"marshknute" (marshknute)
05/18/2014 at 23:06 • Filed to: None
4
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"marshknute" (marshknute)
05/18/2014 at 23:06 • Filed to: None | 4
| 8 |
The Toyota Aurion is sold predominantly in Australia and New Zealand and serves as Toyota's "prestige" Camry. It's essentially a V6 Camry with different front/rear bumpers and a more premium name. Thrilling, I know. Seeing as I was visiting New Zealand for the first time, I thought it only appropriate to drive an Oceania-only vehicle through the land of ominous clouds and sheep.
It's also worth noting that this was my first time driving on the left side of the road. Keeping the car between the lines and obeying the rules of the road was the easy part. The difficult bit is retraining your brain function as a mirror image. I found myself instinctively glancing to the right to see who was behind me, unintentionally looking at the side-view mirror where I expected to find a rear-view mirror. I also managed to turn on the windshield wipers every time I went to indicate. Of course, the biggest challenge of the journey was not crashing every time my mom freaked out over nothing.
Yes, I made the journey with my mom riding shotgun. What was that like, you ask? A bit like this:
(Me) [Casually drives down a completely deserted highway. Sees signs for an upcoming one-lane bridge, and slows down]
(Mom) [glances up at road. Promptly Falcon Kicks through the foot well] "WHAAAAYYYT…[gasp]…SLOOOW …ohhhhh my god…STOP, STOP STAHP!!!!! [hyperventilate]
(Me) "Mom, chill. There's no one coming. Look over there, sheep!
Full Disclosure: Toyota wanted me to drive the 2014 Aurion so badly, that they sold one to Thrifty Rental Car who delivered it to their Greymouth New Zealand location for my convenience. They let me drive it for a whole weekend across one of the world's most beautiful landscapes. Unlike most Toyota's, this particular model is not beige, but rather bright red. It's actually the same shade of red as Ferrari's "Rossa." Probably.
Exterior: 4/10
The Aurion is heavily based on a Camry, so it stands to reason that it would share some proportions or aesthetic cues with its global sibling. From every angle, you can tell that it is a Camry but something is inherently wrong with it. It's too angular, distorted, pixilated, or bulbous. It's like a GTAV rip-off of the Camry. The grille looks like it came straight off of an old Avalon. The back actually looks pretty handsome, and visibility is superb all around, with minimal blind spots for a midsize sedan.
Admittedly, it's not a particularly offensive design, just an anonymous and dated one.
Interior: 6/10
The Interior of this particular Aurion is a beautiful shade of plastic, the steering wheel looks like its made of one piece of matte foam, and the seats have the world's most generic black cloth ever fitted to a car.
That said, it works. Lets be brutally honest: the Camry/Aurion is a rental car, and even the people who buy one as their personal vehicles care so little about cars that they undoubtedly use it no differently than any rental car. Its purpose in life is to offer simple, intuitive, and approachable controls for the masses who just need simple, intuitive, and approachable transportation. For that reason alone, it's hard to dock points for not pushing any boundaries. Similarly, this rental car is unsurprisingly a base model, with many of the fancier buttons/controls replaced by blank panels.
The materials, while of the plastic genre, feel higher quality than most. There's a sense of durability and budget-minded precision that Toyota does so well. It won't win any style awards, but it's hard to fault it. Toyota knew the market and the price point, and delivered.
Acceleration: 7/10
The Aurion is powered by a 3.5 liter V6 with 268 horsepower and 248 lb ft of torque. That's actually a lot of power for an economy car. 6.8 seconds to 60 is E46 330ci territory. No wonder people use the V6 Camry as the benchmark against all new sports cars (ahem...Toyobaru). It has gobs of low-end torque to make use of its high gearing or do a burnout on damp roads (I promised my mom never to do that again!). It gets moving pretty effortlessly, even in the twisty mountain roads of New Zealand's Arthur's Pass.
What's really shocking is just how well Toyota managed to hide the engine from the driving experience. Pressing the gas pedal in a Toyota Aurion is like rock climbing in ski boots: there's no actual feedback to complement the physical motion. It gets the job done in the most halfhearted and unenthusiastic manner possible.
Braking: 5/10
It has brakes. They eventually bring the car to a stop. Pedal feel is about on par with churning butter. There's no grabbiness, it's just consistently numb. Again: rental car.
Ride: 9/10
If beige were a verb, then the Toyota Aurion can beige road imperfections like a champ. It's exactly what you want in a rental car.
In all seriousness, it's a shockingly comfortable car for long journeys. The suspension irons out bumps expertly, and it's extremely quiet with minimal road noise. You particularly notice the sound deadening when you floor it and realize you still can't hear the exhaust note. It's very Avalon-ey without the extra girth of an Avalon.
Handling: 5/10
The handling is competent for a FWD car. I didn't drive it fast enough to test for understeer, mostly because I had my terrified mother in the passenger seat. Again, it's a rebadged Camry rental car with a heavy V6 engine out front sending plenty of torque through the front wheels. That isn't a recipe for dynamic precision. The front wheels easily lost traction when accelerating spiritedly out of a driveway or intersection, but what do you expect from a FWD V6? While not a rewarding canyon carver, there's no unnecessary body roll, and its weight transfer was consistent and predictable.
