- What were your/your partner's first impressions of the car?
I thought it was very sleek.. It was very comfortable. DH said it had a sporty look/feel to it (reminded him a bit of the Toyota Celica). He said ?Wow its quiet?, whilst it was running on battery on the roads in town. Inside its roomy in the front of the cabin. Legroom in the back isn?t great for tall people. My Dad is about 5ft 7 and his feet were under the seat in front when he sat in the back. Tinted windows in the back were good for DS.
- What do the children think of it?
DS said he liked it and then he wanted potty (he is only 2!) He did nod off for a cheeky morning nap after 5 minutes in the car on the way to the shop so he must have been comfortable.
- How did you find driving a Hybrid? Was it what you expected?
Suprisingly easy. A lot easier than I expected. It is less stressful than driving a manual ? no constantly changing gears up and down when stopping and starting in town centre traffic jams. I got used to the automatic straight away. It was impressive to feel how it drives on the battery and then the engine kicks in when needed. DH said it was really quiet and my not-easily-impressed father was really impressed with how clever the hybrid system is. You can see on the display the different modes e.g. normal engine being used, hybrid battery being used and battery being charged. I?m glad it has the power mode as I felt that was important when driving on the motorway up into the Cumbrian mountains. The car had enough ?umph? when needed, but I still thought my 1.6 petrol coped better on the fast acceleration required on the motorway.
- What's it like to drive?
Easy and once Roland at the dealership had explained how it all worked, it made perfect sense. It was relaxing and a lot easier than a stick-shift manual in a busy town centre. Roland at the dealership told me to ignore the three buttons EV, Eco and Power modes, but after reading the manual, I decided to go for it and I?m glad I did as I realised that the Auris did have that little bit extra umph when using the power mode on steep hills or when quick acceleration was needed on the motorway. Its really good in town and on faster roads, really smooth and so much easier than a manual as there are no gears to worry about, so driving is easier and more relaxing. My average fuel economy for the test drive was 71mpg, which is impressive considering I had been using the air con for most of the two weeks. My current car does 44mpg on a good day, about 38mpg with air con on.
- Is it a comfortable ride?
Yes. Seating position was good. I am used to driving an MPV which is higher up, but I felt fine in the Auris, I still had a good comfortable driving position. It was so quiet and a very chilled out drive. DH really liked it, he fell asleep in the car! Plus with it being an automatic, my left knee has definitely felt the benefits over the last two weeks of no clutch!
- What's the boot space like?
I do like a big boot! DH put the stroller in and said ?It only just fits and there?s not much room?. Until I pointed out that the boot space can be made bigger by lowering the top shelf. Even so, it would only fit our stroller in and not the big pram without removing the parcel shelf. However to be fair to the Auris, we only found one car out of all the MPVs, family saloons and hatchbacks that had a big enough boot space to fit the whopper pram in. In terms of luggage though it was fine ? 3 big holdalls or suitcases plus room either side for coats and boots. I could fit a whole weekly shop in there no problem. The split boot idea is good if you wanted to put heavier items on the bottom and lighter items on top.
- What do you think about the features of the car? E.g Heads up display, electric seats, smart start system, multimedia system, rear-parking camera?
Heads Up display: Didn?t have this.
Electric Seats: Didn?t use as it was July.
Smart Start: Was great. Came in handy at the supermarket when keys were in my bag and I couldn?t be bothered to root around for them. I will really miss this feature when I have to give the car back (unless Toyota say I can keep it 
pretty please). Then to just sit in, press brake and then power button is brilliant. Friends and family that I showed the car to were amazed at the no key start, it is pretty impressive that the keys could be in my handbag and yet I can still drive the car.
Multimedia: AM/FM/DAB radio is good and I like how the available radio stations are shown on the screen and change when you drive into another region. The screen is very clear to see, even at night or in bright sunlight and the touchscreen worked fine. For me, I felt the location of the screen was too low down. We connected DH phone to the multimedia system via Bluetooth to play music which worked straight away and was easy to set up. SatNav was easy to use and it had useful features like zooming in and out of the map, showing petrol stations and the voice guidance was not too intrusive. I also found the traffic incident page useful, which showed all the delays, road closures e.t.c near our locations.
