Oscar the Auris

[SB1500]

A good set of Michelin Cross Climates would be my recommendation. Had them on my DS3 and now on my mums Mazda 2. For cars with comfort size tyres there's no real down side tbh. I'm sure with the baby in the car you'd rather float around corners than feel the G's!

I actually ordered an eBay carpet mat job around £10 from eBay, tailored / decent fit, has the little clip in holes for the car... won't be such a shame when they get soiled. Used to do this with the Panda's, a set a year really, probably better than investing in the grossly over priced Toyota mats.

That 'Touch with Go 2' system, I do not miss. Or that 45 second delay for Bluetooth... but you do get used to it. As I think you probably agree, seems promising from the brochure, seems disappointing and lacking on first experience, but then not that bad over time. If you get the 'connected services' (if they are still available, they were in 2022) then it does redeem itself with live traffic en route, suggested faster routes and petrol prices / weather. There's a split screen option on the nav where you can choose weather or fuel prices or something else alongside the maps. Probably was decent for 2015 when that system came out. These systems come in a 'High' and 'Low' configuration. If you have voice control you have the 'High' unit and the better processor, if you don't, you have the 'Low' and slow unit - same as I did. If you get your maps online from eBay like I did, or from a site like satnavishop (looks dodgy, but is legit, used it for my CT updates in January) you'll need to know if you've the Low or High unit. They did 'live services' for one year £25 on their own on the My Toyota site in 2022, when I went to renew in 2023, the only option was maps and live services for a couple of hundred.. emailed Toyota, no real logic in their reply other than to say it only comes bundled now. Used to be £60 for three years of live services only , wish I had've done that at the time. In defence of the 'Touch 2 with Go', the CT has no such live maps / fuel prices which I was genuinely disappointed to lose.

I did a lot of looking into CarPlay upgrades for the system on the Avensis (usually such mods also have Android Auto which I know you'd be interested in over CarPlay). The system is the same on screen blue interface but your Auris I think has a superior / more modern capacitive touch screen and buttons around it, whereas the Avensis had a supermarket self service type resistive touch screen, think it's one inch bigger but I think this difference meant I was only ever to find some one off, hard to find, probably only produced in a small batch Korean mod that could add CP/AA. I think / hope for your style of system, and the Auris being a globally sold car for a long time, that there are decent retrofit mods to add it to your factory screen. Note, these specialist garages fitting them for £700+ are using the same usually Chinese add on head unit boxes like I recently did on my CT. Sure they are fitting it and providing some warranty, but I suspect you're more than capable of doing this yourself in the space of under two hours. The Toyota / Lexus dashes pop off quite easily, usually only a small socket set needed or thin driver to pry off panels. It's not as intimidating as I expected to do on either car. I think if you can find a compatible unit for your car it'll be well worth the £150 ish? If you do and you want any help understanding the Chinglish / cables send me a PM as I had a bit of confusion which they weren't able to understand in the slightest but eventually figured it out.

Sorry for the essays, trying to share what might be seen as useful from my time in the boring Japanese car land... glad I'm not the only FF member in the club now lol

 

[StevenRB45]

It's going on Goodyear Vector 4 season gen 3s which are already paid for and being fitted Saturday. Had them on the Citroën for years..indeed commuted on them after freezing rain today without incident.

The Michelins are better in snow if we're talking about 2s...but the Goodyears are better at most other things especially wet weather and dry weather and ended up costing about 50 quid a tyre less with various discounts.

To be fair I was planning to pretty much round this thread off Saturday as other than satnav which is not urgent it's up to a standard I'm happy with...however when you list out everything it's needed it's a surprising amount and I can absolutely see why the previous owner cut it loose as at main agent rates it all would have added up quick.

 

[SB1500]

It's going on Goodyear Vector 4 season gen 3s which are already paid for and being fitted Saturday. Had them on the Citroën for years..indeed commuted on them after freezing rain today without incident.

