MY FRIEND Stan says that he doesn’t care what sort of car he drives, just so long as it gets him there. Not exactly the words the marketing men really want to hear when they dream up their elaborate advertising gambits and think up ways of extolling “brand values” supposed to lure us to their make of car.

Fair enough, we all would like to drive a Mercedes and have that glow of satisfaction knowing that we can provoke the colour green in the eyes of just about any downmarket motorist. But is it worth it? Is a Mercedes, or a BMW, or any high-value badge really worth the sort of premium prices they demand when your motoring life consists of travelling from A to B?

I pose the question because, for the past few weeks, I have curbed my motoring ego long enough to discover that the answer is “no”. I have been living with a Toyota, yes that thoroughbred brand for the people, driven by milkmen and teachers and . . . well, anyone whose motoring budget, like Stan’s, is directed more at reliability than gloss, high performance and style. My Avensis was even described by one magazine recently as the ultimate “Eurobox”, an indication that, in theory at least, pleasure was the least of the emotions on the list to be stimulated by the British- manufactured saloon.

I have never really lived in a Eurobox, only endured passing acquaintance on road tests when you drive the car for a few hours, catch a flight home and then can’t remember anything about it. Anonymity appears, in almost every case, to be a virtue. So the Avensis was welcomed to the Eason household with a mixture of apathy and disdain — after all, we have had a Bentley on our drive (on test, of course, before you get ideas that I am paid above my station).

Several thousand miles later and the nice man from Toyota came to collect the car this week. I took one last spin to give it a sort of nostalgic once-over. And that final few miles only underlined my assessment formed by long drives on motorways, rambles around twisting B-roads, in driving rain and blistering heat, that this was just about the best family car the Easons have had the pleasure to run.

OK, so it is not exactly glamorous but it had bags of room for five people, a cavernous boot, air-conditioning, an excellent sound system, cruise control and enough performance to make overtaking safe and easy and motorway cruising quiet and comfortable. One example: I made a 500-mile day-trip to the north of England recently averaging the motorway speed limit but returning, according to the in-car computer, almost 39 miles to the gallon. In fact, the fuel average has never dipped below 29mpg at any time, which for a 2-litre petrol car, seems like a good deal to me.

With each journey has come the overwhelming feeling that this is a motoring dandy in a sensible suit. My T3-X retailed at £16,495 but that includes all the bells and whistles you could reasonably expect on a modern car. Buy a Mercedes or a BMW and you could bang £10,000 on that price immediately. Even a Lexus, the luxury brand from the Toyota stable, will hammer you for the same sort of premium as a Merc.

But, apart from the badge, what have they got that the Avensis hasn’t? Do they feel sturdier? Not really. Go faster? Not particularly. Are they safer? Safer than a car that passed its Euro-NCAP tests with flying colours and features nine airbags as standard, including a driver’s knee protection bag? We know premium brands are usually less economical because that is the ethos of premium motoring . . . but they probably have more buttons — lots of electronic gadgets you use once and then forget you have or cannot understand in the first place.

It is easy these days to dismiss middle-of-the-road motors as not worth the effort of a critique because they do everything well but cannot break the sound barrier like the latest twin-turbo, six-litre autobahn basher with Star Wars technology. In the end, what is all that stuff for? Does it make you any happier? Probably only when it comes to comparing key fobs and badges, the motoring equivalent of showing off the Hugo Boss to the man in Marks & Spencer.

The Avensis proves that you can have expensive car safety, premium brand roominess and comfort levels that would satisfy the buyer of a German luxury car for a price that does not threaten the British economy. All you have to put up with is the badge. Hide your eyes until you are in the car and, I promise, you will never notice the difference.

Road test - Toyota Avensis T3-X

PRICE: £16,495 (range starts at £13,995 for 1.8 to £21,495 for T-Spirit estate). ENGINE: 2-litre VVTi for 147bhp through five-speed manual gearbox.
PERFORMANCE: 0 to 62mph in 9.1sec, top speed 130mph.
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 34.9mpg average.
EQUIPMENT: 16-inch alloy wheels, air-conditioning, rain-sensitive wipers, retractable wing mirrors, nine airbags, child seat anchors, anti-lock brakes, traction control.
BUILT: Burnaston, Derbyshire, which is scheduled to make 270,000 vehicles a year, shipping the Avensis to Europe and Japan.