New Toyota Avensis: UK Range, Specifications and Prices Announced
Order books are now open for the new Toyota Avensis, hard on the heels of the model’s world debut at the Geneva motor show in March.
First details of the UK line-up demonstrate how Toyota has raised Avensis’s appeal with more distinctive styling, higher levels of sensory quality in a re-worked cabin, improved equipment specifications and a range of efficient Euro 6-compliant engines.
True to its 17-year heritage, new Avensis is British-built, manufactured exclusively at Toyota’s Burnaston car plant in Derbyshire. Both saloon and Touring Sports wagon models are available, priced from £17,765. Full series production will be initiated soon, with the first cars being delivered to customers from late June.
Model range
Avensis adopts a new grade structure which reflects how it has been designed, engineered and equipped to meet the leading requirements of both private and business customers.
The established Active and Excel grades mark the entry point and top of the range. These are joined by new Business Edition and Business Edition Plus versions at the heart of the line-up. Across the board, specifications secure high levels of safety, comfort and convenience, not least with the standard provision of Toyota Safety Sense integrated active safety features on all models (further details below).
Key features of the Active grade include Pre-Crash Safety system, cruise control, air conditioning, six-speaker CD/radio audio, Bluetooth, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, LED rear and daytime running lights and power windows.
Business Edition adds to this strong foundation with the Toyota Touch 2 with Go touchscreen multimedia and navigation system, digital/DAB audio package with eight-inch display, reversing camera, rain-sensing wipers, dusk-sensing headlights, automatic air conditioning, 17-inch alloy wheels and part-Alcantara seat upholstery. The active safety features extend to Automatic High Beam, Lane Departure Warning and Road Sign Assist.
Business Edition Plus delivers further premium features including leather upholstery with Alcantara inserts, front fog lights with a cornering function, LED headlamps, smart entry and rear privacy glass. The LED daytime running lights gain light guides, creating a distinctive lighting signature.
At the top of the range, Excel grade adopts Toyota Touch 2 with Go Plus, adding more sophisticated navigation functions and access to additional connected services. The specification also embraces a 10-speaker audio system, full leather seat upholstery, electrically adjustable front seats with heaters and adaptive headlights that adjust automatically to improve illumination through bends and turns. The Excel Touring Sports gains a panoramic roof.
Customers can choose from 10 colours, with the metallic options including new Havana Brown and Orion Blue shades. Option packs are also available: the Protection Pack (£325) provides mud flaps, scuff plates, boot liner and rear bumper protector (plus additional load space rails for the Touring Sports if required); the Chrome Pack (£250), available for Avensis for the first time, adds chrome side sill and boot/tailgate trim; and the Parking Pack (£495) equips the car with front and rear parking sensors.
Toyota Safety Sense
Toyota Safety Sense is a new integrated package of active safety technologies designed to help prevent accidents, or mitigate their consequences. The concept is being introduced in all models in the new Avensis range as a standard feature, reflecting the importance Toyota places on supporting the driver to make driving safer by helping prevent accidents happen.
Active grade models benefit from a Pre-Collision System which detects impact risks with vehicles ahead, triggering audible and visual warnings and priming the brakes for extra stopping force. If the driver doesn’t take action, the system initiates Autonomous Emergency Braking to reduce the vehicle’s closing speed.
Other new Avensis models gain a Lane Departure Warning, which alerts the driver if the car begins to deviate from its lane without the turn signal being operated, and an Automatic High Beam function for the headlights, which detects when there is on-coming traffic or vehicles ahead and automatically switches between high and low beam to gain maximum illumination in night-time driving. Another layer of protection is provided by Road Sign Assist, which recognises signage such as speed limits, no overtaking warnings and motorway restrictions and displays the information on the TFT screen on the instrument binnacle (see below).
New colour TFT screen
Clear, instant driver information is displayed on a new 4.2-inch colour TFT screen, set between the principal meters in the instrument binnacle. The range of data includes audio, phone, navigation and safety functions, including active safety system status and warnings. The display’s design allows multiple information sources to be presented simultaneously.
The TFT display is in colour on all new Avensis models apart from Active grade, which uses a monochrome version.
Powertrains
New Avensis’s engine range is fully compliant with Euro 6 emissions standards, featuring two new generation D-4D diesels. The 110bhp 1.6 and 141bhp 2.0-litre units are both teamed with a six-speed manual gearbox.
Both provide a smooth relaxing drive with low carbon emissions and strong fuel economy. The 1.6 musters 270Nm of torque from 1,750 to 2,250rpm and delivers from 108g/km CO2 with 68.9mpg average fuel consumption (combined cycle). The 2.0 D-4D has a performance-oriented character, with 0-62mph acceleration in 9.5 seconds and a 124mph top speed. Benchmark figures for the 2.0-litre saloon are from 119g/km and 62.8mpg.
The line-up is completed by Toyota’s 145bhp 1.8-litre Valvematic petrol engine, offered with the choice of six-speed manual transmission or automatic CVT. Pending homologation, CO2 emissions are expected to be from 138g/km with 47.4mpg.