The Michelins are better in snow if we're talking about 2s...but the Goodyears are better at most other things especially wet weather and dry weather and ended up costing about 50 quid a tyre less with various discounts.

To be fair I was planning to pretty much round this thread off Saturday as other than satnav which is not urgent it's up to a standard I'm happy with...however when you list out everything it's needed it's a surprising amount and I can absolutely see why the previous owner cut it loose as at main agent rates it all would have added up quick.

ah brilliant, right time of year for the tyres anyway.

One thing I will say about both Toyota/Lexus nav systems is on long journeys, Dublin to Londonderry, it took me literally as close to a direct 45 degree straight line in the north west direction, not being familiar with the route I followed it in both cars. Took me well off the two decent-road routes and right through the mountains. This was on up to date maps, but the logic of the system I've found isn't the best compared to phones or a TomTom. Though given England has a first-world road / motorway network hopefully that won't be much of an issue to you. Just always take a glance at the route it's sending you down in case it sends you through the wastelands! The CT also had the 2016 year maps on it, Lexus quoted me near £300 for an update, said they're never discounted... no online services for that price on mine... no dice. Think I paid £60.. or £40 for that satnavishop site.

A final thing I've found, used to order my filters / parts (genuine) from ToyotaDirectParts / LexusDirectParts (Fish Bros dealer I think). They did decent bundles on service kits. Much better than my local Toyota dealer. But this year when I was in getting warranty work the workshop parts guy heard and told me he'd basically match their prices pretty closely. I suspect ToyotaDirectParts is applying the maximum dealer discount to keep prices down. Now I can get the parts pretty much same price, no delivery. And I've found they keep in stock every service part / brakes for the cars (which I found DS and Fiat never really did). Toyota also keep their part prices relatively down to earth, usually not much more than all but the cheapest no name parts on AutoDoc - so I've decided just to use them from now on for all they cost. Might be worth checking in with your local dealer and see how reasonable they want to be re discounts as you might be able to get the genuine's for around the same as you'd pay elsewhere. Though again you've probably got quite a lot of better competition choices within driving distance there versus NI.

 

[StevenRB45]

Plan is to lash at local dealer once a year until the 10 year warranty is up and then probably just use my local independent who looked after the Mazda and have done none warranty bits on C3.

Nav wise I got a quote at 260 to update...which I may do after Christmas depending on some other things. At present I've got a phone cradle for when I go into a city centre or somewhere difficult. But we have the C3 for business things this is more for days out and baby groups etc..so if I'm travelling long distance more likely to be in that (or indeed a hire car). Although I've used the nav and it seemed alright...as long as you don't go to city centre that's been pedestrianised in the last 8 years.

Don't really have time to mess on doing things myself or the tools and this is only going to get worse once a newborn arrives. Hence me getting this in order now as next year..is gonna be busy.

Oh and someone did buy official Toyota mats and they are in lovely condition..but they are hidden under rubber now

 

[SB1500]

Both my Japanese cars are fairly 'crusty' looking underneath, not as much as your photo, but more than I'd have suspected. I suppose these aren't 'new' cars anymore. But I suspect it will be a long time before yours (or mines) becomes an 'issue' structurally.

Nice to see the new tyres on. Can tell they're all seasons from that tread from a mile away! Just in time for the icy / crappy weather too.

The Avensis had TSS... was quite a few insurance groups lower than the DS with the expensive Xenon lights. Was one of my favourite features of the car when I got it, until I needed the windscreen replaced and it took about three tries to have Autoglass re-calibrate it right. Nightmare / added expense despite lowering my premium each year. Didn't miss it when I moved on to a car without it. It's better (worse?) though than the Merc system, which violently shakes the wheel and slams the brakes on, definitely no good for anyone with a pacemaker. The annoying beep of TSS is far from the worst!

