Toyota Aurion

Dave takes the recently updated 2016 Toyota Aurion Sportivo for a steer to see if the sportiest model in the range has some hidden potential.

On the road, the Aurion is - unsurprisingly - not radically different to the Camry it's based on.

Toyota's new large car trumps its rivals, writes BILL McKINNON.

ALWAYS A SMOOTH OPERATOR, THE 2016 TOYOTA AURION FINALLY GETS A PROPERLY ‘SPORTS-ENGINEERED’ SPORTIVO TO ADD TO THE RANGE. Finally? Well, the second-generation Aurion has been on-sale for five years, having launched in 2011. Now, with ha

The final Australian-built Toyota Aurion large car rolled down the automaker’s Altona production line last week ahead of the full closure of the Victorian facility, which also builds the Camry, next month. After 11 years of production the Au

Australia's Toyota Aurion is now out of production, with the final unit rolling off the line at the Altona plant in Melbourne's west this week.

Final V6-powered large car rolls off the line in Melbourne.

Toyota, Australia’s biggest-volume car-maker and exporter, has announced the date when it will close its Camry and Aurion factory in the western Melbourne suburb of Altona.

Previously whenever we've discussed the Toyota Aurion, readers have gotten themselves into some sort of argument for and against the upcoming performance orientated Aurion from Toyota Racing & Development. In Australia, when it comes to home grown performance cars, for decades now, there has only been two choices, a HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) or a FPV (ford performance vehicles).

I know some of you might be sick to death of hearing about the Toyota Aurion, but here is the thing, its a big DEAL! I know I would have probably said the same thing when the god awful Avalon came out some 5 years ago, we all know how well that did... Anyway, the Aurion promises to be a different story. As I mentioned earlier in the week, the Toyota Aurion Advertising Campaign is now in full force and Its hard for me to imagine any private buyer going out of their way to get behind the wheel of a new Holden VE Commodore or a Ford Falcon when they have so much more choice.

As it comes time to part with our 2007 Toyota Aurion Touring (and replacing it with a 2015 Aurion Sportivo), I reflect on just how reliable and robust it has been over 6 years and 90,000km of ownership.Owner: Danniel

Car Advice continues to be the most informative website in Australia. I look forward to reading the Owner Reviews and I’ve decided to give it a go and submit my own review. My previous car was a manual 1995 Nissan Maxima, which was flawless for almost 20 years (bar the embarrassing faded paint). However due to the birth of my son, plus the fact that my wife couldn’t drive a manual, led me to search for an automatic family car. I’m cautious of CVT’s so the newer model Maxima/ Altima were ruled out. I wanted to buy a safe, reliable car (with a conventional automatic) and in 2014 I found a 5 year old Toyota Aurion Touring model with 50,000 km in immaculate condition. The Aurion has now done 120,000 km and performs flawlessly. Even though the engine is 3.5 litres with plenty of power on paper (200 kw), the real “shove in your back” occurs in the middle to upper revs, not in the low rev range. I’m a dull 50 year old family man so I drive the car sedately around the city. This rewards me with fuel economy of around 9 litres/100 km. If I need to overtake, there is plenty of power, but I need to put my foot down. Hold onto the steering wheel as the car responds like a slingshot. Ride and handling for my age bracket seems to be fine, what would I know. I’m more interested in a smooth, quiet drive and that’s what the Aurion delivers. The interior of the Aurion is rather basic and a bit plasticky. In contrast, my 20 year old Maxima had expanses of velour and wood grain to assist with the dreariness. In tribute to the Australian workers who put the car together, there are no creaks, rattles or groans. The seats in the Aurion are very comfortable (and large) plus the rear air vents are welcome. Outward visibility is ok for a large car. My only complaint is the drivers’ sun visor which has lost some of its spring and has gone limp. It's too costly to fix ($300 quote). I’m afraid I have not embraced connectivity and infotainment too well. To reverse I turn my head and use mirrors. To travel somewhere I use my road map. I don’t think many Toyotas in 2009 had many technological gadgets however this Aurion came with some kind of GPS unit which looks nice at night. My son worked out how to use it once and we listened to some lady tell us where to go. The only gadget in the Aurion I find useful are the reversing sensors. Somebody has described Toyotas as “whitegoods on wheels” and I must say this description is spot on. However, if anyone is searching for a competent and reliable car, please consider an Aurion. NB: I regret de-registering the Maxima and leaving it dormant in my parents’ garage for many years where it wasted away. The scrap dealer came to collect it.

