Ok I'm Going To Buy A 2012 Avensis 1.8 Tourer

[rogersp]

OK, I'm totally convinced the Avensis Tourer, 1.8 petrol, is the route to go, thank you for your opinions and inputs into my previous post a few days ago.

I took a ride down to the local Mr Ts but they only have diesel demonstrators, not much call for petrol apparently? When I asked about DPF issues on low mileage cars he said that there was no problem with Toyota due to there superior design??That's not really an issue as I know I need to make the change back to petrol for reasons previously stated and the great Sticky on this forum. Added to that I think I may even consider an automatic as I only drive leisurely these days.

In conversation with the Sales guy, I inquired about service costs which are menu driven but still waiting to find out if all consumables, oil, filters etc are included as he was not sure? The guy then suggested that I consider a monthly service plan for three/five years so I took some details.

Looking at the monthly plan it appears to be significantly more expensive than the standard menu servicing? Anyway, put a call in to Mr T and awaiting their call back to me. The other surprise was the service plan was dealer specific and when I inquired if I could take out a Toyota plan and have my car serviced at any Mr T dealership I was told this was not available?

One last thing concerning servicing, do any of you use an independent Toyota specialist? I ask as I've used two independent specialist over the last 10 years for a Honda and Mercedes and found them both to be both cost effective and efficient in the delivery of service.

If anyone knows of an independent in the Greater Manchester/Cheshire area, then please let me know.

Once again, thanks for your input

[Heidfirst]

you can start looking for a petrol Tourer via http://usedcars.toyota.co.uk/?id=used_cars .

There should be a few.There is a silver T4 @Altrincham or a white TR@York.

By contrast looking for petrol Mondeo estates recently on FordDirect showed a grand total of 0 nationally! Obviously Ford's market for Mondeo estates is pretty much all fleet.

[Whitewagon]

Presumably you will be buying from a recognised Toyota dealer. If so you will have, from new, a 5 year Toyota warranty which means that if you want to have the warranty cover you will need to have it serviced according to Toyota specifications using genuine or approved Toyota materials and parts. This will limit you to where and how it can be serviced so if you are thinking about moving to an independent garage before the end of the warranty period then you need to read the terms of the warranty closely.

Having had my previous car, a Honda Accord, serviced by an independent I found the difference in pricing marginal.

Having done a little research on Toyota parts pricing since owning an Avensis I found it to be swings and round abouts; some parts from Toyota are comparable to non genuine parts though some are clearly more expensive. It just depends on how much the warranty is worth to you. Of course if you never have a problem under the warranty period then you may save a few hundred pounds.

On the dealer/demonstrator front I had the same problem as you, the nearest dealer didn't have any automatics but a national search found a few within an hours drive and test drove two before purchasing the one wanted. Nearly new petrol autos are seemingly popular buys so you may need to look further afield. If you are looking for a nearly new model then it may be worth waiting for the registration changes (March and September) as the manufacurers own registerd models seem to be released to dealers at this time.