kaboo

Hiya, Last week my rear windshield got damaged but it took 3 days to get Autoglass to come and sort it (it was through insurance). Meanwhile I taped a plastic sheet over it to prevent it from flooding with rain - we have quite a heavy rainfall last Friday. I had used masking tape hoping since it is supposed to come off the walls and wood paintwork, this would be ok. But it has not come off cleanly, lots of bits of tape and glue left on the paintwork. How can i get it off without damaging the paintwork? Cheers

It was a Varta with a Toyota label on it. The last three years, basically since Covid, this car is not used much and still the battery was sort of ok. The mechanic suggested taking it for a long drive (30-45 mins) every 10-15 days or so. But we use our other car (auris hybrid) for long drives and anywhere the whole family goes. The battery has cost £95, so am not sure if its worth trying to take the old car for long drives. The extra cost of petrol this car consumes over the hybrid would probably add up to more than £95 over the next 5-6 years. With demanding jobs and two little kids, it will not be practical to top up the battery with a charger 3-4 times a month. There is 5 years warranty with the new battery, so hopefully even with neglect at the moment we should be ok. Unless missus stops WFH and then this will be sorted anyway.

hank you everyone. We used Halffords service to install battery at home. I could not have done it before Saturday and missus needed the car in the weekdays. It cost £20, so not too bad. It really was the battery and it seems that the old battery was the original one from Toyota, like 12 years old, surprising!

Thank u all so much. I had a suspicion that hybrids cannot be used for jump starting but was not sure. Cheers for the warning. I am in the UK, and the nearest place to get a battery is Halfords. Putting reg number in on their website, it recommends: Yuasa HSB013 Silver 12V Car Battery (5 Year Guarantee). I have never heard of this brand before - would that be a decent battery?

Thank u again. Am a novice when it comes to cars - is it possible to damage a brand new installed battery if something else could b wrong?

Thank u. Is changing battery DIY friendly? Generally speaking how much does it cost at a garage?

Hi everyone, My 2011 Auris (1.6 petrol) refused to start up yesterday. This is our second car and mainly used by my wife. But since she has been working rom home since the last 3 years it doesn't get used as much. Mostly to pick kids from school 2x times a week (school is 1 km away). Once in a while, like may be once in 4-6 weeks, we take it for a longer drive of like 5-10 kms. This weekend we drove in it like for 15-16 kms. Come Monday evening, when missus tried to start, it refused. She only saw engine oil pressure light come on. 3 hours later when I was back home, I tried to start the car and here are the symptoms!!. 1. central locking was not working and I could not unlock using the key remote. I had to manually unlock the car. 2. inserted the key into the steering lock turned to acc position nothing happened. 3. Turned to ON position and several lights came on, on the panel, battery, oil pressure, ABS, air bag, etc. 4. Turned to start - nothing happened. No ignition. We bought this car in 2018 and have not replaced the battery ourselves. So it is atleast 5 years old, may be older. Does this suggest that the battery is dead? Or just drained? Should I try recharging it? Or take it to the garage for checking up? Am quite ok with DIY, is this something I could attempt to do? We dont have at home recovery (always had it - somehow got excluded this time when we renewed insurance). So at the very least I will need to take it to a local garage. Could I jump start it with our second car which is a 2018 Auris Hybrid. Considering how everything is at the moment, am just trying to save as much money as possible. Sorry these are lots of questions! Thank you in advance.

No no, am careful. If at 60 I keep at the left most lane where I cruised behind a lorry at a good distance, if left was empty I would go to 65 and keep there. When I had to overtake I would go to 70-73, complete the overtake and come back to 60-65. Also it was quite busy coming back on Sunday, so even in the middle lane traffic was around 65.

Just came back from a round trip to Swanage from Oxford. Avg mpg of the trip 57.1. Thats a gain of 6 mpg from my usual avg. I just tried to implement some of the suggestions from this thread - mainly how to accelerate and keep my target speed at 65 mph on motorway/A34. Thats great without too much effort. Thank you all 🙂

No no... I use fan, try to keep windows closed in city and above 40 mph. Generally in my opinion, my wife would not agree, most of the year UK doesn't get too cold or hot to use heating or cooling. For me an extra layer helps in cooler weather and fan helps in summers.

Thank you, I suppose size of the car also will factor in. TS (or estate) model would be a bit heavier and consequently less economical. I accelerate by keeping the left-dial on the instrument cluster (forgot what its called) on the lower part of eco - as much as possible. Sometimes its not - like merging onto A34 from a short slip road. The instantaneous MPG readout is max when the left dial on the cluster is at the lowest. I try to keep heating to minimum in winters (drive with jacket on and set temperature to 18) and cooling off in summers. But because of the pollen season in full flow at the moment, I have to keep windows closed. I will drop the target speed on A34 to 65 mph and see how much difference it makes. The max mpg (dashboard readout) that I have noticed between two fuel refills has been 53 but generally its between 50-51. Tires probably make a difference too. I think my auris has 17in wheels and am using Michelin cross climate 2 which are rated C for fuel eco. Summer tyres rated for better economy might be better - but any fuel saving would be offset by having two set of tires and paying for a tire hotel service.

Wow...ok so it means its definitely saving some gas compared to the old car. But how are you all getting 55-60 mpg? I think am quite calm driver.

Hi everyone, Last year November I got myself a new old Auris Hybrid and really love the car. Its the touring sports edition, so lots of space for our growing family plus so comfy to drive. We live along the congestion prone A34 and its gentle driving is so comfy. I think it has probably turned me into a calmer and less irritated commuter 😛 🙂 I had a question for you folks who have more experience with Toyota hybrids. How accurate and realistic is the dashboard shown mpg on Auris cars, and can you compare the mpgs between the two Auris' from different generations? My usage is mixed between slow stop-&-go urban traffic of Oxford when I drop my little one to nursery some 7-8 miles away then drive down the A34 for 15 miles at avg 60 mph speed. Dashboard says am getting ~50-52 mpg. This is 2018 1.8 TSS Auris Hybrid Touring Sports. My previous car was the 2011 petrol 1.6 valvematic which showed ~37-39 mpg with the same commute. We still have the old car which has recently clocked 100k miles and my wife uses it to pick kids from nursery. So hers is a totally urban driving and her dashboard mpg has dropped tp ~32-33 mpg. She is a calmer driver than I am, so I think its down to the city traffic dropping the mpgs for her. Cheers

Yes and extra cost of insurance, plus tyres plus services.

Thank you... yes I am still tempted with Lexus IS 300h. I am not really looking for luxury, but when prices are comparable to Auris/Corolla TS, I cannot seem to find too much argument against IS 300h. Especially because you get more comfort, safety and even more reliability. I mean check this screenshot, the cheapest Toyota approved Auris hybrid TS of similar mileage I found was £15.5k (although that was from 2016)