Having driven almost 6000 miles in the Avensis I believe that qualifies me to give a fair review on it.
The Avensis was on hire while I waited for my new company car, the model supplied was the 2.0D TR Saloon, previous to this I had a 2.0D Passat (Saloon) and 2.0D Avensis D-4D Saloon.
Compared to the last Avensis saloon the differences are noticeable, the boot lid for example seems considerably smaller, a trip to Ikea soon confirmed that, whilst I would easily slide wardrobe doors into my last Avensis and the Passat saloon (by dropping the double rear seat, on this model I couldn't unless I put the passenger seat fully forward and then moved the seat back until it was touching the dashboard.
The boot lid is not very high so although it has a big boot its not a tall boot and getting things in and out need you to stoop low and almost climb into the boot to reach items, the Passat boot was noticeably larger, you could slide long items and through to the folded rear seats with considerable ease.
Inside the Avensis is OK, you notice it appears smaller than the previous models, more towards Astra size than the other direction, you're not cramped but you do notice it's not a large cabin, rear passenger has a fold down center arm rest with 2 cup holders in, door pockets which soon fill up with sweet wrappers and junk.
Front passengers get a center storage compartment/arm rest.
Perhaps it's strongest features are the 6 inch touch screen radio, phone, sat-nav system and the auto climate control (which was the same as the climate control on the previous Avensis).
Bluetooth is standard and you can register plenty of phones but can only connect to one at a time.
Sat-nav is on memory card and was OK to use, some issues with the menu's not being intuitive, setting a destination for example you got to the point where you just needed to confirm the destination, instead of an "OK" icon you're faced with a "dot" symbol, canceling a destination required a combination of pure luck and witchcraft.
You soon realized although it looked snazzy to start with the display was just a phone, radio and sat-nav so nothing to write home about.
Handling on the Avensis was OK, you noticed it was a heavy car, it took quite a bit of effort to move it but it held the road fine with no great problems, perhaps the biggest and most important complaint was the fuel consumption.
Almost immediately the Avensis settled to 35mpg and stayed there for 6000 miles, my previous Avensis would do 36.6 on the run to work (1/2 town driving, 1/2 twisting B roads), the Passat would give 35.5 so the drop in consumption was noticeable on the rising fuel bill.
Even on motorway (where I normally expect Diesels to return the mpg) the Avensis barely budged on it's consumption, a trip to Blackpool returned almost 40mpg with careful driving, dropped straight away to 33.5 on arrival and cost a fortune in fuel.
With 4 people in and light hand luggage the car felt heavy, you could feel it on turns and bends, you also felt considerable resistance on acceleration.
Cruise control was needed to try and relieve the stress of driving what felt like a heavy lumbering car.
After covering almost 6000 miles I can't say I was sorry to see the car go, the only device I used on it and will miss was Bluetooth and I was getting fed up banging my head on the low, small boot lid.
So last week (24th May) I took delivery of a new BMW 1 series 116ED (Efficient Dynamics), I chose this as the choice of other cars was not inspiring to say the least and I thought to hell with it, I've been offered a BMW so might was well give one a go.
The car came with just 140 miles (delivery) on the clock, I was intrigued as the MPG already said more than 50mpg.
The car has i-drive on a 6.5" display which is clear to read, navigation by the i-drive controller near the gear lever, very easy to use and no problems with that.
No sat-nav on board but I've got one anyway so no issue plugging that in, the car has a center armrest with storage and a USB plus 3.5"" audio in jacks hidden in there which is a nice touch.
This model comes with Bluetooth so within a jiffy I had my phone connected which was nice, on the i-drive system the car has things such as a built in user handbook (the Avensis did as well but the BMW version is deployed in both an index and photo style so you can read it like a book or search for the picture of what you want to get info on), the first item I looked up, Gearbox, Manual, reverse gear.
The ED display can be enabled on the drivers console, it shows additional savings by using the ED technology, this appears to indicate that on it's first 140 mile drive 33.5 of these were gained by using the ED technology.
If this is correct then me and this car are due for some serious personal time together !
Now I had my gear located it was a case of getting some miles on the clock, I kept the car in ED mode, this controls air vents for example on the car front, closing them when not required, throttles the air conditioning to reduce fuel consumption, altering throttle response and invokes the Stop/Start technology (which can be turned off easily).
