After being messed about (by a Hyundai dealer who attempted to sell me an 11month old Approved Used i30 diesel auto as "immaculate", despite having been reversed into a pillar and the bumper and rear quarter damaged, along with slashes in the drivers seat), I've just bought an Auris.
Cracking deal (imho) for a Feb 09 car, its the T Spirit with the semi auto box (needed due to dodgy knee and dodgier NHS attempts to repair) and its got the full europe colour nav with bluetooth, plus parking sensors etc. Allegedly £19k new, £10995 Approved Used.
I did a test drive, the autobox is very much like that of a smart, its a conventional gearbox that the clutch/gearchanging is done for you, and it lurches between gears but thats quite comforting I find.
Anyone else got one? (and no jokes about it going on and on without stopping, please)
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Jolly good. How do you pronounce Auris anyway? I told a colleague I liked her one and she got all huffy.
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Get something sharp but not too sharp. Sit down, and prod it in the upper leg. The noise that comes out of your mouth is how you should pronounce the first syllable. This is if you exclaim in an "ow" sort of way.
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That might explain it, especially as I went on to say it was bigger close up than I had thought it would be.
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I find Toyota Aurises (?) very difficult cars to pin down. best to say they are Toyota's Focus. But Toyota seems to deliberately want to leave them undefined. List pricing (as noted) can be silly.
The name always makes us discuss in the office. My own imagination defines Auris as that darker ring of skin found around (but not in) the anus.
Funny how car names give vivid images. But that above is completely true.
Ling
Last edited by: LINGsCARS on Sun 28 Feb 10 at 18:51
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At least its not called Corolla...... I might be about to hit 40 but even I wouldn't drive a Corolla.
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The Auris being shown next week in Geneva with the clever stuff from the Prius is interesting. Might appeal to those not wanting a Prius... not that the Auris is a looker.
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I hired an almost new one in Capetown and it was really awful , in fact so bad I swoped it after a day. The gearbox was so bad I was fearful of whiplash and it was almost impossible to climb the steep slope to our rented flat ( which we have often stayed at). I invoked three lots of wheel spin on one attempt and that was the final straw.
I thought the electronic instruments were poor, the handbrake nasty but the rest was ok.
The major hire co that had 500 on their fleet had so many complaints that they were embarrassed.
Not a good "automatic" on a hire fleet especially needing to put it in gear and or handbrake on before exiting.
So not for me.
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>> The gearbox was so bad I was fearful of whiplash
I've also got a smart, i'm used to that ;)
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Its still called a Corolla in North America
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In New Zealand they still call them Corollas: thinking of the Latin words, I'd prefer a Toyota Crown to a Toyota Ear. Presumably their market research suggests the the majority agree with J500. We had a 1.8 last year in NZ - very lively, and I can't think why they won't let the UK have this engine.
Just back from South Africa - you're right, Toyotas do have trouble with Cape Town's steep drives - particularly the gutless Corolla saloon we were allotted this time. Last time it was a VW Polo Classic 1.6 - lots of oomph, huge boot for the suitcases and it roared up the steep hills.
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Collected it yesterday, sales process was fine, car was immaculately prepared (and no dealer sticker in the window, which pleased me). They ran through the different toys, and helped me set the sat nav for home and then we were off.
The MMT gearbox is very much like a smart, it goes then everything slows for a gearchange, and then we're off again. Its much more successful if the paddles are used. This is how I expected it to be, it's a conventional 5speed manual with everything done for you - none of this lovely double clutch stuff for Toyota. Particularly impressed with the built in car phone thats part of the nav unit, was very easy to pair up and use via the steering wheel controls.
Downsides - its quite low geared so on the motorway it's doing 3500rpm but the engine isn't noisy so not a huge issue. The range on the trip computer seems low, but maybe that'll settle in once it's had a few good trips. Having a warning light to tell you there's nothing wrong with the passenger airbag is daft.
All in all a nice car, nothing particularly exciting about it, but nothing really offensive either.
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>>Having a warning light to tell you there's nothing wrong with the passenger airbag is daft.
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Isnt that about warning you that the airbag is active so switch it off if a baby seat / child is going to use the passenger seat?
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>> >>Having a warning light to tell you there's nothing wrong with the passenger airbag is
>> daft.
>> >>
>> Isnt that about warning you that the airbag is active so switch it off if
>> a baby seat / child is going to use the passenger seat?
>>
I guess so. I small piece of black tape will be going over it shortly, no other car i've owned has needed a nagging light to tell me that.
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Every other car lights the warning lamp when you disable the airbag
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And in my car if you turn the key to disable the passenger airbag it won't unless it detect the ISOfix child seat.