Btw, Toyota dealers sell a set of steel wheels for £260 (set of 4) I was quoted a month ago. Thinking of getting a set next year when I can stomach another few hundred into dedicated winter tyres. Will only do it if they can fit a modern Corolla as if anything happened this car, I'd at least have a usable set of wheels to go on a replacement and not totally waste the money. If it's any use to you going forward, I'm sure they would sell a set for the Auris if not the exact same spec.

 

[StevenRB45]

Coming from Mazda world, the issue is that unlike the Citroën where the engine/electrics are likely to kill the car long before the floor rots out. This sort of thing is what kills Japanese cars, it'll soldier on for years being no bother then one MOT you'll discover it needs a new subframe followed by sills. Mechanically it'll still be A1 but the underside will have gone. There's very little metal underneath exposed to the elements in this car it looks like an electric car underneath other than that rear beam and exhaust its a large plastic tray from front to back so hopefully it's all good.

I probably could have left it but my plans for this thing are probably in the region of keeping it for 3-5 years or longer if it's still fit for purpose and it certainly wasn't going to get any better. So a bit of TLC to keep it good enough was required.

I've not really argued with the TSS system much, being an early TSS car it's all adjustable all the way up to off. Lane keep assist has a button on the wheel to toggle it on or off. As it is my settings are brake assist on it's least tetchy setting, speed assist beeps off and lane keep assist off, auto lights and mainbeam on, left road sign assist on with no beeps and a 5mph leeway before it goes red. It's said "BRAKE!" twice since I got it both times were in single track opposition situations where I was going to drop into a gap before having a head on with another car. In terms of making insurance group cheaper it is a matter of record that this car is group 12 and without TSS it's group 14. Also when getting quotes it was 250 quid cheaper than a similar Seat Leon with 0 NCB on it. I drive like it's not there mainly...and it lets me which is the level of safety system I like. Anything that yanks the wheel or applies the brakes at random can get in the sea.

I'm not precious about the wheels, they are actually in decent nick because the previous owner had winter wheels, but they aren't fancy and they could be rattle canned if needed being flat silver. I'd imagine the wheels are the Japanese standard 5 x 114.3 although I've not checked, which opens up all sorts of possibilities eg. RX8 wheels but I have no plans to make it more interesting at present.

I don't see the value in 2 sets of wheels for what I do, I don't require the peak performance of a UHP summer tyre, but it's also rarely bad enough to justify a full winter so the all seasons do the job and stay on year round. I could have put a Touring tyre on rather than an all season for slightly better warm weather performance and a bit more direct steering and lower rolling resistance but beyond that it's not a car that needs a high performance tyre. The All season is quieter than most things and also softer riding (it's also softer on the turn in...but if that was a problem I'd not have bought an Auris estate).

Oh and I'll just randomly include this from the other week..

 

[PuntoHowTo]

We don't get snow anything like that down this way.

Its very..... black and grey, like someone forgot what colour was when designing this specific car.

 

[StevenRB45]

We don't get snow anything like that down this way.

Its very..... black and grey, like someone forgot what colour was when designing this specific car.

Indeed they looked at a Golf and thought "we'll copy that" right down to the blue illumination of the dials and displays rather than the slightly bonkers laser blue down lighters combined with orange/yellow and blue displays of my previous car. Japanese never quite manage the middle ground it's either boring or slightly weird...

However it's unimportant it's probably going to be all sorts of colours by the time I've finished with it.

Everything I've done to it has just been to ensure it's not annoying, is suitable for what I'm going to use it for and ensure it's longevity as much as possible.

We used it Sunday to go to a light trail...due to storm Darragh it was a bit wet occasionally..boots big enough and bumper is low enough I just launched the lad into it so I could take him out of his wet weather gear on the rubber mats under the cover of the roof and tail gate and then store the muddy wellies in a nice wipe clean removable plastic container built into the rear right behind the wheel arch. Pull a handle next to the tailgate it drops a seat and he could climb through without going back outside. Seat goes back up with no effort as the belts are routed to not get caught when you raise and lower them. AC cleared the windows immediately despite a car full of wet people and a boot full of wet gear. When his brother arrives it should be big enough to hold both a pram and shopping at the same time without messing taking wheels off etc.

