Toyota Auris 1.6 CAR review

The Toyota What? I thought you said this was the new Corolla

It is! Toyota openly acknowledges the Corolla has become a bit, well, dull and is plotting a stepchange with this important new small family car. So the C-word is dumped for the new Auris badge. It's hoping to repeat what Ford did when it replaced the unloved Escort with the goalpost-moving Focus back in 1998. That's some aim...

So what's new then? Just the name, or is this really an all-new car?

'All-new' is an oft-misused epithet for new cars, but the Auris is indeed new from the ground up. It's the first time this platform has been seen on a production car. As you'd expect, it's front-wheel drive, but there are some interesting new engines and suspensions debuting on the Auris. There are two petrols (a 1.4 and 1.6) and three diesels (1.4, 2.0 and 2.2) - including the most powerful oil-burner in this class; the range-topping T180 musters a punchy 175bhp, out-powering even the strongest Golf TDI. It's also the most powerful Auris we'll see for a while; we'll have to wait to see a successor to the T-Sport and Compressor hot hatches.