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Oscar the Auris

Toyota Auris Touring Sports 1.2T VVTiW Business edition TSS

Introduction

So after 3 years I've finally replaced the Mazda. Leisure lounge regulars will probably be aware of all the malice and aforethought that went into buying a Toyota.

Short version...I've got another baby on the way, the C3 isn't big enough, the wife doesn't want to sell it so I wanted something that did the job I could buy without disappearing down a finance wormhole. I'm aware it will not be to everyone...or perhaps even anyone's taste but this is how it looks day 1 pre-baby damage.

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As you can see it's a small Estate...with up to 670l of boot space if you stack to the Roof or 530 under the tonneau.

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The interior has aged very well for a car that's nearly 8 and most of the way to 80k.

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This picture is mainly because look rear courtesy lights!...the amount of cursing the lack of these causes in the C3.

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It has most modcons, so climate control, cruise control, the satnav does allow full post codes (I feared it didn't so isn't as terrible as expected now I've figured it out) and heated seats.

Also 7 airbags and all the modern safety gear...with off buttons as it's pre-2017.

Finally the physically biggest 1.2 I think I've ever seen... compared to the C3 it seems twice the size but in theory they do the same thing and produce about the same power.

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Clearly has a water to air intercooler...why it's mounted there god knows. Also yes they don't clean under the bonnet so job for me.

Edit: since posting this done some research it literally has 2 cooling systems (note 2 caps) one is for the engine with a standard pump and the other is for intercooler and the turbo with an electric pump.

Generally presents as a tidy and honest car, one small issue so far..think it needs a TPMS battery. Interestingly it was first registered to Vehicle distribution centre Burnaston, so Toyota owned it for 6 months and then the previous owner to me had it from May 2017, so I'm only the 2nd private owner.

Oh and my son named it immediately.

Future plans are mainly along the lines of beating it to death...although it may be getting 4 new boots to switch to all seasons.

Edited to add on these...

First..I was expecting maybe late 30s early 40s fuel economy. The C3 manages late 40s on a run so this is a surprise.
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It's 1400kg so not light at all but it is very slippery in terms of drag apparently and 6th has you just over 2k rpm at 70.

Oh and it's first family duty..to the beach so it's now full of sand, sandwich crumbs and Doritos bits. Nice while it lasted..

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Latest updates

Now let me tell you tale of drama!

Actually no, doubt this car acknowledges the existence of drama in the universe.

So getting it "right" after the previous owner continues and will continue for some time.

The TPS system is literally broken, won't take a reset can't be shut up so until that's sorted constant warning light on the dash. The correct course of action as a Toyota owner is to ignore it but it will be fixed.

First part of ownership was marred somewhat by massive tyre noise especially at higher speeds and a steering wheel about 10-15 degrees off centre.

On the alignment machine she went.

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The front wheels were indeed eyeballing eachother significantly.

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Thankfully this was Saturday morning before half term since then I've done 700 miles in lots of different situations and in general it's now sorted.

I suppose I'll review it at this point as it's not a car with hidden depths.

Driving:
The 1.2 petrol is generally up to the job, occasionally pulling away on steep hill, and laden you feel like it is regretting it's life choices but generally it is quiet and powerful enough. You have to chase the power band more than in the C3 through the slightly vague six speed box but it's a competent companion. Being a 4 cylinder it's sounds awful if revved but you only hear it at high rpm in low gears. I do find it hard to believe that this is the "performance" version of the Auris you can not buy a faster one than this all other versions are slower. The main difference in driving this to the C3 is the weight, both acceleration and braking required big definite pedal movements, you drive the lighter C3 with your tip toes.

Steering it, now the tracking is sorted best described as uneventful. It goes where you point it, due to being an older design (Auris basic design is 12 years old) it's narrow and barely wider than the C3. As a result it feels wieldy and easy to thread on the narrow lanes.

Suspension wise this probably needs a special mention. Despite no mention of any "Advanced comfort" it's absolutely better than the C3, less roll, less pitching, more stability. Also takes speed bumps like a champion. Other thing compared to the C3 is that I'm yet to hit a pot hole that slams the suspension into the bump stops and shudders the structure. Apparently the estate was designed and built in the UK and the suspension is very good at what passes for a country road these days.

