Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer?

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 09:54
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - yellowmitch

Hi There,

I am a bit of a serial car collector and currently mainly drive a Rover 75 connoisseur se CDTi tourer. It's a 53 plate with 135000 miles on it and I REALLY love the car and the spec it has. The problem is that the car clutch is now quite heavy and soem of the bodywork has the odd dent and scratch. Now don't get me wrong, these things are pretty minor and I am a qualified mechanic, so it's not like I can't fix the problems.

The thing that annoys me however is that even though it is a diesel and I service it religiously, I only get around 35mpg out of it.

I also bought a 2006 Daihatsu Sirion 1.3sx as a winter car to save the rover, but this 2 car strategy is not really ideal.

I am tempted to buy one newer car (ideally an estate) to replace both.

I am considering the toyota auris touring sports excel 1.6 valvematic as I think this will give great spec, great reliabilty and hopefully better economy than the rover.

I am minded to stay well away from modern diesels and all their troublesome turbos, dmf's, dpf's etc. My question her is is wht car do people reccomend as a reliable, economical, spacious high spec car?

Alan

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 10:02
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - skidpan

Look at a Seat Leon tourer. With the TSi engine its a really great performer and the economy is equally brilliant. The 1.2 and 1.4 variants are the only engines you could possibly need on todays roads, forget the 1.8 TSi.

I have a 1.4 TSi but its the hatch. Had it about 18 months now and over 11,000 miles its averaged a genuine calculated mpg, not bad for a 140 ps petrol. Its the Se spec which ahs all the kit you could possibly want as standard.

Bought mine from CarFile.net. The local dealers were a total waste of time. Carfile save me £2000 with no risk since you only pay monies to the dealer like you normally would.

An alternative would be the Skoda Octavia Estate. Same car with slightly different styling.

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 11:23
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - oldtoffee

skidpan doesn't say what he gets but looking at the real mpg section on this site the Leon seems to get 70% of the official figures which is probabaly around where the vast majority of manufacturers will sit.

Like you I'd look for petrol over diesel and Toyota is a good place to start not necessarily because they produce fuel efficient petrol cars (they do in some cases) but because the warranty is excellent and after sales out of warranty issues are sympathetically handled. Getting a 5 to 10 mpg improvement isn't going to save you much unless you do mega miles but not picking up a big out of warranty repair bill will. In that vein I'd also take a look at Hyundai i30 and Seat Ceed estates both with good warranties and decent reliability.

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 11:34
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - skidpan

skidpan doesn't say what he gets but looking at the real mpg section on this site the Leon seems to get 70% of the official figures which is probabaly around where the vast majority of manufacturers will sit. .

Missed that out somehow. I get 45 mpg calculated in mixed use which is about 83% of the official figure. Last time I looked at the Real MPG section the figure was 46 ish, looks like the figure has been doctored. The real mpg figure for the Leon SC is 50.8, another totally stupid unobtainable figure.

In that vein I'd also take a look at Hyundai i30 and Seat Ceed estates both with good warranties and decent reliability.

Wife has a Kia Ceed estate which as oldtoffee says is a great car. 100% reliable and 52 mpg overall in 38,000 miles. Its a diesel, you probably guessed that from the mpg for two good reasons. The petrols are pathetic, 138 bhp but no torque, you need to rev the nuts off them. So pathetic they don't do a petrol estate now.

Hyundai i30 is available as a petrol but when we compared it to the Ceed the load space was very poor, little better than a good hatch.

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 16:14
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - pork_pie

I decided to get rid of my TDCI Fiesta 61 plate for a Toyota Auris Sports Hybrid. As much as i loved the car, it started to come up with a few little niggles that the dealership were unable to rectify even after a sofware upgrade. The cars warranty was finishing end of November.

Back in August I wanted a Toyota Auris Tourer and I was umming and arring whether to get the 1.6 or the hybrid. The difference in used price between the 2 versions was typically 2k-4k

I wanted to go back to petrol with a chain cam engine that is non turbocharged.

The Petrol Excel as you stated is pretty rare and in the real world you really will struggle to get mid to high 30s in this vehicle. I test drove one and it really was pretty lifeless but to me that was not really important seeing as my previous diesel had 70PS and had a quoted 0-60 time of 15 seconds (not that i tried it).

In the Excel trim it is well equipped and the latest versions have sat nav as standard as well as tyre pressure monitoring, part leather, heated seats, cruise control, DAB, park assist and dual zone climate control..

I decided to plum for the hybrid version for a bit more money where I bought second hand and recieved the large balance of the 5 year warranty, I average 60-65mpg. In the town it is quite easy to get 70-75mpg. Space wise it is very good and I have had no issues with the car at all.

Tax is zero (for now) compared to £180 for the petrol and if you are going to keep the car, like me, for a while, the fuel economy differences are pretty attractive.

To me it is all the car I ever need and does exactly what it says on the tin..

