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I'm with you. I've driven Yaris (and Auris) hybrids with CC, and it works exactly the same in all of them. I use mine whenever possible for exactly the same reasons. I only wish it worked at 20 mph, as there are some mile long 20 stretches in Norfolk and Suffolk, and it needs frequent glances at the speedo - it's such times I'm particularly grateful for the Prius' heads Up Display.

Hi everyone, New to the forum this will be a long opening post. I started out with a Toyota Yaris as a runabout, always thought Toyota's were reliable cars and managed to pick up a nice cheap 1.0 Blue VVTI I loved this car was great on fuel never missed a beat but the rust that kills Yaris's was starting to come through. I work in the motor trade (Aston Martin) and we had some trade cars ready to go to the auctions, in the corner I saw this: I didn't know too much on Avensis's but I took it for a drive and loved it, has all the toys sat nav, cruise control, full leather, electric seats and importantly the later chain driven engine. Was a former Toyota demonstrator vehicle and a one owner car, the car was on 99,000 when I bought it and I felt the car was too clean to go to auction and deserved to be loved by me, the rear seats look like they have never been sat in! So I managed to get the car for £1,750 which I think is a bit of a bargain, has MOT until October 2015 but I inspected the car and it needed brakes all round (cost me £200 for parts), tracking aligned and two front tyres. Here are a few more photo's of the car. Also took the car on a 450 mile journey to Newquay where it was effortless on the motorways. I have owned the car now for 3 months and in that time I have had no issues at all. The car has been serviced and I have been getting around 45-48mpg in town and 55-60mpg on motorways. It is a joy to drive. I felt the car needed a little bit more 'umph' so I fit a tuning box from a local diesel tuning company, I have also blocked off the EGR valve and it hasn't brought up any EML and the engine feels a lot stronger, the two combined have made the car pull harder it smokes a lot less and I'm getting much better MPG's. However and this is one reason I have signed up to the forum. I read something that scared me on the head gasket issues on this particular model. The car does not burn or leak oil, it starts and runs as it should engine sounds very healthy, the car is currently on 103,000 miles. I didn't get the service pack with this car as it was a trade we weren't required to request them but I'm aware it has a full Toyota service history. A few questions, should I worry about the head gasket? There are no signs right now to suggest it is weak. If I contact Toyota with my chassis number would they provide a history of my service history? How likely is it that the head gasket issue has already been fixed? I am impressed how clean the car is underneath brake lines are mint as are coil springs and it has a new exhaust system. Only issue I have is my injectors appear to be leaking is this normal? Sorry for cramming in so much info I had planned on joining sooner, hope to contribute more thanks!

It hasn't appeared its been there all the time, it is the variant code of the instrument cluster

I'm with you. I've driven Yaris (and Auris) hybrids with CC, and it works exactly the same in all of them. I use mine whenever possible for exactly the same reasons. I only wish it worked at 20 mph, as there are some mile long 20 stretches in Norfolk and Suffolk, and it needs frequent glances at the speedo - it's such times I'm particularly grateful for the Prius' heads Up Display. Same on the Prius+ works lovely and it doesn't accelerate hard to get up to speed when you resume after suspending due to traffic, I wish I had the adaptive cruise though, it would save me having to suspend and resume in the road works etc.

Interesting... All I can say is that the cruise control on a Yaris Hybrid must be way better in operation than on a Prius. I use cruise control in mine at even the slightest opportunity, even on urban roads, since control of it is so immediate and accurate. It always gives way better fuel consumption results than trying to second guess the car with the right foot anyway; especially on the mostly flat(ish) roads around here... The odd hill isn't a problem either since knocking it off is immediate and then clicking "resume" on the other side is instant... It is very useful for cruising at exactly 30 mph without the risk of going over through a village or area littered with speed cameras...

Are you talking about actual rust through the paint work or a rust streak running down from the hatch handle/button release? If the later it is caused by a small steel bolt withing the button housing a swap to a stainless steel bolt will cure this.

No I went for the normal, the company were totally honest with me and said I would only gain around 5-10bhp from the normal to the Pro and it was an extra £120 ontop of the £80 I bought. I'm going to put it on the rollers soon to see what it's at but it feels good.

Probably to make it simpler and prevent potential file corruptions / running issues etc.

I updated mine today as well. Took about 30 minutes to download and about an hour in the car. Glad mine's a PIP so the engine never started. Why do we have to upload all of Europe's maps. Surely it would have been better to let you choose which countries to install.

Alistair I hope you get on OK with your Avensis, it looks like a lovely car. The cynic in me always thinks when a car like this comes up, whether company or privately owned, if it was as good as it looks then there would be plenty of buyers for it especially at the price. Ever see the Dog Whisperer on TV? That episode Chihuahuas From Hell with the wee one called El Diablo. The vets had marked his folder AWC Approach With Caution because they were likely to get bitten. I always take a mental AWC note. Given the cooling system snafus you get with these did you ever look into using a water-less engine coolant eg Evans. The car's well outside warranty anyway and it might be worth looking into specially if you're squeezing it a bit more with a chip. re your query about timing chain life span, they're supposed to last for the lifetime of the engine if properly lubricated, plenty of previous posts eg see http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/97833-does-avensis-need-the-timing-chain-replaced-as-a-routine/

Wow. Best ever fuelly today. 58.3 from my Iq3. better even than I used to get from a A2 tdi in another life. Average now up to 56.0 Amazing how long it takes to recover from 2 tanks of ordinary unleaded early on. Also done 3400ml since feb, just pottering around the devon lanes. Mmmm Well happy. Cheers Colin.