I drove the new Toyota Avensis at its European launch earlier this year, but there’s no comparison to testing it at home. Taking a car across a range of road conditions always gives a better feel for its performance, where you can concentrate on all of its features rather than just managing your journey.

The first impression of the new Avensis is that it’s very much a Toyota in terms of styling. It has evolved with more chrome, larger headlights and sleeker design from the previous model. The interior styling includes a large centre screen on the higher specification Sol model that I drove. The dash is black with soft-touch materials and a hint of chrome to lighten the look. The seating has improved and adjustment was good for driving comfort.

The important news for this Avensis is that there is a new 1.6-litre turbo-diesel engine that’s been sourced from BMW. The engine is smooth and quiet. Out on the road, the economy performance was poorer than I had expected. Toyota has claimed an 11% improvement over the previous 2.0-litre turbo-diesel model, with the new offering rising now to 23.8km/litre (67mpg or 4.2l/100km). I covered 912km during my test drive and found the car’s computer recorded an economy figure of 17.5km/litre (5.7l/100km). This is more than 30% poorer than the rated figure. In reality, that should have given me a range of over 1,000km on a full tank, but I was well below.

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The six-speed manual gearbox was good to use, but I found soft torque spots at low revs in the higher gears, which meant there was more need to change gears on some smaller roads as the engine revs dropped. It coped well with the hills, while demanding regular gear changes.

There is a stop-start system but as I was doing mainly rural driving, it rarely kicked in. The CO2 rating of 109g/km means it’s in band A3 for road tax at €190 per year. This engine uses AdBlue technology to keep CO2 emission levels low, with refills required at every 20,000km service interval.

Toyota has addressed the issue of running costs with the new Avensis by extending the engine service interval from 15,000km to 20,000km. They claim that this can shave close to €500 from the ownership cost of the car over three years.

Toyota’s new Toyota Safety Sense system is fitted to all models in the Avensis range. This system includes a pre-collision warning system. The lane departure system is useful and also easy to engage and disengage as its use on minor roads can be a nuisance factor. It defaults to full engagement on each new journey. The car’s road sign assist system was a little erratic in wet Irish summer driving conditions, which I’m not sure was a function of the condition of the road signs or the level of grime on the car’s windscreen. On more than a few occasions it completely missed the speed sign reading. The high beam alert that automatically goes from full beam to dim when meeting oncoming traffic was more reliable in use and a very practical feature to have.

This new Avensis has a feeling of improved quality along with a higher safety specification and new engines. The economy performance was not as good as I had expected, but I concede that this may be a function of my own driving style.

The basic specification entry level Aura grade Avensis comes with 16in alloy wheels, a good reversing camera, auto wipers and headlights, and the Toyota Safety Assist pre-collision system with an entry price of €27,710, or £21,995 for Northern Ireland readers, before delivery charges. The Sol model with the full kit included adds more than €4,500 to the base price, which seems a bit of a hefty price lift over the basic model.

The new Avensis has the best towing ability of its competitors at 1,600kg. However, fuel tank capacity is the poorest at 60 litres, so stops will be more frequent.

The entry level car is competitive compared with the competition. This new Avensis offer is a good one; the car performs very well and I found the refined handling to be smooth and flawless, other than a low torque feeling at lower revs in higher gears on smaller roads.

Toyota Avensis 1.6 D4-D

Engine 1.6L diesel

Engine power 112bhp

0-100km/hr 11.4 seconds

Economy 23.8m/litre

Fuel tank capacity 60 litres

CO2 emissions 109g/km

Road tax A3 (€190)

Service interval 20,000km/ 12 months

Safety rating NA

Towing rating 1,600kg

Warranty Three years/ 100,000km

Entry price €27,710

NI price £21,995