Thank you both for your prompt and helpful replies. I appreciate people being ready to take the trouble to share their knowledge.

Aren't these vulnerable to cat theft? Where would you park it?

The only thing I can fault - a long overdue task on my "to do" list - is the feeble and essentially useless horn, which is easily out-parped by the one on a mobility scooter.

I found the same on my Yaris. There's half decent ones on ebay. It looked like I'd have to remove the entire front of the car to mount it next to the existing one, so I used a threaded hole on the LH side of the engine bay, not perfect, but it does. Used a scotchlock connector to tee into the existing horn wire and the job's a good un. I did wonder if the fuse would be man enough, but it's held so far. I've now a nice loud, discordant horn.

Thanks for further help. Probably settling on petrol. Driving is low mileage and I like things as simple as possible.

The Auris hybrid uses amazing technology. The oily bits are surprisingly simple - it's not a separate cvt gearbox per say but an epicyclic transaxle incorporating two motors/generators with an engine at one end. It's all controlled electronically which can effectively control gearing, electric drive, engine joining in and or generating etc. Capable of star-ship mileages and very reliable indeed. The elephant in the room is the easily stealable catalytic converter.

The 1.33 uses a very simple old fashioned setup, simples and reliable but not quite as long lived. They are a bit sluggish though. Catalyst on most of these is more integrated into the exhaust manifold so much less likely to be stolen.

I've not had any experience of the 1.2T

Edited by Big John on 02/05/2021 at 22:17

I can't offer any experience of the petrol version, but I've owned a hybrid estate version from new, 65 plate facelifted version. Bought it is an alternative to a diesel workhorse estate, now up to 162k miles, no issues other than having the cat stolen whilst parked up at a railway station. Average fuel ecomony measured brim to brim from new is 54mpg on a very wide variety of roads.

The CVT is very good under gentle driving and lower speeds, not too bad on the motorway providing the gradients are gentle. In general, if you live in a hillier area, and that is where most of your driving is, you will probably be better off with a manual petrol, anything more than a moderate gradient requires the CVT to be thrashed to make even moderate progress up the hill, and that knocks fuel economy. I've often wondered whether the 1.2T would be better fuel economy wise on the motorway than the hybrid, depends what the gearing is in 6th gear I suppose.

'I've often wondered whether the 1.2T would be better fuel economy wise on the motorway than the hybrid, depends what the gearing is in 6th gear I suppose.'

On long motorway trips (50 miles plus) I generally get 45-50mpg in a 2017 RAV4 2.5 Hybrid. I would therefore expect at least 55mpg from an Auris hybrid and I believe many report around 60mpg. However the catalytic convertor theft issue on Auris Hybrids would put me off and I would go for the 1.2T; to be fair I would expect the 1.2T to be a more fun car to drive than the hybrid.

Driving for me is simply A to B. Enjoyment difficult with traffic levels and some eccentric drivers.

Thanks for the help.

It sounds like the 1.2T has a decently tall 6th gear, but the hybrid will generally better 49-52mpg on motorway, I would say 53-54mpg is an average on motorways at 70. It can be higher than that, but can also be a lot lower, heading up to Scotland up the M6/M74 and beyond, I would say 48mpg is more realistic at 70. Best measured brim to brim 64.4mpg (heading to East Anglia mid summer, ie flat and warm, and no motorways), worst measured brim to brim 46.9mpg (heading to Scotland mid winter, ie hilly and cold).

The touch screen on the facelifted version is still not the most responsive system, it's Ok though and serves.