Avensis gets new competitive edge

IF EVER I’ve seen a company looking truly bullish about a new car it is Toyota and the new version of their hugely successful Avensis model, the latest of which was launched in Switzerland this week amid much chest-puffing from the Japanese giant.

This week’s launch, which on initial impressions is indeed a major step forward in the face of a D-Segment onslaught from the likes of Ford and Volkswagen with their respective new Mondeo and Passat models, was also marked by a little quibbling as to whether the new car is merely a facelift or a completely new car.

Some company representatives might have been a little taken aback by this questioning of their ‘all-new’ claims — pesky journalists and their churlish probings — but it seems to be a fair cop when you consider the only claims being made by Toyota about chassis changes concerned a more rigorous welding regime and a better class of glue used to seal the windscreens.