Start/Stop is simple enough, pull up to some lights and pop the hand brake on, the ED display (which recommends which gear you should be in) says "N", put the car in neutral and as soon as you lift your foot off the clutch the engine will turn off and sit in "Ready" mode. To restart the engine just press the clutch pedal.
Engine start is by push button, no key required other than to unlock the car, for the next 2 days I return 53mpg on country/urban driving, I make a mental note to get a lanyard for the key fob as I you only need to unlock the car, sit in and press Start.
Now it's off to Devon, we load the car up for 3 people, literally filling the car up - the boot (although smaller than the Avensis) is bigger than the previous year model and we easily got a large and medium suitcase in, 2 laptop cases, a large stacker box full of cooking stuff for the beach, and beach bags. With the Avensis I would have fitted the 2 beach chairs in the boot as well, I had to put these behind the drivers seat. Despite the 1 series being a compact car we were surprised how much we fitted in.
You do notice the car is smaller than the Avensis, the windscreen for example seems tiny but you soon adjust to it, on the reverse side of the coin it was nice to have a rear wiper for a change so you gain on one point and perhaps lose on another.
Inside it's roomy enough, you always have a tunnel through the car regardless of front or rear wheel drive so even on Avensis/Passat you have a limit to your left leg movement, the seats are simple but comfortable, rear passenger unfortunately doesn't have fold down arm rest in the middle.
Fill the car up an we scoot to Devon a mere 275 mile drive, despite being full of 3 people and luggage the car feels well balanced and surprisingly light, you notice the car is very nimble and the 1.6D feels far bigger in performance than it's size says it should be.
Even with the ED enabled the throttle is fine, zipping away at lights and reaching motorway speeds with considerable ease.
The car is considerably quieter than either the Passat or the Avensis and the 1.6 engine simply wants to accelerate until you can go no further, for the first 50% of our journey I didn't realize I had turned off some of the ED features so the car was not running as efficient as it could be, a quick twiddle of the i-drive and I had the ED system on full efficiency 4 hours later we arrive in Devon with an MPG reading of 57mpg, this is at a steady 74mph (Sat-nav says this is 71mph in actual speed).
This BMW does not have cruise control but has an LIM button on the steering wheel, this activates a speed limiter, you can adjust this whilst driving and I found it every bit as good as a cruise control, you set a speed, when you reach it the throttle relaxes and you can move your foot around the gas pedal considerably without the car changing it's speed.
If you need to accelerate you can dump your foot to the floor, the car will over ride the limiter and respond, unlike cruise control you can change gear, brake etc and just return to your preset speed.
I liked this and felt I had more control than a cruise control simply accelerating me to a speed, I could do what I needed below my limit then hold the car at a preset speed with no effort for 4 continuous hours.
We got out the car with no complaints about numb legs, sore bums etc, I was surprised how relaxed and fresh we were, the front seats are noticeable thinner than the Avensis and Passat (and almost any other car) but seem perfectly comfortable, the rear passenger never once complained about any comfort issues.
I notice as well the car has used (depends how accurate the fuel gauge is), that I had used 1/3 of a tank - the Avensis on a full tank would show a range of 297 miles so I would have expected the Avensis to be sucking on Vapour now - my calculations say the Avensis would have used about 8 gallons, the BMW less than 5, whilst I accept the Avensis would have climbed a little bit I see nothing to suggest the Avensis ever went close to it's quoted 63mpg, I believe it could only do this if you dropped it from the International Space Station and kept it in neutral.
At £1.38 a gallon, that works out at about £51.50 for the Avensis versus £30.27 for the BMW. After driving around for a while I topped the car up (I forgot to keep a note of how much it was but I think it was £40), this lasted the whole week, topping it up again before the run home.
It was interesting that despite driving 275 miles to our destination the BMW showed 291 miles remaining in the tank ,effectively showing double the range of the Avensis.
After unpacking the car I noticed even more how light and nimble the car was, with just 3 adults in the car delivered almost sports car handling, the steering was light enough to use finger tips, the response was immediate and urgent, this was going to be a fun car to drive.
Beside the gear lever you notice the Eco/Comfort/Sport button, tap this and the center console changes to indicate comfort mode, Sport (the i-drive display changes to red) or the Eco mode, unlike some cars i've driven you notice the change from one mode to the other.
Prodding the button into comfort mode gives a balanced drive, more throttle response, eco functions turned off and you have a good lively drive, enter sport mode and you notice Devon simple does not have roads long enough for sport mode, it's a very lively drive, delivers some giggle factor and it's great to see this in a car that can offer such amazing economy.
