Toyota’s revolution gathers pace

Has much changed with it in second generation form? Well, it certainly looks a good deal sassier than its forebear, but overall, the head stuff still rules.

Employ the old grey matter and the Auris starts doing a surprising number on any number of established big hitters in the family hatch class.

Its driving dynamics have improved but have been geared to comfort and refinement, running costs are extremely low and despite a few newspaper scare stories, other manufacturers will still tell you that Toyota reliability is something they try to benchmark against in terms of total warranty claims.

With a choice of petrol, diesel or hybrid, hatch or estate, this generation Auris deserves to finally shake off its image as a makeweight. The company seems to have woken up and realised that a range of boring cars does it no favours.

The revolution might have started with the GT86 sports coupe but it gains volume and momentum right here.