Only real negative is tyre noise, it's similar to my old Mazda 3 in that there's a constant white noise on certain surfaces. I plan to sort/improve this by getting rid of the mix of old and crap tyres and replacing with a set of low noise touring tyres in due course but it very much is a feature of the car and there's only so much that will do.

Interior:
This depends what you're expecting, I went in expecting some plastic that stops me from seeing bare metal and wires. It nails this brief.

Joking aside if you actually care about things such as soft touch and leather there is soft touch plastic on the dash top, the dash centre appears to be some sort of stitched leather (read vinyl) and the front doors are a mixture of cloth and soft touch plastic. Wheel and gearknob are leather, everything is nicely fitted and accurately moulded in robust materials.

Beyond that it's hard textured plastic or piano black, but it seems to wear very well indeed.
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The infotainment stuff is nowhere near as bad as feared it takes a while to boot the Bluetooth from pulling away (a good 45 seconds) and the previous owner clearly didn't touch the nav ever as it's got the factory original maps in it. But the actual nav system seems to work in a leisure capacity. This is the next thing I think I'm going to spend money on...120 quid for the map update to 2024 maps seems like an idea as the basic system is sound.

Centre screen seems a little dim though to be fair I've not looked at brightness it might be set low.
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The MFD between the dials is bright and high res and can show many useful things from sat nav directions, stereo information to pretty much anything you can think of.

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Everything has an understandable logic to it and things that need a button have a button, although I do miss a volume knob. Even the safety systems are not annoying...despite spending last week on roads strewn with blowing leaves the only time I've seen "Brake!" come up from collision avoidance was in an opposition situation where the car assumed I was about to have a head on with another car rather than slot into a gap on my left.

Living with it:
As you'd expect it's a deeply inoffensive car unless you take offence at things that just are what they set out to be. Boot is big, did a tip run other day didn't fold the seats. Economy for the style of car with a petrol engine pretty damn good. Only 2 tanks so far but average of 42.5 on first tank (with my wife involved) and second tank just me 46.5 that's basically what I expect out of the supermini nevermind 1400kg of estate car with a petrol engine. My only note on that is if you go up into the moors it's not efficient. At a cruise on the motorway or on levelish A and B roads it sits at low RPM in 6th on the Atkinson cycle and will do 50mpg+. On hills it's a heavy car and it reverts to the more powerful Otto cycle so trip to Hamsterly forest returned high 30s low 40s but those are acceptable numbers similar to what the less powerful 1.6 Mazda would have done. Tax is 35 quid a year insurance is probably about as low at it gets for something that isn't a 1.0 67bhp city car. Oh and it has a spare wheel and jack! Even the halogen projector headlamps are decent and the auto high beam works reasonably well.

Finally Photo of it doing what it does...i.e. sitting in the car park of a National Trust place (fountains abbey in case you're wondering).

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So sort the nav, new tyres and that's it done and my wife can drive it no bother and doesn't mind driving it, winning.
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How do you make a boring car more boring?

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Surely the literal opposite of a Stancenation sticker. Although note the roof rails which are actual blocks of aluminium shaped.

Oh and very exciting update...rubber mats have arrived in an attempt to keep in the interior vaguely presentable.

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They are incredibly expensive compared to carpet....but hopefully this car won't have indeterminate brown stains on the carpet and boot floor similar to the C3.

Otherwise car is currently carring quite well, day out today...it did 49mpg with the AC and climate pack on despite me stealth racing things for my own amusement. It's not as fast as the C3 but it's also not slow deceptively quick with the close ratio six speed up to 70. Not like the Mazda where you regularly beat it to death plenty of torque low down

Yesterday I slung a bike in the boot without taking it to bits hence the marks on the boot mat.

I'm very much in the messing with it phase/getting it how I want it... attempting to resist just smashing some premium tyres on it as it's meant to be a cheap run around with space for crap. But tyre noise on the mixture of slightly aged Davantis and Vitto something or others is not great and the brand new Vitto tyres on the front are not quite balanced..I suspect being cheap they aren't particularly round/balanced.

Vehicle information

Registration
FH66***
Mileage
76,511
Tax Status
Taxed
MOT Status
Valid
Category
Non-FIATs
Added by
StevenRB45
Views
119
Updates
2
Last update

Vehicle specification

Colour
Black
Trim
Business Edition.
Year
2016
Fuel Type
Petrol
Engine Size
1200cc
Gearbox
Manual
Doors
5

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