2nd is like the car says "Stop!, replacing gear now!". with a bit exercise the bumpy ride can be improved.

i got my new auris for about 10 days now and done with it 650Km. the first days was hard to adjust and i was dissepointed from this gear. today, after i adjusted my self i really enjoy it.

[Hal from Wales]

Hi Hal

I ordered a Auris 3door 1.6TR M/M on 16th March Was told it would be in 30th April, then told it would be another4-6 weeks. So am now only 1 week from their deadline and still no news??

Am interest to hear your thought om thr M/M It dosn't seem to popular on this forum?. I test drove a M/M for 2 days and thought it was great, hence I ordered one

Hope you have alot of fun and look forward to your reports

Hello Gary

Thank you for your reply. When I ordered my AURIS in March I was told that the delivery would be approx 8 weeks. I touched base with the dealer every two weeks to get a scheduled delivery update from their computer and in the end was happy to hear that the car would be available one week earlier, ie after only 7 weeks. I think it was worth wainting for!

I hope that you will be as happy with your new car as I am.

Best regards Hal

[Hal from Wales]

Well, about the M/M gear i can tell you that here in Israel they sell the auris with just the M\M availble, no manual gearbox here.

becouse of that there alot of people talking about it.

Young people how agree to adjust them self to this gear (Like me) really enjoy it.

Old people really hate it ! and becouse of that the new corolla and auris sells will be lower then previews model (most people now prefer the Mazda 3, Ford Focus and Citroen C4).

I can say that the ride is a bit bumpy compare the my old Automatic 2003 Corolla, the transission between 1st and 2nd is like the car says "Stop!, replacing gear now!". with a bit exercise the bumpy ride can be improved.

i got my new auris for about 10 days now and done with it 650Km. the first days was hard to adjust and i was dissepointed from this gear. today, after i adjusted my self i really enjoy it.

Hello Nir

Thank you for your interesting reply. No doubt Toyota Israel will have carried out thorough market research before they decided on making the AURIS available with M/M only and not to offer any 'manual only' versions if I understand you correclty. I am all for this and Toyota Israel ought to be congratulated on taking this brave stand in your market. They have obviously taken a calculated risk.

If, as you say, this decision gets people talking, Toyota are half way where I think the visionaries among the market leaders in the motor industry may be aiming for longterm.

It could happen that with their adopted leadership role on M/M in Israel, rather than Toyota losing sales to the competition, they may well benefit as far as sales are concerned over a period of time. If they play their cards right in educating the market and make the product attractive as far as price is concerned, M/M may suddenly become a 'must have' item among many motorists. Specially, when the market understands you can have the safer and more comfortable drive without any longer causing a 10% decline in fuel consumption by going 'auto'. With this development Toyota are out in front anyway!

I am planning to make the question 'manual' versus 'auto' part of a future posting.

By the way, I don't think that it is a matter of age, at least not in the EU. There are a lot of people who think that if a car does not make 'vroom vroom' noises to impress themselves and bystanders when changing through the gears from first to top, it not a motor worth having. Also there is the 'I don't like automatics, I want to drive the car myself' school of thought (often by someone who has never driven a car with an automatic transmission).

I rather feel that it is a question of consumer habits and the fact that the motor industry has never made any serious efforts in EU countries to promote the idea of 'automatics' below the executive car level.

Therefore I think that currently in EU countries it would be a little early for such a hard change from the decades old (manual) technology to 'automatic only' transmissions. I think that the UK and other EU markets would currently still regard it as being dictated to. A softly, softly approach with price incentives may be more beneficial over here.

Best regards Hal

[BlueHeather]

Looking forward to your review Hal as just took delivery of the same car from RRG in Altrincham in Ducuma Grey

[Hal from Wales]

Looking forward to your review Hal as just took delivery of the same car from RRG in Altrincham in Ducuma Grey

Hello Heather

Sorry about the delay in answering your e-mail. We took the Auris to Germany and now have 2,200 miles on the clock. We both are very happy with the AURIS TR MULTIMODE.

With regard to the alarm I really can't say anything. I would be very surprised if a new car sold in the UK did not have some sort of basic alarm. The alarm is not a factor here in this part of Wales so I don't want to perform any 'tests'.