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>> I small piece of black tape will be going over it shortly
>> no other car i've owned has needed a nagging light to tell me that.
>>
I would check the handbook first - there might be a fault with the airbag if the light is on all the time.
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>> I would check the handbook first - there might be a fault with the airbag
>> if the light is on all the time.
Thats how it's meant to be, light on = airbag on = unsafe for forward facing car seat. There is another light which when its on = airbag off = safe for kid seat. Its a silly little detail, i'm sure someone somewhere appreciates it but I find it annoying. Its basically having a warning light telling me everything is working fine with the airbags. If that transferred to all the cars functions we'd have warning lights galore!
Last edited by: J500ANT on Mon 8 Mar 10 at 08:34
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Well i'm a month in and.........It's ok. But it really isn't as nice a car or as well built as a Toyota should be.
-It has a number of rattles and clunks that the owners club suggest are par for the course.
-The MMT gearbox is dire, infact i'd go as far as to say it's worse than the gearbox in my smart. It's main issue is it's too willing to drop into first gear, and when in first gear it doesn't want to go into second as early as i'd like. I knew it wasn't going to be great, and so it's not a huge problem for me.
-The voice recognition for the bluetooth phone is a waste of time - having "taught" it when I ask it to Dial, it now says "no Ski POI's available" or "Lexus POI showing" which amuses me more than annoys me.
-The ride and handling aren't a patch on the Hyundai i30 we had before.
On the upside its doing 37mpg which isn't bad, the throttle hasn't jammed open and the brakes work fine (as I tested on Friday, or i'd have had a Volvo shaped front spoiler). I'm still enjoying the keyless go thing, amazes me how well that works.
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> The MMT gearbox is dire
Almost no one seems to like MMT.
I once test drove Auris. Everything in the car was good but I couldn't feel good with MMT gearbox.
At high speed, it was fine but at low speeds (upto 30 mph) there was always a jerk when car changed gears. It felt like the car made an emergency stop for a moment and then sprang up!
When I told the dealer about it, they said it is like that and owners are supposed to use the paddle to shift gears rather than run it in fully auto mode.
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Well, the MMT is well known to be dire - with good reason! Its terrible with the diesel engine in the Yaris - dump the gas at a roundabout and by the time it responded, you were testing the side impact beams. Still, if people keep buying them, they will keep selling them...
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Still if people
>> keep buying them they will keep selling them...
>>
And thats the problem in a nutshell.
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Reports in Germany are of very mixed experiences with the Toyota MMT gearbox. There seem to be myriads of different ECU software versions around, some of which work, some of which don't and some of which seem to result in burned out clutches - maybe Toyota hired Microsoft engineers to write the software.
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People buy them once, but most won't do so again.
These semi-automatics really are the invention of the devil. I'm not often sympathetic to car dealers, but one can make an exception here as they have to carry the can for manufacturers who won't listen to their customers.
These things are unpleasant, jerky, unreliable and no better on fuel consumption than a full automatic would be (because you have to boot it to get any performance out of it). I'm sure the Smart would have sold a lot better if it were available with a proper manual option with a clutch.
It seems to me that the double clutch system (as in DSG and the Ford system) is the only one that works effectively - are there any others that do?
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>> It seems to me that the double clutch system (as in DSG and the Ford system) is the only one that works effectively - are there any others that do?
Are DSG and MMT different?
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DSG and MMT are worlds apart. DSG works almost seamlessly, chopping from gear to gear without delay, MMT is just a bit clunky.
I knew the MMT wasn't going to be wonderful, but as i've said before I also have a smart and the gearbox set up is just about the same on that, so it's something i'm used to. I chose an MMT car because I needed two pedals, but also because it doesn't hit the economy like a torque converter auto would.
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Well well. Another week or so on and now....
some eeeejut in a Peugeot 306 estate reversed into the rear drivers side bumper, big thump and car shunted forward a bit. He stopped, admitted liability and asked if I would get a quote as he'd rather pay cash. **sigh**
Oh and the paintwork on the rear passenger side that I knew had been redone before sale, due to another idiot reversing into it on the forecourt, has started to go flat and the sanding marks coming back through. **sigh**
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>>>started to go flat and the sanding marks coming back through. **sigh**
This has been my experience of the dentman type repairs. I always use a proper bodyshop no matter how small the blemish.
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>> This has been my experience of the dentman type repairs. I always use a proper
>> bodyshop no matter how small the blemish.
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I'm 99% sure it WAS a proper bodyshop, it's certainly had a new doorskin. When attending to the rear bumper, i'll get a proper opinion on the side and then go back to the supplying dealer. The joys of motoring!!
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Toyota Auris - Toyota Auris 1.6 MMT - Runfer D'Hills
