| Launch Report Toyota Avensis |
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Brains Before Beauty The current Toyota Avensis was launched in 2003 but, despite its undoubted comfort, refinement, high specification, competitive pricing, robust build and bet-your-life dependability, its anodyne styling, average driving dynamics and general lack of pizzazz meant it's never been a model to set pulses racing, even in the uninventively named "upper medium" segment of the market where this car belongs. Not that Toyota is particularly bothered as strong pan-European sales have just precipitated the launch of an updated and refreshed Avensis for 2007.
Though you'd be forgiven for not spotting the many changes at first glance, the latest Avensis - which goes on sale on July 1 - still comes as a saloon, hatchback or Tourer estate but boasts a new front grille, front air dam and headlamps, plus new-look rear lamp clusters. The door mirrors are also new and are now fitted with integral indicator lights, while airflow has been smoothed beneath the car. Inside there's new upholstery, dash trim and a revised instrument panel on all versions, as well as higher equipment levels across the range and a more sophisticated audio system that can now handle MP3 files on CD. (In case you're wondering what the advantage of that may be, you can cram about 175 MP3 singles onto one CD.) Improvement has also been sought in the car's steering, ride and handling with strengthened steering components, retuned suspension, more effective anti-roll bars and, not least, increased body rigidity, which in turn further improves suspension performance. And, leaving no stone unturned, attention has also been given to the further reduction of noise and vibration, especially on the diesel-engined versions.
The two existing four-cylinder VVT-i petrol engines - a 127bhp 1.8 litre and 145bhp two-litre - remain available and unaltered, as does the 2.2-litre D-4D 150 (148bhp) diesel, but what's under the Avensis bonnet hasn't been left untouched as there's now an all new, two-litre D-4D 130 (124bhp), plus an uprated version of the 2.2 diesel with a fulsome 175bhp and 295lb/ft of torque, otherwise known as the D-4D 180 in Toyota parlance and badged the T180. The best seller is expected to be the new 2.0 D-4D 130 and so this model seemed a good a place as any to get acquainted. Although the Avensis is essentially a European car (having been styled in the south of France, its petrol engines built in North Wales, its diesels in Poland with final assembly in Derbyshire), its climate-control air-conditioning system, even on this warm and muggy Berkshire morning, served to remind just how much warmer and muggier the summers are in Toyota's oriental homeland. While many European in-car air-conditioners gradually cool interiors in their own good time, this one chills with the kind of ferocity normally reserved for fish fingers and peas.
Moving on up the road I'm also taken by the car's quietness and refinement, as well as the ease and fluidity of the controls. I wondered some twenty or so years ago whether cars could ever get any physically easier to drive and, tiny increment by tiny increment, they have, this six-speed manual Avensis being a prime example.
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