Tiger Cup

I've had mine for just under a week (2011 Hybrid). Have done around 55 miles in it so far mostly doing short 10 minute trips. At first I was getting around 40mpg but since adapting my driving a bit I'm managing most trips at 50-65mpg. I was getting approx 25mpg in my 2004 Ford Focus on the same trips so I am also very happy with the Auris. I find the instant consumption screen the best for getting the most mileage out of my car. It's amazing how easing off the pedal even just slightly will increase it by a lot without loosing barely any speed.

I'm joining the Auris owners club this weekend with a 2011 hybrid. One thing I've been wondering about since my test drive was when do you switch to the various modes, EV, Eco and Power to get the most out of the car? I assume if you are bothered about MPG you'll be unlikely to use the Power mode. Is Eco the standard mode the car is in when you start it up and it switches between the electric and the petrol engines? In another thread someone said that the EV only mode will only get you 1/2 a mile, 1 mile at the very most. If I put it into EV will the car automatically switch to the petrol engine when the battery runs out of power? What about speeding up over a certain speed? When at low speeds or in traffic or whatever, will the car automatically switch to full EV mode itself or will it always be making use of both engines unless I manually switch?

Thanks for all of the info guys. After the first few replies here I actually went out to test drive a local 2011 model I've had my eye on and ended up putting down a deposit! It was really nice to drive and I was surprised how it was more like driving the Nissan Leaf I had a drive of yesterday than a regular petrol car. I'll be picking it up at the weekend so expect more questions then :)

I'm looking to buy a used Auris Hybrid soon, either a 2010 or 2011 model. One thing I'm wondering is how good the battery is likely to be for one that age. I was previously looking at a full EV car and I'm aware that the batteries on those degrade over time. Is it the same with Hybrids? Is it a risk with one at this age that the charge it holds is going to be rubbish? I was also wondering how long it generally takes to get a decent charge up? When charged will it use the battery power automatically or would I need to switch modes and change to it manually? We mostly use our car for city driving (10-15 mile round trips usually) with occasional motorway trips (100+ mile round trips) and are ideally looking for something that is going to be a bit cheaper to run than our current 2004 Ford Focus 1.6!