It's very much a car for life to happen on and around rather than the centre of attention. Pretty much if the story of a road trip involves the car doing something interesting it's failed...as interesting in most contexts would be it's broken or wasn't up to the job. But it will allow the C3s replacement to not be entirely sensible if we want to.. although of course most choices by then will be an electric or hybrid SUV.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Pretty much if the story of a road trip involves the car doing something interesting it's failed...as interesting in most contexts would be it's broken or wasn't up to the job.

Arrr yes.. what goes through my mind when people say a car has “character” usually it either drives badly or has reliability issues.

The more “characterful” the less reliable.


As you say it is a car to do a job and as long as it does its job nothing else matters. The choice of an estate over an SUV while not a popular choice these days, definitely yields a greater and more useful boot

 

[StevenRB45]

Arrr yes.. what goes through my mind when people say a car has “character” usually it either drives badly or has reliability issues.

The more “characterful” the less reliable.


As you say it is a car to do a job and as long as it does its job nothing else matters. The choice of an estate over an SUV while not a popular choice these days, definitely yields a greater and more useful boot

We already have a "character" car...it's more fun than this certainly.

But the time for "character" cars is not cheap to run family transport. It's cost many thousands of mine and the warranty companies money to use a character as an only family car for the last 3 years. It's been fun, it's never stranded us anywhere and there's a lot of memories in it. But generally most of those memories would have happened regardless of the actual vehicle we were using.

Also which cars occupy this space and are characterful? You're talking about a Golf estate...a Seat Leon estate...a Peugeot 308 estate...a Vauxhall Astra estate, Ford Focus estate and a Honda Civic estate. Some of these are more or less reliable than others but none of them are cars of character. That's before we get to by the numbers family SUVs in small medium and large. The small estate car market pretty much exists for fleet buyers private buyers buy SUVs as a result all choices tend to be fleet friendly...i.e. unchallenging.

I did consider the VW group options but at the money I was going to be paying they got expensive once you took in that they'd need a timing belt immediately at the age I was shopping also more expensive insurance due to them hanging the expensive sensors in vulnerable places and having led headlamps at 1500 quid each and more expensive tyres and tax. The PSA VX options no...if it's going to be dull it needs to be reliable nothing worse than a dull and unreliable car it has no upside. The Ford of course would have driven well but isn't a very good estate and didn't fancy an Ecoburst to go with my Purecrap.

 

[SB1500]

Coming from Mazda world, the issue is that unlike the Citroën where the engine/electrics are likely to kill the car long before the floor rots out. This sort of thing is what kills Japanese cars, it'll soldier on for years being no bother then one MOT you'll discover it needs a new subframe followed by sills. Mechanically it'll still be A1 but the underside will have gone. There's very little metal underneath exposed to the elements in this car it looks like an electric car underneath other than that rear beam and exhaust its a large plastic tray from front to back so hopefully it's all good.

I probably could have left it but my plans for this thing are probably in the region of keeping it for 3-5 years or longer if it's still fit for purpose and it certainly wasn't going to get any better. So a bit of TLC to keep it good enough was required.

I've not really argued with the TSS system much, being an early TSS car it's all adjustable all the way up to off. Lane keep assist has a button on the wheel to toggle it on or off. As it is my settings are brake assist on it's least tetchy setting, speed assist beeps off and lane keep assist off, auto lights and mainbeam on, left road sign assist on with no beeps and a 5mph leeway before it goes red. It's said "BRAKE!" twice since I got it both times were in single track opposition situations where I was going to drop into a gap before having a head on with another car. In terms of making insurance group cheaper it is a matter of record that this car is group 12 and without TSS it's group 14. Also when getting quotes it was 250 quid cheaper than a similar Seat Leon with 0 NCB on it. I drive like it's not there mainly...and it lets me which is the level of safety system I like. Anything that yanks the wheel or applies the brakes at random can get in the sea.

