My New Car - 2015 Auris Touring Sports Excel Hybrid

[jk0]

Hi all.

Just thought I'd say hello and pop up some pics of my new car. It's a 2015 Auris Touring Sports, with the hybrid drivetrain and in Excel trim. It's got the optional panoramic roof, and the paint is metallic Vermillion Red.

I've had it 2 weeks, covered just over 900 miles from brand new and so far I'm very pleased with it. :)

In terms of comfort and refinement it completely trounces my previous "premium" German turbodiesel. It's averaged 52mpg (calculated from odometer and amount of fuel used to brim the tank) over the first 2 tankfuls of petrol, despite the cold weather and a brand-new and still-tight engine. I'm hoping this will get up to around 60mpg once it's covered a few thousand miles and the weather warms up. The boot space is superb and the panoramic roof makes the interior feel a lot more spacious than it really is.

Downsides? It has lousy headlights, the stereo and sat nav are pretty sluggish to respond and fiddly to use (although I can't fault the sound quality, nor the functionality of the navigation system), and there isn't much rear legroom.

I even like the way it looks! Toyota have made some pretty dull-looking cars recently but this has a pleasantly sharp-looking shape and is very distinctive. And that Vermillion Red paintwork comes up really nicely with a bit of Auto Glym and some sunshine! I must buy some better tyre dressing, though - believe it or not the pics were taken 5 minutes after putting some on - Asda own brand stuff is evidently best avoided.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Hello Jonny - welcome to Toyota Owners Club.

[Uncle Buck]

Very smart Jonny - welcome to the club :)

[cuius]

Are the headlights of the Mk 2 Auris worse than the Mk 1s - was driving overnight last week and the latter seemed more than adequate?

[barrycoll]

Very pretty car, BUT, did you consider a Prius Jonny??

What put you off?

[Chris Dance]

The car looks very smart. I find the paintwork on my 2014 blue Prius scratches very easily. I am forevever trying to polish out small scratches. My last prius was white, maybe small scratches did not show up so readily.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Nice car and lovely colour. Sounds like you've done your homework on the car and know a bit about how the hybrid system gets better economy in summer than winter.

One thing to check: tyre pressures. Even a couple psi too low really does affect the mpg's at the top end. When you get the first service make damn sure they use 0w20 oil or your top end economy will bomb too.

Last thing. Just drive the car; try not to think you can out fool the computer into getting better economy such as trying to keep the car on electric longer etc. It really does know best. If you're not aware of this, there are a few threads on the subject - some recent.

Lastly. Enjoy.

[Hicardo]

Nice!

I now have a newish MK2 Auris HSD, and i think the lights are fine, and A LOT better than the Mk 1 that i traded in

Im averaging about 54mpg in winter after 5500 miles.

At the end of summer last year when the car was brand new, it was averaging 58 plus.

My all time high is 99.9

[FROSTYBALLS]

Are the headlights of the Mk 2 Auris worse than the Mk 1s - was driving overnight last week and the latter seemed more than adequate?

Nice!

I now have a newish MK2 Auris HSD, and i think the lights are fine, and A LOT better than the Mk 1 that i traded in

The headlights of the second generation Auris seem to divide opinion amongst owners. Some say the lights are OK, others the reverse. This seems to be partly the HIR2 bulbs and partly the spread of light on dipped (low) beam.

The second generation uses HIR2 bulbs, as opposed to H11 bulbs in the first generation. As regards light output, the HIR2 bulbs are supposed to produce around 1750 lumens compared to around 1000 lumens for OE halogen bulbs. There are upgrade bulbs available to replace H11 bulbs (eg Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited), but not for HIR2 bulbs.

In 2014 Osram began producing the HIR2 bulb, and I enquired whether they planned to bring out an upgrade version like their Nightbreaker range, and the answer was 'no' -

"Good afternoon Mike

Thank you for your web message.

HIR bulbs already run at a high efficiency and up-rated versions are not possible at the moment. So, I am afraid that there are no immediate plans to introduce a Night Breaker version. Thank you for your interest and we will keep it in mind.

Best regards

Keith Raftery

Technical Sales Manager

OSRAM Ltd

OSRAM House,

Waterside Drive,

Langley,

Berkshire SL3 6EZ"

[Uncle Buck]

Well done Osram - at least they took the time to reply & explain :)

[kithmo]

Poor headlight output can be due to headlight alignment, not just vertical but horizontal alignment too.

I found this out on a Mk3 Mondeo I had, it was very poor at illuminating the road ahead on both dip and hi beam, this was comparing it to my previous Mk3 Mondeo.

Like many the first thing I did was upgrade the bulbs, this made very little difference. I checked the headlight aim using a pattern of beam cut off position dimensions I had located on the web, marked out on my garage door and found that the beams were slightly low and that they were aiming outwards from the car, i.e. the left beam was aiming too far left and the right beam was aiming too far right. After adjusting them to aim straight ahead the output was noticeably improved, back to as it should have been.

[Joseph D]

... My all time high is 99.9 ...

Not for a full tank, I'll bet.