The steering feel is almost non-existent, and the electric steering is so powerful that it takes no effort whatsoever to move the wheel. It's no enthusiasts' car, but its beige-iness was definitely appreciated while trying to negotiate roundabouts and unfamiliar roads while driving on the wrong side of the road.
Gearbox: 6/10
The Aurion uses a 6-speed slushbox with available manual shift on the drive selector (a useless feature since nobody in the history of humankind has ever used it). It is programmed to change up to 6 th gear as quickly as possible for maximum fuel economy, and it certainly delivers. I averaged 8.4 L/100km, which works out to 28 mpg. That doesn't sound like much, but remember that it has a big V6. In fact, that V6 works well with the gearbox; it has enough low-end torque to comfortably accelerate without downshifting. That's exactly why V6's have always existed as the "premium" engines despite only having moderately more power than the base 4-cylinder engines: they offer more power and torque where it really counts, and don't sound like asthmatic 4-bangers.
Toyota Aurion with optional hood ornament.
Audio: 5/10
Something was wrong with the speakers in this particular car. There was constant static from the front speakers, so listening to any radio station was impossible. Instead, I listened to the soothing sound of my mother screaming and shouting every time she saw anything outside the windshield.
The speakers in my mom's old Prius were of acceptable quality, so I can only assume that the Aurion's are no different. In the interests of fairness, let's just call it a 5/10.
Toys: 7/10
Base model Aurion, base model equipment. There are several blank panels in place of otherwise premium controls. For example, the passenger side door/window locks have been removed, and the driver's side dashboard has a few of its own blanks. That said, it comes standard with a touchscreen, and has a USB port which is impressive considering this generation was first introduced as an economy car back in 2006 and Audi doesn't even offer one on the 2015 A3.
Since I couldn't test most of the features that come on the higher trim models, I decided to instead test the car's build quality. To do this, I put it through the industry-standard Eaten by Arctic Parrots Test . As we all know, this test involves placing two New Zealand-native Kia parrots on the roof and seeing whether or not they are capable of scratching the paint or peeling off the chrome trim. They accomplished neither. Therefore, the Aurion passes the quality control test with flying colors!
Value: 10/10
Here's where the car really comes into its own: you get a ton of car for your money with the Aurion. It's affordable, spacious, easy to drive, super quiet and comfortable, powerful, and well equipped on higher trim levels. It's just an extremely satisfying and cost-effective package. I wouldn't buy one myself, but I can't think of a more user-friendly and more competent all-rounder that I'd rather have on a road trip.
Final Score: 64/100
The Aurion is a proof of concept for why all economy cars should have powerful V6 engines. Compared to 4-banger engines, V6's sound much better, offer extremely usable power/torque, and make an otherwise mundane car a surprise straight-line athlete. Sure turbo-4's are capable of producing comparable power delivery, but they lack the lunacy and character of an objectively flawed V6.
Combine that speed and torque with an extremely comfortable and quiet ride, and you have a deceptively upscale highway cruiser. Best of all, it comes with Toyota reliability and parrot-proof build quality. That's what really matters.
Engine: 3.5L V6
Power: 268 hp at 6200 RPM, 247 lb ft at 4700 RPM
Transmission: 6-Speed Automatic
0-60 Time: 6.8 seconds
Drivetrain: Front Wheel Drive
Curb Weight: 3505 lbs
Seating: 5 people
MPG: 23.8 city, 28 highway (26 combined)
MSRP: $34,172 (USD)
m-b-w loves his SUBAROO
> marshknute
05/18/2014 at 23:36 |
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Was it grounded to the ground?
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marshknute
> m-b-w loves his SUBAROO
05/18/2014 at 23:41 |
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On a scale of 1 to grounded, it scored a solid "yes."
Alex Murel
> marshknute
05/19/2014 at 01:44 |
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Here's a new cover photo and if you go ahead and re-post this around 10 am you'll get a bucket load more page views.
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marshknute
> Alex Murel
05/19/2014 at 02:23 |
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Thankin' you!
I'll have to set an alarm for 2am to re-post at that time (Sydney is 14 hours ahead), but Oppo comes before sleep!
Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> marshknute
05/19/2014 at 04:33 |
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Mate, if it passed the parrot test, you either got a Milspec Aurion, or substandard Keas.
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Alex Murel
> marshknute
05/19/2014 at 10:11 |
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Ha, after I posted that I realized night posts are often from people outside of the States, so 10 am was a rather ambiguous thing to say. Next time you don't wake up yourself though, you can schedule posts to be released at certain times.
scienceroller
> marshknute
06/01/2014 at 08:15 |
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Do they sell the regular Camry too in ANZ? I know that Toyota sold both the Camry and Aurion previously in that region. Curious, because in India they stopped selling the regular Camry (Last Gen.) and are now selling the Aurion rebadged as Camry.
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marshknute
> scienceroller
06/01/2014 at 10:13 |
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They do sell the Camry, but not the V6. If you want the V6, you have to upgrade to the Aurion (often called the "prestige" Camry).