I'm not precious about the wheels, they are actually in decent nick because the previous owner had winter wheels, but they aren't fancy and they could be rattle canned if needed being flat silver. I'd imagine the wheels are the Japanese standard 5 x 114.3 although I've not checked, which opens up all sorts of possibilities eg. RX8 wheels but I have no plans to make it more interesting at present.

I don't see the value in 2 sets of wheels for what I do, I don't require the peak performance of a UHP summer tyre, but it's also rarely bad enough to justify a full winter so the all seasons do the job and stay on year round. I could have put a Touring tyre on rather than an all season for slightly better warm weather performance and a bit more direct steering and lower rolling resistance but beyond that it's not a car that needs a high performance tyre. The All season is quieter than most things and also softer riding (it's also softer on the turn in...but if that was a problem I'd not have bought an Auris estate).

Oh and I'll just randomly include this from the other week..

Certainly, mine will rot away before the mechanicals give out at this rate. I used to discuss it a lot on here with my earlier cars about a potential undercoating etc, but I've come to realise that in reality, unless I end up really down and out, I'll hopefully never ever actually 'need' to hold on to a car so long that it's hanging together, severely outdated and aged. I know there are some people out there who restore classic cars like old Mini's and 500s, and then others who for some reason, insist on driving horrible boxy Ford's (classics? eh, each to their own)... but I'm not one of them. Outgoing car models are fine to me!

The TSS saved my ass once, big time, I was going around a fairly busy but fast paced roundabout and had someone in hovering around my blind spot, was overly concerned whether they were about to run into me changing lanes as we went around, they thankfully didn't but I only looked forward as the Avensis did the whole 'BRAKE' thing and stopped me speeding into the back of a 44tonne lorry! It paid for itself there..

I noticed in your pictures the alloys are in quite good shape! We have a lot of cobbled streets and granite kerbs here, they can change that rather quickly but I always admire in-tact outer alloys! A lot of people park with tyres at angles where they're squashed against the kerb / digging into it... sends a shiver down my spine to see.

You get more snow than we do so, perhaps I should do the same and not waste the money. It was an experience with the Pilot Sport 3's on the DS which really, really scare me about the PS5s on this car - took it out one January evening in 2021 when it was quite cold / icy here and on the road out of the village anytime I so much as gently applied the brakes, the thing started sliding - no steering or brake control, just turned around and went home. Presumed it was the thin tyres / 'fast' summer design. I'd say that's what made me choose the Primacy's on the Avensis tbh. Not so sure about the CT and the PS5s but thought if I invested in proper 'winters' I'd have about as much hope as possible to get where I need to go.

Re: "Character cars". Very much on the low end, quirky because it has to be like the Panda and others and then there's the high end, super cars or low-volume or odd like the IQ / Cygnet where it's part of the design brief to make it weird or unique! The kind Doug Demuro shows us on YouTube. I don't really think they exist in the middle of the spectrum, every day run of the mill cars like the Focus or Golf. As you rightly say, you considered all of the alternatives - equally as dull, not a shade on the reliability. Think of the Auris as a sacrifice to the car gods in return for trouble free, family days out... and think of something else to sacrifice to the 'family day out' gods in return for as little hassle as possible, though that might be asking too much with multiple kids, if my experience of one six year old in recent years is anything to go by!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Certainly, mine will rot away before the mechanicals give out at this rate. I used to discuss it a lot on here with my earlier cars about a potential undercoating etc, but I've come to realise that in reality, unless I end up really down and out, I'll hopefully never ever actually 'need' to hold on to a car so long that it's hanging together, severely outdated and aged. I know there are some people out there who restore classic cars like old Mini's and 500s, and then others who for some reason, insist on driving horrible boxy Ford's (classics? eh, each to their own)... but I'm not one of them. Outgoing car models are fine to me!

