I THINK I might be finally warming to the hybrid idea.

When I drove the hatchback Auris Hybrid, I wasn’t particularly bowled over by the economy, aside from the fact that using mostly electric power in town means good figures even in an urban setting.

But with the estate version it all fell into place.

It’s not a bad looking car at all and you get the extended luggage space that you’d expect from this sort of car.

I took it on a trip that I regularly use for testing and covered about 150 miles on a mixture of roads, including slow town driving, country roads and dual carriageways.

This time, the MPG readout was knocking 70 – very close to the claimed 74mpg – which is what the hybrid is all about. Once you learn a few little tricks – such as coming off the throttle to kick the electric mode in – you can achieve this without too much effort.

Even when I was a bit more enthusiastic with the right-hand pedal it stayed above 60.

Very good for a car that will easily swallow up everything you’d need for a family day out or holiday.

As I’ve said before, the best thing is economy doesn’t drop in town like it would with a conventional petrol or diesel.

In fact, it often increases as, up to around 30mph, you’re more often than not on electric power, using no fuel and putting out no emissions. Overall CO2 figures are 87g/km, making for free road tax.

When I hit traffic at the end of about 70 miles of driving, my MPG didn’t suffer at all, despite about half an hour of crawling across town.

I test drove the Icon spec, which is the lowest trim level available with the hybrid engine.

And you get a lot of standard kit for your cash – 15in alloys, rear parking camera, touch screen with Bluetooth and MP3, DAB radio and electric windows all round.

The engine gives you 136bhp and, while it won’t blow your socks off, performs well enough.

As a decent size family car that is clean, efficient and loaded with kit, the Hybrid Tourer makes for good value and good sense.

The hybrid Touring Sports starts at £21,495, topping out at £23,245 (before options), while the range kicks off at £17,145 for the 1.4 diesel.

Find out more at westovergroup.co.uk/Toyota.