On the gear changing, now that the car has been truly run in, first of all I would like to say I find that it is quite smooth in 'E'. I don't do anything with the accelerator in order to initiate a gear change and just drive the car like the 'automatic' cars I have driven over the past 30 years.

I still have not used the 'M' feature, as I simply have no need for it.

What puzzled me is that over the 2,000 plus miles, on three occasions in a low gear after a gear change, the transmission unexpectedly seemed to disengage the clutch and the engine rpm went up to 4,000 and consequently the car slowed down. Luckily this happened on country roads only, twice in Germany and once here in Wales. It seems that when I step on the footbrake the clutch engaged again.

So far I have not taken this up with my Toyota dealer, but should a Toyota Engineer be reading this, I would be very interested in his/her view about this peculiar behaviour of the transmission.

What I also found was that the information in the manual on using the MMT as an 'automatic' is a little spubik. As 'superior driving performance' driving is not my thing, I initially sort of dismissed the 'Es' feature, like I dismissed the 'M'.

I have since found out that to momentarily go into 'Es' is very helpful on hills (up or down) and I almost feel that 'Es' on the Auris may be what on a conventional 'auto' is/was 'D' and that 'E' on the Auris is O/D in order to reach good fuel efficiency figures. Talking about fuel efficiency, my overall petrol consumption over the 2,200 miles, without resetting the instrument, is 41.4 mpg average.

Hope the above is of help.

Kind regards Hal

[BlueHeather]

Looking forward to your review Hal as just took delivery of the same car from RRG in Altrincham in Ducuma Grey

Hello Heather

Sorry about the delay in answering your e-mail. We took the Auris to Germany and now have 2,200 miles on the clock. We both are very happy with the AURIS TR MULTIMODE.

With regard to the alarm I really can't say anything. I would be very surprised if a new car sold in the UK did not have some sort of basic alarm. The alarm is not a factor here in this part of Wales so I don't want to perform any 'tests'.

On the gear changing, now that the car has been truly run in, first of all I would like to say I find that it is quite smooth in 'E'. I don't do anything with the accelerator in order to initiate a gear change and just drive the car like the 'automatic' cars I have driven over the past 30 years.

I still have not used the 'M' feature, as I simply have no need for it.

What puzzled me is that over the 2,000 plus miles, on three occasions in a low gear after a gear change, the transmission unexpectedly seemed to disengage the clutch and the engine rpm went up to 4,000 and consequently the car slowed down. Luckily this happened on country roads only, twice in Germany and once here in Wales. It seems that when I step on the footbrake the clutch engaged again.

So far I have not taken this up with my Toyota dealer, but should a Toyota Engineer be reading this, I would be very interested in his/her view about this peculiar behaviour of the transmission.

What I also found was that the information in the manual on using the MMT as an 'automatic' is a little spubik. As 'superior driving performance' driving is not my thing, I initially sort of dismissed the 'Es' feature, like I dismissed the 'M'.

I have since found out that to momentarily go into 'Es' is very helpful on hills (up or down) and I almost feel that 'Es' on the Auris may be what on a conventional 'auto' is/was 'D' and that 'E' on the Auris is O/D in order to reach good fuel efficiency figures. Talking about fuel efficiency, my overall petrol consumption over the 2,200 miles, without resetting the instrument, is 41.4 mpg average.

Hope the above is of help.

Kind regards Hal

yes it was thanks Hal. I am actually taking my vehicle in tomorrow to get checked out. I have had trouble with it engaging 2nd gear in both E and M mode, However this is an intermittant problem and doesn't happen often but enough to cause concern.

will let you know the outcome

[auris2008]

It is petty that the young man from israel called "nir" thinks that " .....Old people really hate it ! "

It is not true- I'am "old" as this nir called us - and I am from israel - but i have 42 years experieced AND I LOVE MY AURIS AND LOVE THE M/M TR.

I have now 3000 km in my auris , travelling all around israel, and 99% of the time i used the manual gear -and love it - including the padels on the wheel.

All my old cars are with manual gear-including the last one that is still withme, but this m/m in Auris is the best manual tr. i dreamed about it- like in a "Formula 1"!!!!

I knew a lot of "young man" that are very OLD in the mind - and do not khow to adjust themself to new tech. and new tolls and so.