Report from Aurion Launch

[Sapper]

Hi all,
Last night I was invited to the launch of the new Aurion by a friend of mine who works at Sydney City Toyota and I have good news.

Probably the first thing to mention is that although the toyota marketing department have no idea about the local large car market, the dealers understand that going against the Falcon and Commodore is going to be a difficult task. They're prepared to openly admit that.

First things first, there's not going to be an All Wheel Drive Aurion. The floor pan does not have a tunnel running to the rear wheels and modifying the platform for awd is very expensive.

The interor is okay, the plastics are about half cheap tinny plastics, half nice vinyl type plastics. There isn't as much room in the front or back as a falcon or commodore. Not even close. The head room isn't all that great either. I'm 5' 9" and my head was all but touching the roof in the back. By contrast, I have a friend who's 6' 5" and he has heaps of head room in the back of my AU. That said, the rear seats were surprisingly comportable. The front seats in all the models were about on par with the BA standard or cloth XR seats, copmaring the relevent models. The fit and finish is good (well, one car had a broken cup holder lid) but the interior is fairly drab.

As soon as I opened the boot i was told it was the biggest in its class. Ummm.....no. My AU boot is noticably bigger than the Aurion and the opening to the cabin, if you fold down the seats, is not much bigger than a large kitchen 'cutting up board.' The rear speakers are also substantially exposed to the boot and easily susceptible to damage.

The only real selling point I think it has is the transponder key that is proximity sensing and you can start the car with the key in your pocket.

Overall, I think that I shares about similar value as the Mitsubishi 380. Its more expensive than the 380 and proportionally better than it. The exterior styling is going to take some getting used to, so its not as good looking as any of its competitors. I didn't get to drive it unfortunately but my assessment so far is that unless you like trivial gadgets, it is by no means an improvement over the BFII or the VE.

Feel free to ask questions if you wish.