Rear Parking Camera: Useful, but doesn?t replace a good look around to either side of you and it did take some getting used to when reversing but looking in front to use the camera. The camera does have a good wide view, which DH pointed out was good for seeing any pedestrians stepping out. I just couldn?t get used to it though.
Other features: Good positioning of the USB port and phone charging socket ? not all cars have them in a sensible, accessible place that doesn?t get in the way of the car controls/handbrake, but the Auris control panel was well designed for this. I can only echo what other testers said about the clock. Really looks like an afterthought in terms of design and I couldn?t read it from the drivers seat. Electric mirror adjuster was a little bit too low for me, I preferred that mine on my own car is located on the driver?s door panel. Auto sensing lights were great, I?ve never had these before. They were brilliant in tunnels and underground car parks when I only needed the lights on for a short space of time and they would auto switch on and off. I believe the windscreen wipers also have this function, but it didn?t rain whilst I had the car so I didn?t use this capability.
- Were these features what you expected the Auris to have or additional? To be honest for the price of this model, I would expect the Auris to have all these features.
- Are there any other features you?d like the car to have?
I would like it to have an internal rear passenger view mirror. I currently have an integral one on my MPV and its great for keeping an eye on DS in back without having to turn around. Other than that, no, it had everything else needed and more.
DH and Dad pointed out: spare tyre! £20k for a car and no spare tyre, but then lots of manufacturers seem to be doing this now, just providing a puncture kit.
- Has testing this car made you more or less likely to buy a Toyota in future? More likely to consider a Toyota, but as lovely as this car was, £20k is out of our price range, but the 2 year old used are within price range. Perhaps the Avensis or Prius is more our cup of tea, being that bit bigger. I would be willing to test drive one of those for Toyota if they so wish (hint hint 
)
- Has testing this car changed your perception of Toyota cars at all? If so, how? People I have talked to have always spoken highly of Toyota, but I?ve never had one myself to be able to comment. The car did live up to the expectations that I had and perceptions of both DH and father who are both interested in cars. Driving this car, it felt as though Toyota have really thought about it from a drivers? perspective and requirements. It is well planned and designed and very comfortable. The technology is clever, even better than I thought it would be and the mpg is great. I also spoke to an AA breakdown patrol man, who said when he gets call outs to Toyota its only ever tyres or batteries that is the problem, nothing mechanical with the cars at all. So it has reinforced and improved further my perception of Toyota cars.
- What one thing do you like best about it?
It was comfortable and easy to drive. My MPV feels like the seats are made of breeze block and being back to driving a manual gear box is boring now!
- What one thing would you change about it?
A button to create a fake engine noise when in battery mode. This is not so much a criticism of Toyota or the car, but a reflection of how people can be so oblivious and aimlessly wander about, unaware of their surroundings (maybe a big stick to poke them with would be better ). On 3 occasions I have encountered situations where people didn?t realise I was there in the car or even that the car was running because it is so quiet. On the first occasion, the trolley man at Asda had the fright of his life as he hadn?t heard the car and I sat there for ages waiting for him to move. He wanted to know how I?d got there behind him and he hadn?t heard me. On the second occasion, we were trying to reverse out of a space whilst the lads in the car next to us had all their doors open and were stood in the way. To be fair, they did apologise and said they didn?t even know the engine was running. They seemed impressed with the car and were talking about it. Then the third time, straight after the second, we had to drive up a short road to the exit, which was the same road pedestrians used to enter and exit the country park. A group of 6 heard the car in front of us and moved into single file to get out of the way, but then reformed to chat and effectively blocked us from driving past them so we had to crawl along behind them. It was clear that they hadn?t heard us. Then the Dad turned around and saw us and told the rest of the group to move to the side. We had the windows open and I heard one of the kids say ?why is that car not making a noise?? to which the Mum replied ?Because it?s a hybrid, its electric?.