The TSS saved my ass once, big time, I was going around a fairly busy but fast paced roundabout and had someone in hovering around my blind spot, was overly concerned whether they were about to run into me changing lanes as we went around, they thankfully didn't but I only looked forward as the Avensis did the whole 'BRAKE' thing and stopped me speeding into the back of a 44tonne lorry! It paid for itself there..

I noticed in your pictures the alloys are in quite good shape! We have a lot of cobbled streets and granite kerbs here, they can change that rather quickly but I always admire in-tact outer alloys! A lot of people park with tyres at angles where they're squashed against the kerb / digging into it... sends a shiver down my spine to see.

You get more snow than we do so, perhaps I should do the same and not waste the money. It was an experience with the Pilot Sport 3's on the DS which really, really scare me about the PS5s on this car - took it out one January evening in 2021 when it was quite cold / icy here and on the road out of the village anytime I so much as gently applied the brakes, the thing started sliding - no steering or brake control, just turned around and went home. Presumed it was the thin tyres / 'fast' summer design. I'd say that's what made me choose the Primacy's on the Avensis tbh. Not so sure about the CT and the PS5s but thought if I invested in proper 'winters' I'd have about as much hope as possible to get where I need to go.

Re: "Character cars". Very much on the low end, quirky because it has to be like the Panda and others and then there's the high end, super cars or low-volume or odd like the IQ / Cygnet where it's part of the design brief to make it weird or unique! The kind Doug Demuro shows us on YouTube. I don't really think they exist in the middle of the spectrum, every day run of the mill cars like the Focus or Golf. As you rightly say, you considered all of the alternatives - equally as dull, not a shade on the reliability. Think of the Auris as a sacrifice to the car gods in return for trouble free, family days out... and think of something else to sacrifice to the 'family day out' gods in return for as little hassle as possible, though that might be asking too much with multiple kids, if my experience of one six year old in recent years is anything to go by!

I agree the bargains that can be had by buying thimgs that were not so popular are mind bending. And, contrary to the statement by the may thousands who never drove them, the Allegro was not a bad car to drive it was actually decent and reliable. Apart from terminal rot of sills floor fuel tank and axle mounts and suspension that needed constant pumping up it was a decent runabout. Oh and the way it got rid of oil was off the scale. I never did work out where it went to. If they had moved on I wonder where they could ahve got to. But they didn't. Anything a little left field is worth looking at if you are ona budget, as long as you factor in parts price and availability. Ive only had 1 Toyota and it was mechanically indestructible. Toyota service at the time was exemplary too.

 

[StevenRB45]

One hopes it's slightly better than that allegro sounds but yes one of fewer than 800 of this exact car sold...so people were not tripping over themselves to buy one of these, also apparently they sold something like 200 black Auris of all types in 2016 so in terms of sheer numbers it's rare and unusual. Although in terms of looking at it it's naked without a Taxi plate and an Uber sticker.

Wheel and tyre wise it's got unfashionably big tyres on it and small wheels, this means you've got to be pretty committed to actually kerb a wheel.

The C3 with same size wheels and tyres has tyres with basically no writing on them from kerb rubs..but the wheels are largely undamaged.

Next door has a CT in white on black wheels they've nipped the wheels a few times coming in and out the street due to the wheel design and low profile tyre.

I'm yet to find a decent summer tyre that above about 185 section is anything other than an occasional adventure in winter. Below that anything works, but when I got the Swift that was noticeably worse than the Fiats were on 165 and 155 tyres though I managed it. The Mazda on 205/45 R17 was a sledge on a bad day. You'd think you were doing ok, right until someone did something daft and you lost momentum on a hill or you needed to stop at which point physics and the ABS/traction control took over and did nothing useful with so little grip to work with. The C3 has been on the flat stuck outside of my house on Michelin Primacy 3s.