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 17:10
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - yellowmitch
Hi everybody, and thanks for the feedback, especially pork_pie. The octavia, Leon etc were also on my list but I felt the 1.2tsi might be a bit gutless. It is interesting to read from pork_pie that the 1.6 auris is also gutless. The hybrid does sound really attractive, BUT could I live with that CVT auto and the lack of being able to fit a towbar? Your economy figures make me feel that maybe I could!

I would be interested to hear more about the auris hybrid and also the Vw tsi Economy figures. Thanks Alan
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Wed 29 Oct 2014 17:56
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - madf

Try driving a hybrid - at leat 20 miles...

And then you have a benchmark.

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 18:04
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - 72 dudes

Just a word of warning on the economy figures.

If you are only getting 35MPG from your Rover 75 CDTi, it may be that the type of driving you are doing is not ideal for optimum fuel economy so you may not be able to match skidpan's figure in a similar car. Or you may just have a heavy right foot!

I used to have the saloon version Rover 75 with the same engine and my average over 17k miles was 44.8 MPG.

So unless you believe there is something wrong with your Rover's engine, treat other people's figures with a pinch of salt.

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 19:15
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - yellowmitch
I do 90% town driving with a fairly heavy foot. My rover is the tourer and it does have 135000 miles on it. I used to get nearly 45mpg out of a focus 1.8 tdci on 17" wheels. My car engine barely manages to move the temp gauge off the bottom on my commute to work. What sort of mpg do you think is achievable in the hybrid?
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Wed 29 Oct 2014 19:39
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - pork_pie

35 mpg for a short journey is not that bad considering the diesel engine hasnt reached normal operating temperature. In answer to your final question, I cycle to work which is about 2 miles away but in the first week of getting the Auris, I decided to take it to work whilst the driveway was getting tarmaced. The engine got warm quickly and the electric motor kicked in pretty early and for them short trips alone I got around 50-55 mpg but thats without a heavy right foot.

In other circumstances, the figures are in my first reply.

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 19:28
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - pork_pie

No problem at all, Alan.

It was unique to catch someone on here with the same conundrum as for engine choice.

The TSI torque will occur lower down in the rev range whereas in the 1.6 Valvematic, its more like 4000rpm and you will have to work the 6 speed geabox (geared at 25mpg per 1000rpm in top gear) rather hard when fully laden.

However I am still a bit dubious about the combination of a small capacity petrol engine and forced induction.

The Toyota engine is not a terrible one, its smooth yet underpowered in estate guise due to the extra weight compared with its hatchback brother. Official mpg is 45.6 and its band F road tax therefore £145 not £180 written previously and has a 55 litre tank compared to the hybrids 45l

Yes thats right, the hybrid cannot be used for towing. The CVT will scream if you really push it but they always do that and most of the time it is quite a hushed unit. The hybrid requires a small change in driving style requiring forward planning and anticipation where engine breaking is important for recharging the battery and sudden bursts of acceleration mean the petrol engine is doing all the work. Get the balance right and you can get really decent fuel economy.

As for the design itself, - you get a practical load bay (capacity is the same in all versions) and rear seats that fold flat easily. The dashboard is an acquired taste especially with its slab like apperance and old 1990s style LCD clock but its all functional and solid.

The other choices are the 1.4 diesel (available on all trims) and 1.33 petrol (available on lower and intermediate trims).

If you want more flair and a drivers car, look elsewhere but for me it ticked all the right boxes.

Any more questions, please feel free to ask.

Pork pie




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Wed 29 Oct 2014 19:55
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - Rich320d

The Auris does look pretty good, made in the UK also.

Also look at the Honda Civic Tourer, built in the UK also, the1.8 chain cam petrol is revvy and smooth to drive.

The VW TSi engine isnt very reliable out of warranty. The long oil changes cause the cam chains to rattle and break. VW group cars are not as reliable as people think.

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Wed 29 Oct 2014 20:16
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - bazza

There's a useful site called Spiritmonitor which has a wealth of data on real life average mpg. According to that, an Auris hybrid average mpg is typically 55mpg, compared to the 1.6 V matic with 39 mpg. By comparison, the Leon tsi and Octavia tsi 1.4 versions are both the same at approx 40 mpg average mpg, with a best of about 45 mpg. So Skidpan's 45 mpg is typically the best you would see and at the upper end of the distribution, meaning that most folk won't achieve that.

Your Rover 75 gives a figure of 41.6 mpg, suggesting your car isn't performing at best or you are heavy footed!

I've checked all my vehicles against the values on this database and all are within 1 or 2 mpg of the average that I actually achieve, so I trust the figures.

From what I've read of the Auris hybrid, the mpg figure varies quite a bit depending on its use profile. Whether the extra cost is worth it depends on many factors though including how many miles you do and how long you'll keep it. The technology is well proven now, with many Prius ( same drivetrain) with 200 or 300,000 on them in the US)

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Thu 30 Oct 2014 00:31
Toyota Auris Touring Sports - What to buy to replace a rover 75 CDTi tourer? - SteveLee

Considering your mileage - fuel consumption is irrelevant - keeping your current reliable car would work out much cheaper in the long run.

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