Toyota’s best-selling Corolla was deemed as not appropriate for the hatch-enamored Europeans. To correct this shortcoming, Toyota’s Nice-based design center came up with the Auris. It is, well, a hatched Corolla. The car is not available in trunk-fascinated America. The Auris is a Toyota mainstay in Europe. It is also available in Japan, where it adds to the army of Toyota models, sometimes also under the name Blade. Today, a new Auris was announced in Japan.
In Japan, the new Auris wants to set “a new standard for sports hatchbacks.” Its height has been reduced by 55 mm for a lower center of gravity, the seats were also lowered by 40 mm. It is available with either a 1.5 liter or 1.8 liter engine, mated to a CVT. The 1.8 liter engine version can be ordered with a stick. Toyota plans to sell a modest 2,000 units per month in Japan.
In Europe, the new Auris is expected to be announced at the upcoming Paris motor show. The EU-spec Auris will be built at Toyota’s factory in Burnaston, Derbyshire. It should go on sale in early 2013, just in time to duke it out with the new Volkswagen Golf Mk7.
Sure makes the North American version look old school. Love the interior options vs that available here. Why could the Matrix not be sold with that interior and front end
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Really, cause it makes the 2007 Euro Civic look like its from the future… Even the old version looks better…
Well, for Toyota standards it looks quite sleek. But that butt looks like it came straight off a forte 5
This car is clearly in a very different market segment than the US Corolla but you have to wonder if Ford can sell a Focus Titanium and even Hyundai is taking the Elantra GT upmarket if there isn’t room for a more upmarket Toyota hatch (maybe under the Matrix name).
I think Toyota definitely could do it. But I don’t think there’s much motivation as they’re quite comfortable with their market share in those respective segments.
So it’s just a Matrix redux.
Matrix reloaded?
Judging by what I read on TTAC, Toyota and the rest of the Asian brands don’t sell well in Europe. So, unless Toyota redesigns the Auris to a wagon style, add a turbo-diesel engine and a stick shift, it probably won’t sell across the pond, either.
I hate to resort to youth-speak, but it might be an epic-fail!
Now I go back to being old again…
In defense of Toyota:
* It is sold with a diesel
* It will be sold as a Wagon
* It has a stick shift as standard
* It is built in the UK
Its main problem imho is that both the Hyundai i30 and Kia Cee’d seem to be a better deal. This Auris even looks like it’s got its cues from the old Cee’d.
most people wont compare Auris with i30 or Kia, and in any case, new versions of both are pretty expensive cars… very similar pricing to Golf or Auris… previous versions were cheapest cars in class in Euro market, by far.
I am sure it is a nice effort, but in the past Auris could never touch the Golf in interior or design or in driving experience. It is just too dull.
Toyota. We bore you(TM).
What are you talking about? The Golf interior may look nicer (doesn’t), maybe even “higher quality” (debatable), but it is as dull as the Toyota you’re mentioning.
They are competing about who is the most boring car? I find the outgoing Golf model quite fun to drive. It has that European flair. The Auris has no soul or personality whatsoever. It is a Toyota. I should know, I just parked my Toyota outside the house.
Pretty nice-looking Toyota. Took the US-Camry styling ball and ran with it. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the classic lines of the new, no-nonsense JDM Corolla…but I’m surely in the minority there.
Wish Toyota would bring/build the Auris here as a Scion…Thiat is as long as they do not decontent it and end up with something cheap like the Matrix.
Looks like some decontenting was already done. The steering wheel has buttons on one side only. And what’s up with the green lighting?
Probably feel that the blue lighting on every other car is over done. I do.
Front end reminds me of the previous Impreza, but more angular.
Wish they had brought over the old Corolla T-Sport with the 2ZZ-GE engine and 6 spd, but I guess it would’ve been fighting the Celica GT-S for the same buyers.
Looks a bit more exciting than the old one. Not that it took a great effort to do so…. :-}
The old Auris was one of the most reliable cars sold in Europe, AFAIK. It´s somehow comforting to know that when it comes to building bullet-proof vehicles, Toyota is still up to the job.
Does the Matrix really sell that great that Toyota bringing the Auris the US (Call it Matrix) would really make any differece.
I remember pricing a Matrix. When loading a Matrix 2.4 with AWD it cost more then a RAV4 AWD. In that configuration Matrix did not get much better MPG. Or space. Or Stick or ant reason not to go to step-sister Subaru or stay for a RAV4.
“Toyota’s best-selling Corolla was deemed as not appropriate for the hatch-enamored Europeans. To correct this shortcoming, Toyota’s Nice-based design center came up with the Auris. It is, well, a hatched Corolla”
Corolla hatchbacks and Corolla Station Wagons haven been available in Europe for many, many years and Corolla generations.
We even had available a Corolla derived MPV, the Verso:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Corolla_Verso
Any want to remind why we Americans are so obsessed with the sedan configuration of our cars? Still doesn’t make any sense to me on a small car b/c a hatch or wagon is MUCH better for carrying things.
People old enough to remember the ’80s don’t want hatches because we had them and remember the rattles, the road noise, the flexible structures, and the break ins. They also aren’t better at carrying some things. My ex-gf hated carrying her trash to the dump in her Volvo wagons or Mini Cooper, as doing so stunk up the cars. My friend hates carrying his surfing gear in his Magnum for the same reason. He wants a pickup with a cap. Segregation has its virtues.