LIFESTYLE LIFESTYLE: motoring
TOYOTA RAISES ITS GAME
MOTORING CORRESPONDENT OLIVE KEOGH TOOK THE TOYOTA AVENSIS FOR A TEST DRIVE AND FOUND THE NEW MODEL TO HAVE AN EXTRA PEP IN ITS STEP.
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he Toyota Avensis is a bit like a school prefect. Reliable, sensible and predictable with car appropriate qualities such as good economy and user friendliness thrown in. It’s a good choice for those who prioritise consistency, comfort, good levels of equipment and space. It’s also ideal for those who don’t care about cars at all and just
want something “decent” that will go from A to B efficiently and with no hassle day after day. Those of you old enough not to still have your tooth fairy money will remember that the Avensis’ predecessor was called the Carina. Between them, Carina and Corolla changed the Irish motoring landscape introducing ‘mod cons’ such as radios and seatbelts as standard. Fast forward to 2015 and the highly competitive mid sized family car segment where Avensis battles it
out with traditional big hitters such as Mondeo and Passat, as well as ambitious newcomers such as the Hyundai i40. It’s a particularly tough corner of the market not least because it’s “fleet central” where companies spent a lot of their transport budgets. Also piling on the pressure is that the growing popularity of SUVs/crossovers is causing the mid-sized segment to shrink. Indeed Nissan saw the writing on the wall as far back as 2008 when it stopped
InBUSINESS | Q4 2015
18/12/2015 16:50