Toyota Auris to revert to Toyota Corolla?
Although Toyota are getting more adventurous with their cars, they still make a lot of ‘beige’ stuff. Like the Toyota Auris.
The Toyota Auris arrived in Europe as the replacement for the also beige Corolla, but when it did arrive it was really just a Corolla with a new badge and a new body. Which wasn’t particularly exciting.
But Toyota woke up to the shortcomings of the new Auris and quickly paid attention to rectifying things. They bolted on a new grill and gave the lights a bit of a workover to make them look more modern. They tweaked the bumpers and added some much better alloys and started to use higher quality materials on the inside.
Toyota even had a tweak with the engines and introduced a hybrid Auris (which we reviews earlier this year) which is a good alternative for those who like the idea of a hybrid but don’t want to shout about their green halo by buying a Prius.
But the Auris name stuck, despite the fact it was clear the car buying public hadn’t taken to it (and didn’t even know how they were supposed to pronounce it). But that looks like it’s going to change.
Auto Bild say that Toyota has finally realised the Auris badge was a mistake and that they will re-badge the Auris as a Toyota Corolla when the next Auris/Corolla arrives in 2013.
There’s no official word from Toyota yet, but with the new Corolla due to debut at the end of 2012 we’ll find out soon enough.
Tim says
Great! Re-name it to Corolla is a good choice, also as the forthcoming model looks much better than the Auris looks now.