Toyota Avensis review (14/03/2012)
Take this past week when the Japanese giant announced that it planned to have hydrogen-powered cars in production by 2015. Now, it may have escaped your notice, but for the last ten years or so Toyota has been the main purveyor of hybrid technology and its two generations of Prius models — and latterly the Auris — have been the torch bearers for all those motorists of an environmentally conscious leaning.
Understandably, even the Toyota sub-brand Lexus has got in on the act with a variety of electric/petrol powerplants.
Such has been Toyota’s success that almost all its competitors now have a hybrid of some form.
BMW and Honda, among others, have explored the hydrogen route, but every company involved has backed away from this environmentally sound alternative to the traditional internal combustion engine because of the massive cost.
But now Toyota has thrown the fat in the fire by its promise of hydrogen fuel cell cars by 2015, and while there has been much speculation as to how they might make such a product commercially viable, it seems to be widely accepted that the Japanese will form one or more strategic global alliances to achieve the aim of a hydrogen filling station infrastructure.
All of this has very little, it has to be said, to do with the subject of this week’s road test, the Toyota Avensis, which is neither hybrid nor hydrogen powered. However, it has always struck me that Toyota takes a very unfair amount of brickbats for being too conservative and for producing cars which lack élan.
Toyota produces incredibly good cars and sells a phenomenal amount of them globally. If they were either too conservative or too lacking in élan, then this surely would not be the case.
Toyota has pretty much redefined how everyone else in the automotive game goes about their business, particularly with regard to production, and in many ways the continued success of the Avensis — not to mention its many predecessors — illustrates the point that success does not have to be achieved on the back of flashiness or smoke and mirrors.
What the Avensis offers potential owners is what can be expected to be a trouble-free, unproblematic, comfortable and terribly well built product.
It might not offer hunky or svelte good looks (although it is not in any way an unattractive car to my eyes), but what is does offer is gold-plated peace of mind and a no-nonsense day-to-day driving experience.
Certainly Toyota has tried with the current Avensis to give the car a more premium feel and this is noticeable in the cabin which has a plusher ambience and a good deal more kit too.
Whether or not the recent spate of high specification competitors from Korea has precipitated this is a moot point, but the bottom line is that the latest Avensis is the most driver and passenger friendly version of the car we have thus seen.
The engine too has been uprated, and while the basic two litre D-4D turbodiesel is familiar, it has lately been tweaked to improve both consumption and emission levels. It has also benefited from a wider torque band, and this means that it actually belies its seemingly modest 91 kW (124 bhp) output.
It is a strong engine, endowed with plenty of willingness and little thirst; there’s 310 Nm of torque available between just 1,600 and 2.200rpm, the 0-100 kph dash is achieved in 9.7 seconds and the car will return some 4.6 l/100 km (61.4 mpg), according to Toyota’s figures.
On the road the car is effortless to drive, although perhaps lacking the pin sharp handling of others in its segment. Grip levels are excellent, and although body roll is not as well controlled some competitors, there is not enough room for complaint to make an issue of it.
It also boasts bags of room for driver and passengers and boot space is excellent too.
In truth the Avensis is not a car many enthusiasts will lust over, but for those many drivers out there for whom comfort levels, effortless performance and a decent on-road experience are high on their list of priorities, along with low running costs and decent residual values, it represents nothing less than an excellent owning proposition.
And, on top of that, given Toyota’s ability to pull off mega surprises like it did last week, perhaps in the not too distant future we could see the Avensis name being used in tandem with new high tech fuel technologies. Don’t second guess them.
