TOYOTA has slashed up to £1,250 off the price of its Avensis range, as new wholelife cost figures put the model ahead of its mainstream rivals in the upper medium sector.

The largest price cut - 8.34% - comes on the 1.6 VVT-i GS saloon/liftback, which now costs £13,745 on-the-road (£14,995).

Toyota claims the new Avensis represents an average 5% value improvement over its predecessor and the realignment gives a 13% better value than four months ago. Higher equipment levels include satellite navigation, six-speaker RDS CD player and steering wheel audio controls on the biggest selling GS fleet derivative.

About 75% of Avensis sales are to fleet and new wholelife cost figures from Emmox give the 1.8 GS VVT-i five-door a 5p per mile three-year/60,000-mile wholelife cost advantage over some of its rivals.

Emmox gives the Avensis a 23.78ppm figure against 27.06p for the new Ford Mondeo 1.8 LX, 27.43ppm for the Vauxhall Vectra 1.8 LS, 28.57ppm for the Volkswagen Passat 1.8 S and 28.83ppm for the Peugeot 406 1.8 LX.

Vermont models remain priced from £12,995 on-the-road for the 1.6 VVT-i saloon to £14,495 for the 2.0 D4-D liftback; S models continue to cost between £13,495 for the 1.6 VVT-i saloon and £15,995 for the 2.0 D4-D estate.

Selected new prices (previous prices in brackets): 1.8 GS saloon/liftback £13,995 (£15,245), 2.0 D4-D saloon/liftback £15,245 (£16,495), 2.0 SR saloon/liftback £16,245 (£17,495). Automatics add £940.