Toyota Auris at 15,750 euros: 4,250 discount vs. Golf at 22,000

Auris at 15,750 euros: 4,250 discount and a Golf at 22,000

A new compact for 15,750 euros sounds like a bargain until you convert it: almost three million old pesetas. The Toyota Auris comes with a 4,250 euro discount, settles at that figure in Active trim with the 132 HP petrol engine, and leaves a similar Golf 6,250 euros higher, at 22,000. The promotion is real. It is also a portrait of a market that has learned to sell cheaply what a few years ago did not drop below that threshold.

What the 15,750 euro Auris includes

The car is 4.3 meters long, has a rear-view camera, and according to one of the analyses circulated with the offer, it can do the 1,000 meters slightly below 31 seconds with an average consumption of 4.8 liters per 100. The equipment and price place it, according to those who tested it, above the basic compacts offered between 12,000 and 11,000 euros applying the PIVE Plan: petrol versions with around 100 HP, often bought by companies for commercial use and not by individuals.

Here appears the first nuance. "If 100 HP are not capable of moving a compact at legal speeds, we have a very serious problem," responds another party. The discussion is not whether the Auris runs, but whether it is necessary to pay for 132 HP when the neighbor is content with less.

The discount and the fine print of financing

The promotion requires financing. Those who pay cash lose the discount and add about 1,500 euros, which is, in practice, what the brand expects to earn from the loan. Toyota's financing was at 6%, two to three points below competitors, except Volkswagen, which lent 10,000 euros at 0%. The German group's financial subsidiary earned 1.2 billion euros, according to one of the cited data.

The warning repeats in other cases: Peugeot offered 6,500 euros for the old car and 1,000 from the PIVE, but starting prices appeared inflated to leave the result as always. Some suspect the discount is recovered through another channel. Buying a car has never been a profitable act, only necessary.

Diesel vs. petrol: seven liters and a decade of fighting

The comparison is striking. Tests by a specialized magazine measured a real consumption of seven liters for a 180 HP Ford Focus petrol and the same for a 163 HP diesel, on the same route. Against this data, some drivers claimed to get 5.5 real liters from a 2004 Avensis diesel of 2,000 cubic centimeters, with 170,000 kilometers and no sixth gear.

The underlying argument: the best diesels are European, to the point that Toyota reached an agreement with BMW to assemble them; Japanese atmospheric petrols, on the other hand, were something else. Power does not decide everything: some maintain that with 11.6 kg/HP they do not miss even one more horse, and that downshifting is enough to shoot off like a rocket.

Fire sale price or the new normal price?

The sector had been adjusting for some time. New cars between 15,000 and 25,000 euros cost between 3,000 and 4,000 less than two or three years ago, and this Auris was already around that figure from a year and a half ago. A C segment for 20,000 euros seemed like money, and for a little less you could get a Golf 1.6 TDI of 105 HP or an Octavia.

The curve did not distinguish brands. Citroën announced a B segment sedan with 500 liters of trunk for 10,500 euros financed, and recalled that without financing the price goes up. The Hyundai i30 or C4 moved in that 12,000 euro range. The repeated thesis: there is an "affordable luxury" that makes normal what yesterday was an extra.

The rebound: what peine to that Auris

The years proved some right and others wrong. In November 2013 sales, the Auris was the third in its segment, C, behind the Leon and Golf. A carsharing company put its 2010 Auris hybrids up for sale, with between 70,000 and 80,000 kilometers, at 10,000 euros each, and according to the story, they sold like hot cakes. Some bought it as a battle car and got it right: "anodine but tough and low maintenance."

Others remembered the opposite: the paint, especially in white and black, showed scratches like a zebra, and stepping on it increased consumption more than estimulante ilegal. The 1.8 atmospheric petrol, base of the hybrid after adapting it to the Atkinson cycle, defended itself as a good engine. That was the core of the matter: a correct car at an aggressive price, or an anodine car with a sticker that saved it.

What if the problem was not the Auris, but having normalized that a compact costs what a decade ago a upper-range car cost?