For the entire week I left the car almost 100% in Eco mode, once or twice prodding Sport mode when I noticed an enticing hill or section to release the horses.
Despite the twisting, stop/start and continuous throttle/gear changes required for Devon roads I returned a consistent 52-53mpg.
Considering the continuous work needed to drive these challenging routes the car performed above and beyond my expectations, handling superbly, never diving into a corner or scuttling out with the traditional "foot to the floor" front wheel drive strategy, instead you simply drove into a corner and exited with a quiet sense of purpose.
A slight press on the throttle and in many cases tail gaiters were left as a speck in the distance, the Eco mode is more than enough power for almost all of your day to day driving.
Considering the Avensis would return (at best) 33.5mpg on these roads (and I have seen the Avensis drop as low as 31.9mpg) it was nice to know this car was returning almost twice the mpg with better performance and handling.
One thing to bear in mind, most engines have fairly poor economy when they are new, they normally get better and better through age, an Insignia SRi for example drove pretty crappy until the speedo hit a magical 1000 mile marker, the engine then changed considerably but the fuel economy started shitty and remained dismal afterwards.
The Avensis came to me with 5000 miles on the clock so should have been run in fine, the mpg gauge only even counted down, I reset it numerous times, ensured I changed gear when the prompt appeared, tried driving the Avensis as carefully as possible (getting 33.6mpg for my troubles), driving it hard (and getting 33.4mpg) nothing seemed to make any difference.
Motorway driving was not much different so my conclusion was the current 2011/12 Avensis is not an improvement on the previous models.
Putting that to the back of my mind and after a week of superb and enjoyable driving we return home, again I set the limiter and I must admit to using the sport mode several times to dispense with tail gaiters (and just for a laugh), this dropped a few points on my mpg, I did beat 60mpg and this is at 70mph - that's sixty miles per gallon at a speed that would return nothing near this on the Avensis - in fact I think the only way to get any economy out of the Avensis would have been to drop to the industry standard 56mph which normally returns maximum economy.
I drove a steady 4 hours and the mpg simply climbed and climbed, i'm sitting in a car here where the mpg figure simply climbs and the only reason it stops is you run out of road, I'm used to seeing the figures go down and stay down.
On the return I did drop my mpg significantly as I could sense the home run, once you pick up your local radio stations and want a nice cup of tea your foot develops a certain amount of lead and finds the floor of the car.
I dropped out of the high 59mpg and 60mpg margin to what I consider a very respectable 58.7mpg overall 261 miles and 4hr 8 mins of driving.
The first 30 miles of the trip were country roads to join the main A38 but I feel the average speed shows this is an accurate reading. I still show 324 miles remaining so thats already 585 miles out a tank and this should increase as the engine runs in.
Taking £1.38 as the fuel price, this would give a return price of £27.89, let's put the Avensis as giving 40mpg on the return (as a gesture of goodwill) this would still have been £40.94.
So would I go for the Avensis with the larger (but difficult to access) boot and the on board sat-nav or the BMW 1 series 1.6ED - there's no choice, I've declared this car is great fun to drive, I love it and intend to investigate the Sports mode considerably.
All I know is I had an almost effortless drive to Devon, a week of fantastic cruising and perhaps my easiest and least stressful drive back and all for a fraction of the price I would have spent doing the same trip in the Avensis.
Distance covered was 916 miles, approx £97.90 cost, if I assume the Avensis would have given 40mpg on the motorway (which it never did so I'm being VERY generous here), and 33.5 on the country roads that makes a cost of £155.23, if I used the Avensis 33.5mpg average as I'm doing on the BMW here that would give a cost of (sit down first) ...... £171.54, a saving of £73.64.
Finally the ED, it shows savings i.e extra miles your gaining by using the ED, this seems to work out about 25%, on the 261 mile drive home this equated to 53miles extra.
If this is correct then i'm looking at saving 43% on the fuel costs.
Oh and finally (really) the BMW is road tax exempt as it emits 99g of CO2, London Congestion charge exempt and is only 13% company vehicle tax.
BMW - if you read this, it's a winner, it drives and feels much bigger than it is, has both excellent economy and fun factor performance, can cruise all day or just whiz around in city traffic, I've now covered exactly 1000 miles with an average 51.7mpg and have completely forgotten the car I had before .... erm ... Avalon ? Revensis ? nope it's gone.
