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Do you think the new avalon is louder while cruising than the old one? Though the engine seems resonably quiet, there seems to be considerable wind noise at highway speeds....
That is a big help with my '05 Avalon, '93 Pickup, and future '9x or '8x Cressida.
- Paul
Thanks for the great info that you two have provided about the Awell parking system, I have about made up my mind to places my order.
I have one question remaining. How does the system work when Backing Up into a parking space when the other vehicles are on each side of you as opposed to parallel parking when the cars are to the front and rear? I suppose that this is referred to as garage parking.
Thank you again for sharing your knowledge.
Concerns / Issues –
1. Transmission sometimes searches for the correct gear below 35mph. Also an intermittent a rough thump when shifting at 10 mph.
2. Car idles rougher at times when in Drive and stopped with the brake on.
3. The reliability of the Avalon based upon comments of others on message boards.
4. Unable to disengage VSC and traction control.
5. The silver finish on the console and audio covers needs to be something more durable.
6. Thud sound at times from rear of car when starting from a stopped position.
7. When in Auto mode, the lowest fan speed is not very low. Results in a constant breeze.
8. The automatic temperature control seems to run cold. When set on 74, the car is not very warm compared to my previous car.
Missing features at this price point –
1. No backlighting on the controls on the left side of the steering wheel.
2. No backlighting on the Homelink controls or overhead console.
3. Satellite radio should be part of the enhanced audio system.
4. Bluetooth integration.
5. Mute option on the audio control located on the steering wheel.
6. Tilt & telescoping steering on memory recall.
7. Adjustable power pedals.
8. Backup sensors.
Design considerations that would make this a great car -
1. Folding rear seat (60/40).
2. Lower rear lip on the trunk.
3. Ability to display RDS message constantly rather than having to press the Text key on the radio.
4. More side bolster in the front seats.
5. Folding mirrors.
6. Side view mirrors that tilt down when reversing.
7. Dual front active head restraints.
8. Allow the passenger seat height to be adjustable.
9. LED taillights.
10. Adjustable power pedals.
11. Adjustable color on the information center.
Great Features –
1. Roominess in both the front and back seats.
2. Minimal transmission hump in rear seat.
3. Ride and quietness of the car.
4. Excellent power and acceleration.
5. Uses 87 octane gas.
General Comments –
1. Make laser cruise control and VSC standard on the Limited. I could not find a single car without these optional features (Washington DC area). They are standard by default.
2. The scarity of the Limited makes shopping for one difficult. I had to contact a lot of dealers, listen to a lot of BS to get a decent price (approximately $700 over invoice).
If I were to do it over, I would mount the outer sensors about 2" further toward the center of the car. The actual locations I used can be seen in the dimensioned photo posted in my installation notes at http://members.cox.net/n0v8or/avalon_awell_install.pdf
Glad that this information is helpful. I recommend placing the two outer sensors close to the corners of the rear bumper, as shown in the photo in post #5550. This way, when you back into a parking spot there is useful lateral "sensing" of proximity to a car on either side. When the distance to the closest car is about 2 feet, you will hear beeps about once or twice per second. If the distance is less than 2' on either side, the frequency increases to several beeps per second; and if you come to within 1' of another car on either side, the beeping changes into a continuous tone. This system gives you plenty of warning. It allows you to stop, pull forward, re-align and back up again if at first you were coming too close to one of the other cars.
Best wishes,
havalongavalon
it worked great a repelling water though, and distortion is minimal in daylight. Rubbing alcohol seemed to remove it OK, so don't be afraid to give it a try.
The Xenons, by the way, are great - my first car with them, makes night driving a pleasure. Really critical lights like these to get the aim right - too high you'll blind other drivers, too low and the periphery illumination suffers. Get em right and you'll see traffic signs, lane markers, things in the road etc. like you've never seen them before!
To finally get to my question. When I was installing my backup warning, I had to take all the carpets out of the trunk and there was just bare metal below. Do you think it would help if areas like that or even under the floor mats were undercoated? TedJ
Here is the link to see the picture.
[IMG]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y95/mtpys/TreedCar.jpg[/IMG]
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y95/mtpys/TreedCar.jpg
The read only password to view this album is: Avy05
Capital A
MikeS.
