Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £13,120 to £19,190
Roomy, sturdy hatchback with good ride quality.
Steering lacks feel, some of the engines struggle.
It may lack sparkle, but this is a well thought-through car you can rely on to do the job.
After 40 years of Corollas, even Toyota has had enough. It's been a huge international success, but the compact family hatch has achieved 32 million sales without causing much of a quickening of anyone's heartbeat. Most of its success has been outside of Europe, where Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen and the French manufacturers have done better by offering at least a little pizzazz.
With the Auris, Toyota claims to have designed a car in Europe for Europe. At a glance it's just another Corolla, but it's actually an all-new car. Toyota has noticed the drift from regular compact hatchbacks to mini-MPVs like the Ford C-Max and Renault Scenic, and has responded by making the Auris taller and roomier than the Corolla, which it replaces, although the Corolla-based Verso continues in production.
The Auris is available as a five door built at Toyota's UK plant in Burnaston and a three-door built in Turkey. There are two petrol engines: a 1.4, and a new 1.6 with variable inlet and exhaust valve timing, which is likely to be the big seller, alongside the 2.0-litre D-4D. There's also an entry-level 1.4-litre diesel, and the range topper is a 2.2-litre diesel, available with three or five doors.
There are four trim levels: T2, available with the petrol engines; T3, which most buyers are likely to go for; T Spirit, which is available with the big selling engines but only with the five-door body; and the most powerful diesel model is dubbed T180, with its own specification.
