Toyota Avensis Touring Sports 1.8 VVT-i – 2018 – Welcome Endurance Test

All you need

The D-segment station wagon is a dying breed. With the choice of this used endurance tester, we want to draw attention to this part of the car market. Because we dare to say: a station wagon in the D segment is all you need. It’s a sip, you can put everything in it. Of course you are a bit lower, because it is not an SUV, but as a rule a D-segment Wagon is simply more spacious, less expensive and more economical than comparable SUVs. So say it. So, the S word has been dropped. SUVs are, of course, totally delicious and okay. Toyota has a good share of SUVs from A to E segment. The RAV4 is now Toyota’s SUV operating in the Avensis Touring Sports segment. That RAV4 drives, although it is high on the legs, very pleasant. And it’s remarkably frugal too, courtesy of a sophisticated hybrid powertrain. However, our endurance test Avensis costs less than half: €22,750. We pick up the station wagon dating from 2018 with less than 60,000 kilometers on the clock.

Sober

Our endurance test Avensis is a case of average. Across the front is a 1.8-liter four-cylinder petrol engine with a six-speed manual transmission. This version belongs somewhere between the basic Aspiration and the more luxurious Dynamic. Above that was the Executive at the time. That means that we have a fairly complete car, with separate climate control, cruise control and heated seats. On the other hand, we miss start-stop, navigation and a fully electric driver’s seat. So bottom line you can place our Avensis a bit on the ‘down-to-earth’ side of the spectrum.
This Avensis is more than a sturdy station wagon. For the size (4 meters 80) and the weight (almost 1,400 kg), the 1.8-liter petrol engine of 147 hp (180 Nm) seems a bit manageable. There is also a 1.6 with 132 hp and 160 Nm and a 2.0-liter with 152 hp and 196 Nm when it comes to petrol engines, and these are all four-cylinder sixteen-valves. On the diesel front, this latest crop of the Avensis (there was also a sedan, until 2018, the TS discontinued in 2019) had two options, a 1.6 D-4D or a 2-litre D-4D, (112 hp and 270 Nm respectively and 143 hp and 320 Nm), the latter of which has not done any good to the world-famous Toyota reliability. Many problems, including the injectors, gave numerous frequent drivers headaches that you would not expect from Toyota.

Like New

Both inside and out, the Japanese looks like new. Although the engine does not seem oversized, the power source is sufficient in normal commuting. Not too much, but enough. The flexibility of the four-cylinder and the engine sound are also neat, but not special. You should not expect that former direct and precise click-click Japanese gearbox from the six-speed gearbox. The poker needs a little more attention and love to go through the pattern and it remains a bit distant.
Both leg and headroom are ample. I even sit with my legs crossed in the back! And then the trunk. More than five hundred liters of capacity, a rear seat backrest that folds down in parts and a practical plastic mat in the back. The Avensis Touring Sports is an excellent touring car. On the highway it is simply wonderfully whizzing. Short bumps take a bit more effort, but otherwise the suspension and travel comfort are quite high. That is a pleasant prospect, given our plans

Barrel Brigade

We are going to let people who drive or want to own a D segment station wagon drive our Avensis and then poll their opinion. We are going to compare the car in an occasion double or trio test with other station wagons that have remained in this thinned D-segment. Then you will soon end up with a Volkswagen Passat Variant and the Mazda 6 Sportbreak. We are also going to do a tour of Europe along all relevant European Toyota offices, and there are more than you think. We go from Brussels to Saint-Tropez and back via Cologne to the United Kingdom, where the predecessor of this car, the Carina E, was born. This summer, the Avensis will also serve as a broom wagon and at the same time as a reporter’s car during a monster tour through the Netherlands and small parts of Germany and Belgium with the three barrels of our barrel brigade.

Neat result

But first we examine what does such an Avensis TS 1.8 perform on the dynamometer. The manufacturer’s specification, which Toyota rarely exaggerates, reads 147 hp at 6,400 rpm and a maximum torque of 180 Nm at a relatively high 4,000 rpm. Well, it culminates in a smooth, trouble-free test with a healthy-sounding block and neat results. And that torque may peak at a somewhat high speed, look at how flat that curve is, that maximum torque is available over a wide speed range. Roller bank chief Ghisbert van Ginhoven urges us to exercise restraint with this Japanese. “There is no turbo, so chip tuning is not very useful. If you want to get more out of this engine, you have to work on the physical engineering, like camshafts and the like. I’d like to leave it that way. This is a cool, practical box with lots of space and comfort, no crack nose. Doesn’t suit him either.”
The Toyota Avensis Touring Sports has been baptized as an occasion endurance tester with a neat dynamometer test. To be continued.