Toyota has lifted the wraps off its 2013 Auris ahead of the car’s official Paris Motor show debut. According the Japanese car giant, the new Auris will be a more appealing proposition than the outgoing model thanks to sharper styling and more involving dynamics.
Having caught glimpses of the new Auris earlier in the year, we’re now able to get a good look at the car with which Toyota plans to take the fight to the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf. The new car is marginally longer, but retains the same overall width as its predecessor, measuring 4 275 mm in length and 1 760 mm wide. It’s also touted as the lowest car in its class, with an overall height of 1 460 mm – about 55 mm lower than before. The underpinnings still incorporate a 2 600 mm wheelbase, while the boot space climbs from 224 to 360 dm3.
The new car’s structure makes greater use of high-tensile steel, paring down the curb weight by 40 kg and increasing torsional rigidity by 10 per cent. This, along with a lowered centre of gravity and ride height, as well as sportier suspension and steering set-ups, will, according to Toyota, make the new Auris more dynamically engaging than the old car.
The styling is certainly more engaging than that of its dowdy forebear; incorporating a sharper, wedge-shaped profile; a more pointed front end with raked-back headlamps, a sleeker grille and LED daytime running lights and a tidier rear end.
Toyota Motors South Africa has not yet confirmed the engine line-up, but it’s believed that it will largely echo that of the present car. Expect mildly revised versions of the 1,3-litre petrol engine for the entry-level model, a 1,6-litre petrol and a 1,4-litre diesel to form the initial engine line-up with diesel units co-developed with BMW to join the range at a later date.
The hybrid, which looks like a certainty for our market, will also undergo a number of minor revisions, but will still utilise a 1,8-litre engine mated with an electric motor fed by a nickel-metal hydride battery pack. As the new Auris was designed to accommodate a hybrid drivetrain from its inception, there will be fewer packaging compromises (read boot and interior space comparable with that of the non-hybrid models) than before.
We can expect the new Toyota Auris to reach our shores by the first quarter of 2013.