Toyota reckons more than half of its new Avensis sales will be the estate model, coming in at a £980 premium over the saloon cousin.
The Avensis wagon is certainly the better looking of the two, sidestepping the something-not-quite-right proportions of the saloon. Surprisingly, given that it’s the best part of £1000 more expensive than the four-door, the estate is cheaper to run. Yes, the initial outlay is more, but the residual value according to KwikCarcost is more than six percentage points higher at 36.3% after three years and 60,000 miles. That means a cost per mile figure of 41.6p
At 520 litres, the new model offers an extra 23 litres of boot space over its predecessor, and the boot functionality is very good, with rear seats that drop easily with one flick of a button to extend the load bay. Seats down, the maximum load figure is 1609 litres.
The core 126PS diesel driven here is also excellent on running costs thanks to Toyota’s new focus on cutting emissions. Called Optimal Drive, the range of measures cut CO2 to 136g/km, placing the car well inside the 18% BIK banding.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
