Eco friendly urban driving with the Auris HSD

The Auris Hybrid is a really futuristic looking car

If you’re in the market for a small family car, your main driving is in city traffic and you’re looking to be more environmentally friendly this year then the Toyota Auris HSD may be the car for you.

The Auris hybrid is a beautifully styled, neat looking little car with a distinct futuristic feel to it.

Inside, there’s a brushed chrome raised centre console, featuring a tiny blue automatic gear stick.

The brushed chrome theme is continued throughout the interior, with the door opener extending on to the handle.

There’s a curved dashboard with a double glove compartment – the top one is specially for the USB/iPod, which is a nice touch.

There’s also a handy cup holder to the right of the steering wheel.

There are three driving modes in the HSD, Eco, EV and Power

While the car is full of thoughtful storage cubbies, I didn’t see anything suitable for coins or parking tickets. There is one under the centre console but it’s really too obscured to be of any use.

Leg room is adequate both back and front and the high positioning of the roof in the back means it’s comfortable for tall passengers.

There are speaker looking vents in the casing of the back seats, but they’re actually hybrid vents.

The boot in the HSD looks small, but it has hidden depths with tiered storage underneath the actual boot space.

Driving-wise, there are three modes available, Electric Vehicle, where the car is powered totally by electricity; Eco, which is a mix of electricity and the petrol engine, and Power or sports mode which offers faster acceleration and is totally down to the petrol engine.

The car is really in its element in the stop/start nature of city traffic or slow moving suburban traffic as the EV mode and Eco modes can be used.

I felt though on the motorway and where a ‘quick getaway’ was required in urban driving, entering the Walkinstown roundabout for instance, Power mode was best.

The luxury model I was driving also had a rear reversing camera and parking sensors.

The parking sensors were turned off when I got the car and once you put the car into reverse it was easy to see why.

Unfortunately, like the Prius, the HSD also has constant reversing beeps, which coupled with the separate beeps of the parking sensors are guaranteed to drive you mad (no pun intended).

Overall though, the 5-door Auris HSD is a beautifully stylish car which makes its own of urban driving.

Bluetooth, cruise control and air conditioning come as standard in the Irish spec.

The Toyota Auris HSD is available from €25,425, with the luxury model I was driving costing from €27,885.

Tech Spec.
Engine: 1.8 HSD (petrol)
Acceleration: 0-100kph in 11.4s
Maximum Speed: 180kph
Combined fuel consumption: 4l/100km
CO2 emissions: 93g/km
Annual road tax: €160

A version of this article first appeared in Metro Herald