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Toyota Avensis Sedan Facing the Axe, Poor Sales to Blame

The Toyota Avensis has to be the least talked about sedan in Europe right now. While rumors about a possible Paris revival give hope to fans of the Citroen C5, the similarly sized Japanese model is facing the axe.
Toyota Avensis Sedan Facing the Axe, Poor Sales to Blame 11 photos
Photo: Toyota
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The last time we mentioned the Avensis was in February 2017, when a possible Avensis Touring prototype was spotted undergoing testing. We're not even sure that it was the real deal because Toyota officials have pretty much confirmed its demise.

“We are looking at that segment of the market and asking ourselves some questions,” Toyota’s European boss, Johan van Zyl, recently told Autocar. “We’re very satisfied with the performance of Avensis now - the product is doing fine for us. But we’re asking if the next step should be another D-segment saloon [sedan] or something else.”

A spokesman for the company said they are "monitoring the D-segment as it declines and suffers from heavy discounting." Last year, the mid-sized model managed only 25,319 across Europe, down 28% over 2016. That's about 1/7 of what the Volkswagen Passat achieved.

Avensis sales topped in 2004 when 142,535 units were sold in Europe. So the car used to be pretty big, but it's not anymore.

The model is made at the Burnaston factory in Britain, a market where the Avensis sold only 3473 units last year. Of course, you'd need heavy discounting to sell such an old car, as the current 3rd-gen was introduced back in 2009. It received its first facelift in 2012 and the second one in 2015.

Toyota isn't the only company giving up on sedans. Volkswagen recently announced the new Jetta wouldn't be coming over. Meanwhile, America is slowly giving up on cheap hatchbacks, like the Ford Fiesta.

The publication mentioned above says that Toyota is considering a smaller Auris sedan in the Avensis' place. But won't that overlap with the Corolla?
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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