Overview

The Toyota Auris Touring Sports is an estate version of the Auris hatchback, and was the first small hybrid estate car to hit the UK market, something rivals like the Ford Focus Estate, Hyundai i30 Tourer and Renault Megane Sport Tourer cannot offer.

It’s available with the same two engines and four trims as the standard Auris, but with significantly improved luggage carrying capability.

Familiar Auris styling

If you were to look at the Touring Sports from the front, you could easily mistake it for the hatchback version – Toyota has only made subtle tweaks to the design and it sports the ‘family face’ seen on other Toyota models.

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The roofline has been extended, aluminum roof rails added and at the rear of the car there is a different bumper, rear screen and tailgate design.

Impressive versatility and space are the stand-out features with the Auris Touring Sports, particularly luggage room which comes with an array of additional storage options and easy to fold rear seats.

Hybrid technology

The engine line up is identical to the hatchback, so you get a 1.2-litre petrol and a 1.8-litre hybrid powertrain, mated exclusively to a CVT automatic transmission.

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As a first foray into hybrid estate cars, the hybrid has some impressive credentials. It emits just 99g/km CO2 meaning it’ll be seriously cheap to tax for both private and company car drivers. It’ll return a claimed average fuel economy of 65.6 mpg and it isn’t all that expensive to buy either.

Curiously the smaller 1.2-litre petrol is the quicker engine of the two, although no Auris Touring Sports will crack the 0-62mph time in under ten seconds. Hot hatch fans, look elsewhere.