After about 3 years with my trusty manual 2012 Kia Rio S, which I wrote a review about 2 years ago, and with now a full time job, I decided to satisfy my "Power Craving" and upgraded to a 2010 Toyota Aurion Sportivo ZR6. I bought my Aurion in March 2019 with 135k and as of February 2020, it currently has 154k of faultless, right lane driving. It was finally nice to upgrade from a 1.4 4 cylinder shopping trolley to a silky 3.5 2GR-FE V6 lounge. It's been on many adventures with my mates up and down the coast of New South Wales and it is a Toyota, survived each trip with a full complement of mates and luggage. The seats in my ZR6 are essentially lounges, which to be honest don't really suit a "Sportivo" model as it does not provide any lateral support, however, it is electrically powered with memory which is one of the best things I've ever had in a car, granted my last car was very basic compared to this Sportivo. Speaking of the interior, my car had the standard, aftermarket looking Toyota Headunit with a tiny screen and after connecting my iPhone XS Max, did not display any music data and in general, did not like iOS 12, however, the Bluetooth worked fine but the reconnection each time was a tad slow or did not connect at all. I ended up replacing the stock head unit with a sony XAV-AX3000 which has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which has improved the interior ambience. It has a full leather interior and has a nice retractable sunshade for those days the sun burns your neck if you're punished to the back seat for not calling "shotgun" quickly enough. It also has an auto-dimming mirror, push-button start and a nifty feature when reversing, the side mirrors tilt down to the kerb to aid in reverse parking, in addition to a good reverse camera and parking sensors front and rear. Interior space in the cabin is good for a large sedan with plenty of legroom and headroom for myself and few of my tall mates. Rear seats have a central armrest with cupholders which is a nice feature. The boot size is also good but the lack of the ability to fold down the seats in a 60/40 matter, rather Toyota electing for a ski-port was a terrible idea and makes the car not practical to haul long loads, which resulted in me buying Roof Racks for longer items. Moving on to the exterior of the car, the Sportivo adds a body kit and a rear spoiler which make it looks sort of sporty, so to say, however, you cannot look past that it's still a Camry V6 (which I don't mind personally) and that absolutely loves to bottom out on steep driveways and stop bollards in parking spots. The headlights provide good lighting but the parking lights are an absolute pain in the rear to replace, which I ended up pulling the entire front bumper off just to replace a parking light. The rear taillights look great, especially illuminated in the dark. Now lets looking at the running gear of the Aurion, powering the Aurion is the well used 2GR-FE 3.5 V6 shared amongst many Toyota models producing 201kw. This is driven to the Front Wheels through a Six-Speed Automatic transmission with sport mode. This motor is a sweet gem, has plenty of power and is capable of embarrassing an SV6 commodore and transmission is a good unit when left in drive, if you put it in sport mode, it's extremely slow at shifting manual and sometimes reverts back to a standard automatic which ruins. However, the engine is let down by Toyota's decision for a Front Wheel Drive layout, so it struggles to put the power down with Torque steering all over the place and could possibly make skid marks, just not on the road if you catch my drift, even after upgrading my Aurion with Kluger Grande wheels and wider Kumho Ecsta rubber which cuts the wheelspin down to a minimal but the torque steer is still prevalent. However, engine and transmission will suffice the majority of buyers. The suspension is more performance-based, however, I sometimes wonder what their definition of sport suspension is. With the likes of Kia/Hyundai and Holden/Ford having their own takes on sports suspension that balances handling and comfort. I reckon the people at Toyota Australia thought that the stiffest suspension possible equals handling, which is somewhat true but in day to day driving, especially my commute to work through on twisty country roads, the composure around corners is great but whenever going over broken road surface, your back will start to suffer after a while because the suspension is way too stiff for normal day to day commuting. In concluding, the Toyota Aurion is more than just a faster Right Lane bandit, when fitted with wider/better tyres, it performs well while complimenting the power and transmission combo whilst having a spacious interior and the well-known reliability of Toyota and dealer networks. It makes a good option when comparing it to other P-plater specials such as the Falcon XR6 and Commodore SV6. If Toyota went with an RWD setup and actually properly tuned suspension, it would have made such a good package but in saying that, I'm happy with the purchase of my right lane bandit and it's trouble-free motoring that can still chop a commodore and sv6.

I bought my 2012 Aurion Prodigy late 2017 because I wanted something Australian built, I ruled out Ford because the Falcon was so dated and ruled out Holden because of their Alloytec V6 so it left me with the Aurion, so I decided to take one for a test drive and took it on some open country roads and immediately I was like a kid in a candy store, Ive never driven a vehicle that has accelerated as hard as the Aurion, so I bought it. Having lived with it for well over 8 months now I have some gripes and praises for it. I obviously obsess over the power, but I also love the economy of it, averages around 7.5 litres/100kms on the Hume Highway. I can honestly say I actually really like the woodgrain in the cabin, it's a nice touch to the black leather and the soft black rubbers on the dashboard, and having an ash tray and lighter fitted in the car is handy as well. I also love the exterior styling of it with the chrome adding another nice touch. The intirior is really ergonomic with a foot mounted parking brake to save room in the centre part, steering wheel controls are handy, as well as a decent back up camera and an excellent smart key system. Having back problems like I do the lumbar support on the seat is a life saver as well! However this car is not completly perfect, it's not hard to find some nasty scratchy plastics in throughout the cabin, and the very obvious vinyl backings on the seats do bring the cabin down a notch. And because the prodigy is based more on the ATX rather than the presara it misses out on a decent infotainment system, instead a more aftermarket style screen. Driving the car is an interesting experience as it's a front wheel drive, taking off from traffic lights in the wet can sometimes lead to the front of the car shuddering like an epileptic which is a horrible experience, but considering the weight and drivetrain of the car there isn't too much understeer, a lot less than I expected anyway. Having bought the car at 79,000kms it now has 105,000kms on the clock and every single one of those kilometres as been hassle free, mainly highway driving for me as I live in a rural area, but this car has also tackled plenty of dirt backroads, city streets, mountainous roads with steep inclines and even a beach once (don't ask) Travelling to work one morning I was involved in a car accident (other person at fault) and the repair for the car was quick and easy as it is an Australian built Toyota. The past 8 months in this car have been excellent and I do not regret my purchase whatsoever, the Toyota Aurion Prodigy is a excellent value car and it can cater to many different people as it has endless purpose.