[Hicardo]

Hah! No, not a full tank, just a very economical mostly downhill trip

[jk0]

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Always a pleasure to find a friendly forum! :)

After several more journeys involving stop/start traffic I'm ever more impressed with the Auris, and in particular the hybrid drivetrain. It takes all the effort and stress out of crawling through town - gone are the constant gearchanges, numb left leg, and the constant noise and vibration of an idling diesel engine. In fact I don't think I've driven a car with a smoother transmission than this. It's excellent.

I've passed the 1000 mile mark now. Filled the tank for the third time today and it worked out to 54.0mpg over the last 350 miles. An improvement on the previous 52, long may this trend continue! Trip computer showed an average figure of 57.6 so it is definitely more accurate than the Volkswagen Lie-O-Meter!

Why not a Prius? Well, first and foremost is the cost: it's a company car, and on the particular scheme my employers use the top-spec Auris is much cheaper than the base model Prius. The estate body also makes more sense, as I carry a lot of tools and test gear around. I'm led to believe that the Prius cabin is a bit more spacious, but I do prefer the Auris interior from an aesthetic point of view.

Unfortunately I can't offer any comparison with the lights on a Mk 1 Auris as my experience with those was a couple of drives in the 2.0 and 2.2 diesel versions, in daylight, in 2008.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Poor headlight output can be due to headlight alignment, not just vertical but horizontal alignment too.

I found this out on a Mk3 Mondeo I had, it was very poor at illuminating the road ahead on both dip and hi beam, this was comparing it to my previous Mk3 Mondeo.

Like many the first thing I did was upgrade the bulbs, this made very little difference. I checked the headlight aim using a pattern of beam cut off position dimensions I had located on the web, marked out on my garage door and found that the beams were slightly low and that they were aiming outwards from the car, i.e. the left beam was aiming too far left and the right beam was aiming too far right. After adjusting them to aim straight ahead the output was noticeably improved, back to as it should have been.

Was it a Ford garage in the Harrogate area that sold you the car or performed it's MOT, and was it OS headlight that was out?

The reason I ask is that a couple of the local Ford dealers had wrongly calibrated headlight aiming equipment - apparently. The local Ford dealer to me used to be one of 2 authorised taxi MOT stations in the area. The taxi MOT is an MOT but stricter and includes additional items. Many cars that went into them failed on headlight aim and came out with a OS headlight aiming for the stars/blinding oncoming cars.

Eventually corrected after many drivers complained - how come nearly every car was failing on an OS headlight? Maybe it was their equipment, and apparently was.

Personally I never went to them and never would, but the reasons for why is another story.

[jk0]

I'll look into any adjustments that I can make - thanks for the suggestion GC. :)

Getting on for 1500 miles now, filled up this evening and the last 364 miles cost me just over £32, at a true average of 54.1mpg. Trip computer claimed 56.0 which isn't far off. Happy with that given the cold weather and my using the power a little more than before, now that it's had chance to run in a little.

[kithmo]

Poor headlight output can be due to headlight alignment, not just vertical but horizontal alignment too.

I found this out on a Mk3 Mondeo I had, it was very poor at illuminating the road ahead on both dip and hi beam, this was comparing it to my previous Mk3 Mondeo.

Like many the first thing I did was upgrade the bulbs, this made very little difference. I checked the headlight aim using a pattern of beam cut off position dimensions I had located on the web, marked out on my garage door and found that the beams were slightly low and that they were aiming outwards from the car, i.e. the left beam was aiming too far left and the right beam was aiming too far right. After adjusting them to aim straight ahead the output was noticeably improved, back to as it should have been.

Was it a Ford garage in the Harrogate area that sold you the car or performed it's MOT, and was it OS headlight that was out?

The reason I ask is that a couple of the local Ford dealers had wrongly calibrated headlight aiming equipment - apparently. The local Ford dealer to me used to be one of 2 authorised taxi MOT stations in the area. The taxi MOT is an MOT but stricter and includes additional items. Many cars that went into them failed on headlight aim and came out with a OS headlight aiming for the stars/blinding oncoming cars.

Eventually corrected after many drivers complained - how come nearly every car was failing on an OS headlight? Maybe it was their equipment, and apparently was.

Personally I never went to them and never would, but the reasons for why is another story.

This was a 7 month old car at the time which I had just bought as a "nearly new" from a car supermarket, so unless someone had fiddled with it in the few months before I got it, it had been like this from the factory.

[mitadoc]

Congrats on the car. I am considering the same trim, same model and engine,just different colour.

I was wondering what is the MPG on A-roads, B-roads and M-roads?

Thanks in advance.

Just for the record - I don`t have a heavy foot,but I do drive with the highest possible and allowed speed :)

[DarrenM]

I've got the TS Icon+ so the model down with 16" wheels rather than 17".

I get between 55-60 depending on weather. Doesn't seem to matter whether it's A, B, Motorway, anything.

Speed seems to be the biggest MPG killer. If you can drive around 5MPH under the speed limit you'll see a big difference in MPG.