Toyota's uncertain Auris - Telegraph When Toyota announced at the recent launch of the new Auris that, with this car, it was "trying to appeal to the heart as well as the head," and to stimulate "emotional appeal" among drivers, every animal warning system in my body and mind yelped: "No. Don't do this. Turn back before it's too late. The reason Toyota is the world's No 1 car maker (might be No 2 by the time these words appear, so fast is the lead changing between Toyota and GM) is universally understood. Toyota makes excellent, reliable cars; sells them at reasonable prices; and backs them with reassuring after-sales service, trustworthy warranties and sound resale values. For most sensible buyers, those points extend from top to bottom of their interest in cars. Recently, however, Toyota has behaved almost as if it is not sure of itself and what it stands for. It has toyed, expensively, with F1. It wavered and havered last year when a profoundly undeserved media storm descended on its head in the US over Lexus and Toyota recalls. Last month, it amateurishly mismanaged a story in the UK of yet more recalls, declining to put up a spokesman to defend its excellent record, thus leaving the way open for critics to make hay at its expense. Now, not content with turning out the inexpensive sports car of the year in the new GT86, it is urging us to get all hot and bothered over the new Auris. This is a bit like Susan Boyle announcing that she yearns to bring out the Lady Gaga in her soul. Or Iain Duncan Smith asking if he mightn't look a little like John Kennedy in this light. The Auris is a dreary pudding of a small family hatchback... and that's the way its customers like it. The original Auris was a worthy successor to the Corolla as Toyota's entry in this Golf/Focus class. And the Corolla proudly boasted two claims: first, to have been one of the most successful cars in the history of the world (more than 39 million sold); and, second, to have been a leading contender as the most boring car ever made. With the new Auris - the second to bear that name - Toyota has worked itself up into a bit of a tizz over the bodywork. A lowered roof line, a pointier nose and a rear end which seems to be following John Sergeant's on Strictly Come Dancing, going in all directions at once. Every one of these devices is a cliché out of the design director's standard litany and my guess is that most Auris buyers would swap all of them for a floor that is completely flat when the rear seats are folded (rather than the ledge that might make load-lugging a little awkward). They might also wish that some of the effort that had gone into jazzing up the exterior had been applied to the depressingly bleak and rudimentary interior. Or even, perhaps, into reducing the overall asking price. An expensive (£20,000+) hybrid is on offer with Toyota's whiny Constant Variable Transmission; but the far cheaper 1.4 litre D-4D diesel will actually cover more miles per gallon with emissions only 30 per cent higher than the hybrid's congestion-charge-beating sub-90g/km. The 1.6 petrol version I sampled on the launch ticked all the dullness boxes but added some drawbacks, including a narcoleptic steering system and a whuffle of wind noise around the windscreen pillars. This sector of the market includes some extraordinarily good cars, such as VW's Golf, Ford's Focus and Kia's Cee'd. Presumably Toyota felt it had to raise the "emotional appeal" of the Auris in order to compete on level terms with those models. If so, I think it was an error of judgment. It might have been better off making cheaper and better. And duller.