Toyota Aurion TRD 2007 review

Strip off the cardigan, take the bowls hats off the rear parcel shelf and strap yourself in. The Aurion is about to lose the rep-mobile tag and grow a whole new horde of sub-40-year-old fans or so Toyota hopes, with the supercharged TRD Aurion the fastest Toyota ever sold here.

There's a chunk of the car-buying public who won't buy anything else except a Toyota - about 13 per cent, according to the company's market research.

Without alienating that lot and acknowledging there are plenty who will never buy one, Toyota wants to have a crack at the 40-odd per cent who might, but aren't, laying down dollars for the Toyota badge.

The TRD brand, now heavily linked with the company's motorsport activity, is what it hopes will bring some more into the fold.

The TRD flagship is the Aurion, packing a supercharged V6 wallop and taut underpinnings for drivers looking for useful ability from A to B and for the long way home.

The venture will make money as nothing at Toyota gets a green light now unless it has black numbers with it.

But the TRD folks say they're happy to provide a 'halo' car for the mainstream range at 26 (soon to be 41) dealers around Australia. CMI Toyota in Adelaide is your only port of call for the TRD range, which will include the TRD Hilux in November.

The SX6-based 3500S will come in well under $60,000 and the ZR6-based SL should be sub-$65,000.

Without the aid of AWD, it was deemed too expensive and a difficult engineering task, the 20kg-heavier TRD version of the Aurion sprints to 100km/h in 6.1 seconds, with a 14.2 second claim for a 400m dash. Toyota says that's faster than both the Subaru Liberty GT and Mazda6 MPS.

Toyota says it hasn't tried to make a HSV beater with the new TRD Aurion. Rather, it wanted a more sophisticated vehicle. It has, to a large extent, succeeded the TRD looks purposeful without screaming for attention.

Our first drive came as the Australian Rally Championship prepared to hit the forests of Mt Crawford earlier this month.

We were privvy to a pre-launch drive of the more powerful Aurion and chose to wind our way up through the Adelaide Hills, taking a scenic route to the service park.

The suspension is much firmer, tauter and more direct, with a reduction in ride comfort that is still liveable. Body control is good, with little roll during fast cornering the wide, grippy, 35-profile rubber only scrubbing and running wide under duress.

The 241kW and 400Nm from the supercharged V6 can easily break traction and wake the stability control system up, but torque steer is not something of great concern on dry surfaces. There's tugging at the wheel but it's less than expected given the outputs.

There's none of the lane-change torque steer that was found in some older front-wheel-drive performance machinery, which had less power and torque than the Aurion.

The stability control is not yet switchable but seems to do a reasonable job without being overly intrusive.

The TRD boffins say the upgraded suspension has given the car more ability and it is less likely to resort to electronic interference to keep things tidy.

The cabin gets sporty-looking leather/alcantara pews (full leather in the up-spec SL) and a re-trimmed sports steering wheel.

There's a bit of feel in the helm and the overall impression is one of thorough engineering and solid build quality, not a surprise given the brand.

It's quiet, too, with the supercharger making low-key noises despite propelling the large sedan in a deceptively quick manner.

The TRD Aurion's exhaust system is designed by Tenneco in South Australia, which makes some of the right noises with droning at speed.

The claimed ADR figure is 10.9l/100km and by the end of the day's run through the Hills and back down the highway from Gawler, the trip computer had risen to the mid-teens but on the base-model at the end of the day was showing 11l/100km.

The TRD Aurion looks a little angry, no mean feat given the donor car's conservative exterior and can certainly supply pace and even poise on a favourite back road, but at a decent price hike over the standard car.

It's a shame Mitsubishi has knocked the hot Ralliart version of the 380 on the head because it would have been an interesting duel.