How close we actually came to maxing out the Avensis Tourer’s 1609-litre potential boot space I’ll never know, but it must have been pretty near to the limit on the car’s latest test – the boot fair mission.
Luckily it was up to the task. Seats easily fold flat without the need to remove headrests or pull up the seat base, and after a bit of shoehorning a hefty slice of my loft junk had slotted in its boot. Access is simple because of the wide rear opening and high lip-less single-height load floor, while the lack of intrusions makes the space easy to fill.
The Avensis was also a useful boot fair participant, its side boot compartments housing bags for customers and snacks for sellers, while the large open rear hatch itself acted as a barrier to the brief spell of rain. No amount of good design could protect us from some of the boot fair punters’ bare-faced bartering cheek though – “No, you can’t have that parasol spike for 50p, I said £2.50.”
Prolonged city driving has seen average economy drop to 36.5mpg (not bad compared to the official urban 39.8mpg figure) and a recent out of town run yielded 45.0mpg and confirmed the car’s excellent ride.
The only tiny downsides so far are a dashboard parking light that takes an age to confirm that the electronic park brake has actually engaged, and an uneven panel gap on the glove box – minor niggles both, and for us the Tourer has largely remained a class act.
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