I must admit I'm sorely tempted by a used top of the range Auris estate (Sports Touring) hybrid, but I'm not sure spending £18K on a 3 year old car is a wise move.  It's only got 16K miles on the clock, and is £zero car tax, and is spotless, but I need convincing it's a good buy by someone who has one.

I have driven Lexus hybrids for 7 years and think there great. The eCVT is so smooth. Do not take any notice of the press saying it is noisy. That is only if you thrash it and want to drive like a twit. My commute does not include two laps of the neurunburg so it doesn't bother me.  It's a great car to waft in.  Take a test drive and you will see.

I'm having a test drive tomorrow, should be interesting as I haven't driven an automatic for over forty years. I'll let you know how I get on.

Well I collected the car yesterday. A solid, comfy, smooth car. Without looking at the dashboard, it is impossible to know if I am driving in electric or petrol mode, there is no difference whatsoever. The gearbox, (e-CVT), is seamless and the only way to hear any change in gearing is to 'floor' the accelerator, then you can feel the gears change a bit and there is a 'roar' from the gearbox until it catches up with the engine, (or is it the other way round?). Loads of safety aids and a good sound system, although I am having to transfer all my music and videos to a new USB stick as the one I had in the Astra is not compatible with the Corolla - I seem to recall I had to alter all the settings to play videos in the Astra, so it is more likely an Opel thing than a Toyota thing. I will not know until I do the first fill-up, (the dealer put in half a tank of petrol), but it looks like the MPG is going to be good. First impressions - excellent. 
@Calnefoxile

Welcome to the enlightened minority.

I picked up my Auris Hybrid yesterday also. Not new like yours David, but three years old today. 18000 on the clock, a couple of paint chips but nothing serious, spotless inside, electric everything.  As you say, seamless!   I've done less than 20 miles so far, but the computer says I've managed an average 94 MPG.  Being realistic, I really don't expect it to be that good all the time, but if I get 50 plus, I'll be more than happy.  And a bonus, because it was first registered before 01/04/2017 (just), it's eligible for £zero road fund license.
Sadly, I've spent this afternoon polishing it, even though it didn't need it.

"I've spent this afternoon polishing it, even though it didn't need it."

if you lived round here you'd have been better employed welding RSJs onto your suspension to reinforce it driving along the pothole ridden roads the council 'can't afford to repair', note 'repair', their contractors 'patch' which generally means a couple of shovels of tarmac and back the lorry over it to flatten.

by next week it will be as bad, or worse, than before, but the contractors, and no doubt some councillors, will have made a nice profit.

Round here we are much more refined. For a start, the council do the repairs on the local roads. A wagon, with a driver and second man come along, the driver sprays tar (?) into the hole, the second man puts in a shovel full of chippings, the driver has another squirt of tar(?), then the driver shoves some more chippings on top, and then hits the chippings with the back of his shovel. Job done!

some years ago, a council 'contractor' came up our road and 'repaired' the potholes ...

literally left the rubble in them, filled with tarmac, and backed the lorry over the patch, then on to the next one.

so the next day I phoned WSCC Highways and asked when the potholes in our road were going to be repaired ...
'where do you live'

told him....

'they were done by our contractors yesterday'

no they were not ...

'and what do you know about it'

back in the 70's I worked for a while for WSCC Highways, and was sent to Hailsham, the training centre in East Sussex, on a roadman course which taught us, among other things, how to correctly REPAIR a pothole.

I went on to explain what their cowboys contactors had done, then explained how we had been taught to do the job properly, and asked if he could see any similarity...

three days later the contractors came back, drove up the road past several 'repaired' potholes, then about 100 feet before our house, stopped and proceeded to repair, properly, the six or so potholes between there and about 100 feet past our house, then packed up and foxtrot-oscared past a pile more 'repaired' potholes and away.

I expect they were even paid again for doing the job properly that they should have done in the first place.