2.2d Sr 134bhp

October 11, 2009

I have now owned my Toyota Verso SR 2.2D from new for 18 months and covered 22k miles. Here are my thoughts so far.

Summary:

Overall a very good car and compared to its rivals I still think that its one of the best, no regrets yet about my purchase.

Negatives (minor gripes):

The 2.2 diesel engine feels muscular and in 3rd & 4th gear it does shift above 2000 rpm giving good acceleration from 40 mph to 60mph which is good for overtaking slow moving traffic on country roads e.g. heavy wagons & Sunday drivers however;

In first and second gears when pulling away it feels all of its 1½ tons. Its sluggish and can be a little scary as you crawl out into fast moving traffic. Normally in town this is usually followed by a large queue of traffic and as you get ready to lift off to slow the turbo (finally) kicks in and you lunge forward. I’ve still not got used to this.

On long journeys I like to place my left foot flat on the floor, however there is a slightly raised part of the floor where your left foot naturally rests. This forces your left foot into a slightly stressed position and when covering a 100 miles or more starts to irritate – why can’t they make it flat!

Space in the front at first glance looks generous but I think this is mainly because the windscreen stretches forward over the engine bay to give a deep dashboard. There actually seems to be more leg and knee room in the 2nd row of seats than the first however;

Whilst 3 adults can sit in comfort in the 2nd row due to the cars width the runner brackets for the front seats are raised high off the floor and intrude into the 2nd floor foot well space. Therefore any adult wearing shoes will find even if the front seats are pushed forward and the 2nd row all the way back you still have to sit with your feet offset from what is natural.

Some other minor issues:

The right indicator self cancels far too quickly, when turning right on a roundabout if you have to initially first turn slightly to the left (as you do with 90% of roundabouts) the indicator will cancel. You therefore have to signal twice – very annoying as this surely should have been picked up testing before launch.

The paint is as tough as butter – even gently brushing against it with your body can leave a permanent scrape. I’m glad I picked silver rather than my second choice black which must look tatty pretty quickly.

Positives:

Very flexible load space, would like it to be a little deeper in 5 seat mode like the 2009 model however it’s already pretty long externally and I wouldn’t want it any longer than it is now just for a bigger boot.

Fuel economy is very good. Averages 55mpg with mixed driving and when pressing on occasionally. Had it down to 49mpg as its poorest average (mostly wife driving round town) and at its best its got just over 60mpg on country roads. I normally fill up having done 580 – 600 miles with no more than 45.5 litres. If the tank really is 55 litres in size it should mean a possible safe range of 700 miles but I do not dare to push it that far as all the readouts predict doom after 520 miles.

Conclusion:

Would I buy another – yes but only this version, don’t like the new one with smaller less powerful engines and centrally mounted gauges. However I hope to run this for approx 10 years and then get an all electric plug in 

October 18, 2009

Can I ask a quick question about the MPG :)

I just bought an 18 month old 2.2D SR with just under 9k on the clock, kind of suggesting it was mostly used for the school run. I am using it now with mixed driving as you are but am only seeing an average of 43 MPG for the last 900 miles or so. I drive 50 miles per day to work with more than 40 of that on cruise at around 65 - 70. The last few miles at either end in fairly heavy traffic.

I have read on some of the posts that it takes a while for the MPG to pick up - did you see that with yours ?

Thanks

Hippo

October 22, 2009

Can I ask a quick question about the MPG :)
I just bought an 18 month old 2.2D SR with just under 9k on the clock, kind of suggesting it was mostly used for the school run. I am using it now with mixed driving as you are but am only seeing an average of 43 MPG for the last 900 miles or so. I drive 50 miles per day to work with more than 40 of that on cruise at around 65 - 70. The last few miles at either end in fairly heavy traffic.
I have read on some of the posts that it takes a while for the MPG to pick up - did you see that with yours ?
Thanks
Hippo

After the first 1000 miles I did notice an improvement in fuel economy (started off around 50mpg average), but to be honest since then it seems to have been pretty static.

It does seem quite sensitive to how its driven however... when my wife drives it (she keeps up with traffic but is not a 'boy racer' by any stretch of the imagination) the onboard average mpg readout drops from my usual 65 - 75 mpg to 45 - 55 mpg. She normally only does a few miles around town therefore she's never done enough miles to have to fill up a complete tank to see what average mpg she actually does get in reality.

I do accelerate quite hard but spend most of my time cruising round country roads at 40-50 mph at 1800 - 2000 rpm in Anglia which has few hills. The onboard instant mpg readout normally reads 99.9mpg for 80% of the time i'm driving.