Driven #39:- Toyota Avensis TR D4-D Estate '08

So why, oh why am I writing about a car that’s been out of production for several years, and was never really all that interesting in the first place? Surely I should be chasing conquest visits to Roadwork, and encouraging people to return. Writing about a three-year old sales-reps estate car is no fit way to achieve that, is it?

Well, I can justify it partly because I’ve just spent three hours in the car and might as well get something out of it, and secondly, because the conclusion I reached was totally unexpected.

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Luxury Redefined? (....and a Yaris)

 After a long slog on a motorway experiencing TRAVEL CHAOS of whatever flavour I was dealing with this week, be it snow, cancelled trains, volcanic ash clouds or elephantine tarmac-eating shrews, It had been the one thing I was looking forward to on my journey North. That humble bowl of teabags and UHT milk capsules was sure to be waiting for me, there on the desk in my Travelodge room. It's one of life's great constants. You can rely on it. 

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Korea Achievement

Everybody on the entire planet by now knows that the Koreans don't make crap cars any more. In fairly recent memory, Seoul went from producing either older cars under license, or based heavily on old, proven, cheap technology, to being able to confidently vie for your money alongside established Western brand names. Today it's even got to the point where some of the latest gear by Kia and Hyundai is the kind of stuff you'd actually almost hanker for. The new Kia Sportage is quite a convincing package, the Hyundai iX35 is in the same ball-park.

It's time now for Hyundai to get a bit brave, start pumping weights, and hit the market where it hurts.

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Driven #10:- Toyota IQ

Let’s get the whistlestop review over with as quickly as possible. As an urban runabout the Toyota IQ makes a lot of sense. It takes up very little road or parking space; it’s less than ten feet long overall. It has been proven economical and will cost very little in road tax and, depending on who and where you are, insurance. It is also, within its remit, very pleasant to drive. Additionally it doesn’t feel like it’s trying as hard to create an image as other town-biased cars seem to, things like Smarts, Alfa Mitos and Minis. Toyota IQ drivers look a lot less like smug pillocks than Smart drivers do.

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