New Toyota Auris

This week Toyota has been letting the international motoring media loose on their new Auris, (pronounced ow-ris), model range.

Changing the name of the Corolla, the best selling car of all time, to Auris is a brave move. But then if you are likely to soon become the largest vehicle manufacturer in world, taking over from GM, you can be brave.

Toyota’s thinking on the name change from Corolla for their new C-segment three and five door hatchback range is that they now have a word in Auris that is easily pronounced in all European languages. The say the new name links naturally to Yaris and Evensis their other core models.

Auris, say Toyota, is derived from the Latin word Aurum, which means gold. The Corolla brand name will continue to be used for some models in other markets around the world, but not in the UK. Since its launch in 1966 Corolla has achieved 32 million worldwide sales.

‘Designed in Europe for Europe’ and ‘inside-out’ design are the headline claims from Toyota at this week’s media event. An all new car, more interior space than competitor models, headroom in line with compact MPVs, a wide range of fuel efficient engines, renowned Toyota engineering and build qualities, low cost of ownership, better than most residual values, high Euro NCAP safety ratings, (five stars for occupant protection, four stars for child occupant protection and three-stars for pedestrian safety), with nine airbags as standard for all models, are the core messages.

The Auris range goes on sale in the UK on 1 February priced from £11,995. Initially five door models will be available but then joined by the top of the range T180 2.2-litre diesel and three door derivatives from 1 April.

In addition to the two hatchback body styles the Auris range is available with a choice of 1.4 and 1.6-litre petrol engines, 1.4, 2.0 and 2.2-litre diesel units and three transmission types, five and six speed manual and a new MultiMode manual/auto option. There a four model grades plus and extra value TR launch version with the option of 1.6 petrol and 2.0-litre diesel engines in three or five door body styles. TR prices start at £12,495.

Five-door versions of Auris, around two-thirds of all production, are built at Toyota Manufacturing UK’s factory at Burnaston, Derbyshire, alongside Avensis range. Three-door variants are built at the Toyota Manufacturing plant in Turkey, which also builds the Verso models.

The growth of cash-rich Toyota seems unstoppable. The Auris they say is a key model range in building their European sales volumes to 1.2 million annual sales in 2008, of which the Auris range will contribute 150,000 this year and 200,000 units in 2008. Worldwide sales of Toyota vehicles grew by 9% to staggering 8.81 million in 2006 and this year the total is expected to reach 9.34 million.

In the UK Toyota sales last year were 117,819 units with the Lexus brand adding a further 14,691 units. Toyota and Lexus UK sales for 2007 are expected to be in the region of 144,000 units. As for Corolla, last year 22,000 cars were sold in the UK and this year with the run-out of Corolla and the launch of the Auris the total should reach 25,000 and 27,000 in 2008, giving Toyota (GB) around a 5% share of the C-segment.

The UK’s C-segment, or lower medium sector, is highly competitive and sales declined 8.8% in 2006, over twice the 3.9% drop in the overall new car market. The Lower medium sector accounted for 694,442 sales in 2006, still the second largest new car segment accounting for 29% of all UK new car sales. Diesel models account for 36% of volume sales in the UK’s C-segment.

Main sellers in this sector are the Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, Renault Megane, VW Golf, Peugeot 307 and Honda Civic. Added competition comes from the C-segment sized MPVs headed by the Vauxhall Zafira. Toyota’s 25,000 initial annual UK sales target for Auris will still see it under-perform sales wise against other C-segment models from the top five manufacturers.

Toyota GB executives speaking at the international media launch of the Auris range said they aimed to build on the retail strength of the previous Corolla models but Auris does give them an opportunity to enter the fleet and business user-chooser sectors.

Fleet sales are expected to increase from around 20% with Corolla to 35% of total Auris sales. As the newcomer will remain predominately a retail car, 57% of customers will choose the new 1.6VVT-I twin variable timing petrol engine whilst 17% of customers will choose the 2.0-litre D4-D 130 diesel unit. Overall 68% of customers will buy petrol models. Around 19% of customers will choose the MultiMode semi auto transmission.

Toyota said, feedback from customer clinics shows that customer’s perceptions of the new Auris doubled once they had seen the new vehicle in real-life. Increasing public awareness of the newcomer was their priority so they are putting cars on display in public shopping areas and they will have eight concept stores around the UK to showcase the new car.

Toyota GB confirmed they are continuing their open and transparent pricing policy with Auris. The price you see is what you pay unlike many of the competitors where incentives to buy destroys the brand values and lowers the residual values. Customer retention is a priority as is appealing to new customers.

Eifion Jones, manager product planning for Toyota GB said, “The average age of Corolla customers is currently just under 60 years and the average for the segment is 50 to 52 years of age. Our aim is to target younger customers, the ‘twenty somethings’, with our Auris pricing and sales strategy and this will also appeal to current older owners.”

Jones said, “Easy cost of owning an Auris comes in the form of a three year Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) which requires a £2,000 deposit. The Auris T3, 1.6VVT-i five-door, likely to be the best seller, will cost a customer £264 a month. The T3 2.0 D4-D five-door £310 and the sporty T180 three-door £383."