Toyota Avensis 2.2 D-4D T180 5dr

Compared to the Audi A4 avant the looks are less inspiring, fuel economy is pretty good.... i had a Volvo V70 prior to this and i was used to 28mpg were as we are getting in the region of 40-48mpg from the avensis.... you do have to drive it with care and we do a mixture of motorway and town driving. Ride comfort is very good, reliability wise these will be comparable to the Audi's, I've had 3 Toyota's over the years and all of them been exceptionally reliable and i ran them in excess of 150K I have had colleagues who owned audi A6's and A4's and they are very similar similar. I did look at the VW passat but i have heard many horror stories about the newer models with electrical issues and reliability problems so i dismissed them. I am very pleased with the Avensis and again compared to it's rivals it's allot of car for not so much money. The new 2009 model has just come out and is meant to be even better and running cost's will be improved on the last model.I have bought a 3 year old 06 plate with 48k on the clock for a little over 7k from a Toyota dealer, has all the toys you would expect with sat nav and air-con, full service history. for the equivalent Audi A4 or VW i was looking another 5K on top and still wouldn't find one will less than 60k on the clock. I know Audi's are meant to go on forever but so do Toyota's and i didn't think the extra 5K for an Audi a4 avant was justified on the reliability front alone.The ride comfort is very smooth and the drive is very refined, it doesn't feel like a cheap car... on the contrary the car feels solid and for the size of car doesn't lean over on every corner like so many estate cars. If i was being picky you have to change out of first gear very quickly, so from stop you have to work a bit harder than i'm used to but we soon got used to it.... but the 6th gear is very useful for motorway driving, i do worry that the wife will accidently go into 4th one of these days.... however that's not so much the car as us!I don't like the hatchback avensis and the saloon doesn't look much better but the tourer (estate) is the best one out the 3 in my opinion.

Fuel economy if used briskly is poor. With the A/C switched off a normal Motorway / Rural road trip to work with no stop start traffic gives 38mpg. A previous Avensis T Spirit gave 53mpg for the same trip.

A good try but doesn't compare to the Audi A4, BMW 3 series or even the Mercedes C class except on price and equipment levels and that is it's strength. A sheep in wolfs clothing.