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Was going to write something after 6 months but I guess its now or never.
The review could be quite simple, its excellent and a worthy (but different) successor to the Superb PHEV. But to make the post worthwhile here is a bit of detail.
Its a 2025 spec 2 litre in Icon trim (the lowest one). It has pretty much everything we wanted, simply added a full size spare (fits under the boot floor) and got tints on the windows (not the front ones). The only notable omissions would be rain sensitive wipers (do miss those and would happily trade them for auto lights any day) and blind spot alert (but in truth the one on the demo Excel was pretty useless compared to the system on the Superb).
On a weeks holiday in Scotland 2 weeks ago it proved to be perfect for our needs, roomy, comfortable, refined and economical (more about that later). The performance from the engine and 5th Gen CVT is great, better than the 2 cars with the Gen 4 we have tested before. On the way back a boat would heave been better than a car but it never put a wheel wrong in truly dreadful conditions.
As for economy my spreadsheet says 62 mpg and the dash also says 62mpg, very happy with that. On the run up to Aviemore (430 miles) most of which is on motorways (M1, M62, M61, M6, M74) and dual carriageways (A9) we cruised at 72 mph on the speedo and averaged just about 60 mpg (dash and calculated). The Toyota Forum insists in that type of use a 2 litre will only average mid to high 40's whereas the 1.8 will average 60+, shows how much they know.
As for my only niggle, the fuel gauge and indicated range. The car has a 43 litre tank (9.5 gallons) and that should give about 570 miles @ 60 mpg. With a full tank the indicated range was 460 miles and after 350 miles the gauge was below 1/4, a range of 80 miles with 100 miles still to go. For the first time since we had the Bluebird we had to fill up on route. I managed to get approx 6.1 gallons in which filled the tank and restored the range to 460 miles. Did the same on the way home, annoying but it would have been more so at the motorway services where E10 was £1.589/litre (we used those on the A9 where it was £1.359/litre).
Posted about this on the Toyota forum and nothing wrong, simply how its set up. When you get to empty with zero miles there is still 2 gallons approx left in the tank. Will have to put a can in the boot and take a brave pill and test it locally, would be nice to get there without the additional stop.
So to anyone wanting a spacious, quick, economical biggish estate go and have a drive. But stick to the Icon with its 205 55 profile tyres, the 45's and 40's do nothing for the car.
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