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Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Falkirk Bairn

I was at my local Indie getting the exhaust replaced.

In front of me was an Avensis Taxi in for an MoT - sailed through - 2012 with 370,000 miles. Owner diver - still the original engine BUT I am sure much of it would be a bit like Trigger's brush. The bodywork of the car, whilst not immaculate looked good for such a mileage.

It's a good job the driver's seat is not part of the MoT as it looked like it had been through a crusher. Surely the owner could find an Avensis seat at a scrappy and make everyday life more pleasant.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Brit_in_Germany

I would have thought the licensing authority would have set a maximum age for taxis and 8 years would be over the limit.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Falkirk Bairn

>>licensing authority would have set a maximum age for taxis and 8 years would be over the limit.

Only age limit is cars must be less than 3 years old when first registered as a taxi.

After registration the car is subject to a 2 x per year examination by the council on top of the MoT.

If car meets the council regulations it can be "any age" in theory. If it fails council test it has to be fixed or licence is withdrawn.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Trilogy.

Being a Toyota I suspect most of it wouldn't be like Trigger's brush.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - gordonbennet

I'd love to know what service regime has been followed and see the list of repairs and parts needed over that mileage, looked after well and driven with mechanical sympathy its amazing just how long vehicles can last.

Conversely i once bought a 2 year old ex taxi Granada with the 2.5 PSA Diesel engine cheaply, it had been mechanically neglected from day one and the engine was worn out at 60k miles, i rebuilt the engine fully, rebore new pistons etc, in retrospect i could have just slipped a new set of rings in and had another 60k before full rebuild was needed.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - madf

370k miles in 8 years...46,250 miles a year,126 miles a day.. It's a taxi so probably never cools down. Serviced every 3 or 6 months...

Probably on original exhaust..

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Steveieb

Daughter in laws Yaris auto has just passed the MOT at 21 years old.

Simply nothing has gone wrong except the original battery.

Why on earth does anyone buy anything else when you see this result.

Thank goodness I chose it for her !

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Steveieb

Daughter in laws 21 year old Yaris has just passed too with no advisories.

Nothing has gone wrong except the original battery.

Why would anyone choose anything else ?

Thank goodness I pointed her in the right direction!

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - brum

Trouble with Toyotas is you die of boredom before the car does

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - badbusdriver

Trouble with Toyotas is you die of boredom before the car does

Unless you have a life.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - SLO76

Trouble with Toyotas is you die of boredom before the car does

They are a bit bland to drive in general but few are unpleasant. Seat comfort isn’t particularly good though.
Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Zippy123

Dad had a new Toyota Corolla Fastback in '97.

I borrowed it and parked it in works carpark in Reigate. The boss was impressed.

It was a fine car save for the steering which was very vague at speed.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Steveieb

Would the taxi have the 2.0 litre diesel or 2.2 ?

As regards the daughter in laws Yaris, it’s the MOT tester that gets bored as there is nothing to fail it on after 21 years and four clear passes!

How do they do this when other makes Of this age are written off because the failures make the car economically unviable ?

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - brum

How do they do this when other makes Of this age are written off because the failures make the car economically unviable ?

Maybe because it was made in France?

And how many miles has this Yaris covered?

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - madf

A 21 year old Yaris was made in Japan..

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Steveieb

Built in Japan and for what I heard from dealers the quality of these cars was far superior to the ones built in other parts of the world, when local content replaced the OE parts fitted in Japan.

I heard that when the Japanese paint suppliers to Honda and Toyota set up in the UK they were dropped by Honda in favour of local content on price grounds .

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - focussed

As a Honda fan I can vouch for the fact that Japanese built cars are of better quality.

My current Accord Tourer is of a much better quality than my previous UK built Civic.

Everything- the paint, trim, seats, door closing action, shut lines, electronics, gearbox, steering, engine performance, suspension setup.

It just feels and looks like the people who assembled it actually cared about what they were doing.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - SLO76
“ As a Honda fan I can vouch for the fact that Japanese built cars are of better quality.”

No secret that I’m a fan of Japanese motors. I’ve never had a major failure on any Toyota, Honda or Mazda I’ve sold or owned. I’m still smoking around in my decade old Toyota Avensis which is nearing 90,000 miles and feels closer to 9,000. There’s no body rust at all and underneath it’s absolutely solid despite the horrid combination of sleet, ice and salt on my local roads on winter.
Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - MGspannerman

Try this - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way - or the book of the same name. Much of it is applied common sense. I have worked with tier 3 and 4 suppliers who value the opportunity to work with Toyota. Suppliers to Mr T are challenged and targeted to reduce waste/cost but are supported, encouraged and treated fairly (not the same as equally) with a cut of the savings coming their way and assured business if you play the game. This includes open-book costings, a big step for a supplier.

Those same suppliers are less than positive about certain other manufacturers who drive them on price, get the lowest possible price and then approach other suppliers to see if they can beat it. Having agreed a deal for a certain number of units, in the case I am thinking of it was 500k units and £Ms in value, the buyer then bought only 350k and refused to accept the contracted quantity. The supplier was depending on the volume to achieve the cost and lost money of course.

An even more egregious case was a major manufacturer who worked with the supplier through the pre-launch phase to develop the particular category of products they supply. It is usual for suppliers to have their staff work with the buyers team to develop product designs and specs. having worked for two years on a NMR (new model release) the buyer then took the specs and hawked then around other potential suppliers. If you knew who the major car manufacturer was you would probably not be surprised.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Steveieb

Reminds me of the case of the Honda Civic handbrake levers which Were sourced from a cheaper supplier and the result was the runaway Honda s which failed because of a wrongly designed ratchet .

So the contract Was handed back to the original supplier together with the order to rectify the failed parts.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - craig-pd130

Not quite the same mileage, but a taxi driver I know uses a 14-plate Seat Exeo estate (the Audi A4 lookalike) with the VAG 2.0 common-rail diesel. He bought it ex-fleet and had done 250K miles when I last spoke to him, which was about a year ago.

That engine doesn't have a great reputation for longevity but aside from regular servicing (cambelt & tensioner every 60K) he's only fitted a new DPF and O2 sensor at 130K (the old one was full and could no longer be regenerated), and a new DMF as a precaution when he had a fresh clutch done at about 150K.

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Steveieb
I agree Craig. But I too run a A4 1.9 with 170 k and a Corolla.
The difference seems to me to be while the German cars run to high mileage the engines are fantastic but the ancillaries suffer loads of problems.
I'm astounded by the way the steering ,brakes and electrical bits go on for years on Japanese cars whereas these are the areas that fail on European cars.
What do you think ?
Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - veloceman
My 21yr old Fiat Seciento Sporting has just passed its 17th consecutive MOT with no advisories other than tyres.
Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Nomag

My FiL just collected a 144k mile 11 year old Rx450h last week.

I drove it yesterday.

Everything about the car feels like it has done 40k miles, not 144k! Nice and tight, no creaks, no groans, switchgear all in good nick. He only does 8k miles a year so I think he will be worn out before it is!

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Steveieb

Always top in the reliability surveys and manufactured exclusively in Japan where Toyota can ensure the quality of the components going into the car .

Toyota Avensis - Diesels can be great - 370K & flies through MoT - Heidfirst

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Edited by Heidfirst on 19/10/2020 at 15:50