Toyota Auris 1.6 Valvematic Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Toyota Auris 1.6 Valvematic
Prices: £14,420-£16,360 – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 5E-6E
Emissions: 153g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 10.0s / Max Speed 121mph
Fuel Consumption: (urban) 53.6 (extra urban) 52.3 (combined) 43.5 mpg
Safety: Nine airbags / ABS /EBD
Dimensions: [5dr] length/width/heightmm 4220/1760/1515

CASH IN THE MATIC

Our Rating: 6.7 / 10

Toyota’s 1.6-litre Valvematic Auris has value on its side. Steve Walker reports.

The car industry is a difficult thing to stay on top of. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the latest trends and conventions, they have a nasty habit of shifting, perceived wisdom morphing into a load of old rubbish in the blink of an eye. Family hatchback buyers doing their research over the last few years can’t help but have noted the popularity of diesel-engines. They’ll have been shown the superior fuel economy and torque you get from a diesel and told that the petrol alternatives were lagging behind. This was undoubtedly true but, inevitably, the car industry has been on the move again and petrol engines like the 1.6-litre Valvematic in Toyota’s Auris are fighting back.

Diesel leapt ahead of petrol in the desirability stakes with the arrival of the common-rail injection technology which is now used by every mainstream manufacturer. It brought new levels of refinement, efficiency and performance to affordable diesel cars and petrol began to look a little passé. More recently, petrol has been fighting back with some smart technology of its own. The use of turbocharging has allowed more performance to be extracted from smaller, more economical engines, while technology like Toyota’s Valvematic has refined the combustion process to the point where valves and injectors respond to the driver’s inputs, optimising economy or performance as required. It’s all clever stuff but what does it mean for great petrol vs diesel debate?

The 1.6-litre Dual VVT-i engine that the Toyota Auris was launched with was no dullard. Its variable valve timing technology treated every last droplet of unleaded like it was Château Lafite Rothschild 1996. This 1.6-litre Valvematic unit refines the process with a series of modifications that Toyota dubs Optimal Drive. You’d need a degree in engineering to understand the more convoluted tinkering but the key improvement is that the amount of valve lift is now controlled by the engine management computer as well as the timing of both inlet and exhaust valves. The results include an 8bhp increase in power to 131bhp and a nine per cent boost to economy. Torque might not be of diesel engine proportions but the 160Nm is available usefully low in the rev range at 4,400rpm helping the 1.6-litre Auris to a 0-62mph sprint of 10s and a 121mph top speed. Specifying the MultiMode automatic transmission blunts 0-62mph performance by nearly two seconds.

The Auris has never been the most thrilling prospect from a driver’s perspective but it’s still above the class average in the way it goes stops and turns. The steering and suspension lack the feedback that other manufacturers work so hard to build into their cars but in time honoured Toyota fashion, the Auris is comfortable, refined and easy to drive.

Rather than anything extreme, the Auris’ exterior shape is ‘evolutionary.’ A less charitable verdict would be unadventurous. If Toyota really wanted to position the Auris as a different and higher quality car than the old Corolla, step one should be to ensure it doesn’t look broadly similar in dimension and style to that car. Yet despite the neater touches, well, it does. While Toyota senior suits talk about J-factor, vibrant clarity and emotional identity, most of us think it represents a missed opportunity. The car is thoroughly inoffensive but lacks the sparkle to stand out in a family hatch sector that’s increasingly full of good-looking alternatives. Toyota obviously sees the bigger picture and has gone for mass appeal in the worldwide market rather than pandering to cappuccino drinking Europeans.

The cabin is smart and well built with a clear dash design and OPTITRON instruments but materials quality is slightly hit and miss. There’s also a significant lack of oddments stowage space. For a car that namechecks the Volkswagen Golf amongst its key rivals, the Auris is more than a little behind the curve here. On the plus side, longer overhangs offer decent luggage capacity (354 litres) and generous rear legroom.

The 1.6-litre Valvematic engine is slotted into two mainstream trim grades, TR and T Spirit. It’s available as a TR with either the three or five door bodystyles but the plush T Spirit is five-door only. The pricing looks competitive next to equivalent engine options offered in key rivals like Ford’s Focus, Vauxhall’s Astra and Volkswagen’s Golf but it’s particularly tempting compared to the diesel alt