As ever you buy what you need...I don't go winters because we had 2 cars for years, 8 wheels each is a lot of crap to store. Also C3 did 12k a year as only car the likely mileage across those 8 tyres is 3k per set a year...they'd crack up long before wearing out. We get enough bad weather to justify an All-Season but I don't really think beyond that there's much of a use case for a full winter.

 

[SB1500]

One hopes it's slightly better than that allegro sounds but yes one of fewer than 800 of this exact car sold...so people were not tripping over themselves to buy one of these, also apparently they sold something like 200 black Auris of all types in 2016 so in terms of sheer numbers it's rare and unusual. Although in terms of looking at it it's naked without a Taxi plate and an Uber sticker.

Wheel and tyre wise it's got unfashionably big tyres on it and small wheels, this means you've got to be pretty committed to actually kerb a wheel.

The C3 with same size wheels and tyres has tyres with basically no writing on them from kerb rubs..but the wheels are largely undamaged.

Next door has a CT in white on black wheels they've nipped the wheels a few times coming in and out the street due to the wheel design and low profile tyre.

I'm yet to find a decent summer tyre that above about 185 section is anything other than an occasional adventure in winter. Below that anything works, but when I got the Swift that was noticeably worse than the Fiats were on 165 and 155 tyres though I managed it. The Mazda on 205/45 R17 was a sledge on a bad day. You'd think you were doing ok, right until someone did something daft and you lost momentum on a hill or you needed to stop at which point physics and the ABS/traction control took over and did nothing useful with so little grip to work with. The C3 has been on the flat stuck outside of my house on Michelin Primacy 3s.

As ever you buy what you need...I don't go winters because we had 2 cars for years, 8 wheels each is a lot of crap to store. Also C3 did 12k a year as only car the likely mileage across those 8 tyres is 3k per set a year...they'd crack up long before wearing out. We get enough bad weather to justify an All-Season but I don't really think beyond that there's much of a use case for a full winter.

I look forward to your updates with this car. When I think back, my mum had various Corsa's and my dad various Astra's and given the memories in those cars, particularly the Corsa's when I started driving one, I have quite fond memories of them. Despite them being nothing special in the world of cars. I reckon any car has the potential to have sentimental value shed on it from everyday life - everyday life that you'd never take your weekend fun car or 'pride and joy' car into, so hopefully that is the case here.

 

[StevenRB45]

Beyond what has been done in the first few months which basically falls under general tidying and making up for the fact the previous owner did nothing beyond scheduled maintenance. I hope to have very little to update on.

It's due a service in May (technically as it was last serviced by Toyota last may), I'll get it MOT'd then as well just because at present both cars are due a service and MOT in late September and I'd rather they weren't.

Depending on how flush I'm feeling this might be when the satnav gets updated. But hopefully it'll be deeply uninteresting and do nothing much. If anything I'm hoping for that from both cars given i've now got the triggers broom C3 where most consumables and suspension components are less than 3 years old I would enjoy bit of a quieter life automotively for a bit.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

I did consider the VW group options but at the money I was going to be paying they got expensive once you took in that they'd need a timing belt immediately at the age I was shopping also more expensive insurance due to them hanging the expensive sensors in vulnerable places and having led headlamps at 1500 quid each and more expensive tyres and tax. The PSA VX options no...if it's going to be dull it needs to be reliable nothing worse than a dull and unreliable car it has no upside. The Ford of course would have driven well but isn't a very good estate and didn't fancy an Ecoburst to go with my Purecrap.

To be fair I think you made the right call, i know we talked about other options but the VAG cars can be expensive these Toyotas are under valued and if you only want to throw mud Children and all manner of crap in them, and do that till the thing dies then you want to do that as cheaply and efficiently as possible. It will be interesting to see what replaces the C3