Don't be! I've had mine for almost 10 months now and have had 1 problem, a loose door molding that took 10 seconds to fix. This car is great. What you are reading here is from a small portion of 05/06 Avalon owners that are having problems.
MikeS.
Have you or anyone considered or installed an interface connection from the back up camera to show on the navigation screen when in reverse? These sell for less than 600 bucks, using the license plate camera similar to the lexus. ange1
I initially experienced the transmission hesitation. However, this has long since gone away. The transmission seems to work flawlessly. Everything else is working fine.
The car is very smooth and comfortable, gets great gas mileage (for a large car). I really don't have any complaints. There are some things that would be nice to have such as the backup warning system but one has to be realistic and remember that this is not advertised nor priced as a luxury car!! Overall it's a much better value than the 03
Acura MDX that I came out of!! I consider it a better car than the Acura.
I don't think the specific camera he used is available any longer; the vendor seems have gone under. But there are suitable cameras available from eBay vendors.
Based on his posted info, I am planning to replicate gbinplano's installation during the Christmas holidays period. The parts are on order. Total parts cost will be less than $350.
joe369 -
I have a 2000 Avalon XLS, and a 2005 Avalon Limited. Drive both of them all the time. I don't notice any significant difference between the 2 in terms of noise. Others in this forum have complained about how noisy the new engine is, but I just don't hear that.
The new car has a slightly stiffer ride, and stiffer seats (in the Limited at least). I've driven both on day-long trips (12 hours), and both leave me feeling fine, no back problems.
Max
Not a simple upgrade.
In terms of noise level, the new one (2005 Ltd) is louder at start-up, but once the engine revs down (after about a minute or two), it's hardly noticeable. There were comments in this forum about how the soundproofing isn't as good as before, but I actually think my 2005 is much quieter than my old 2001 and 1997. Try rolling down the driver-side window and you'll notice the SIGNIFICANT difference.
The ride is definitely stiffer in 2005, but I kind of like it as it gives me more feel and allows for tighter cornering.
In my opinion, wind noise is less noticeable in 2005 than in 2001, especially that due to the side mirrors at freeway speed.
The noise is most likely NOT due to the dual exhause pipes as they are faux. If you look under the car, you can see that the one exhause pipe simply gets split into two near the end. There is no optimization done in the exhaust system like some other cars.
I haven't had any problem with engine start-up.
Your friend,
Mackabee
Maybe the wind noise I'm hearing is due to the lack of the sound reducing windshield on the limited (I have an XLS).
The wind noise doesnt sound abnormal as would be caused by a missing rubber stripping, but is louder than I expected after reading all the reviews about the relative quietness of the Avalon. Our oldest car, a 1992 Mercury Grand Marquis with over 200k miles seems quieter at highway speeds than the avalon! :confuse:
zekeman1
Island Avy
rush hour, 2 lane highway at dusk, dry roads. Traffic is heavy but moving 60-65 cars maybe 60 feet apart. I am in the left lane and notice a car attemting to merge onto the highway (from the right) at maybe 30 mph. The car turns out to be a Civic and has a long line of impatient cars behind her attempting to do the same thing. By the time I reach the entrance ramp, the car immediately behind the Honda, a beat up Sunfire decides he has had enough of this and decides to swerve into the left lane to try to get by. Except, of course, that is exactly where I am! So I nail the accelerator and swerve onto to paved left shoulder kicking up a little dirt as I did and had my Av up to maybe 85 or 90 in a hurry - just fast enough to clear the Sunfire by maybe 10 or 12 feet because I had to swerve back into the lane in which I started because of an approaching bridge that narrowed the shoulder. Ended up being a 6 car accident though with other folks rear ending both the Sunfire, the Honda, and each other. One driver off in an ambulance but thankfully it did not seem that anybody seriously hurt. Would not have been able to do this without that good old fashioned HP in our Avs, and would not have wanted to try it arguing with the VSC system I don't have.
I did stop up the road a ways after all this ostensibly to render aid, but instead gave the cops a statement, and watched them write a couple of tickets, amidst the 14 tow trucks that showed up for 6 cars. A sad commentary on the times - the Sunfire driver - no insurance - so unfortunately I guess I will end up being a 'star' witness as everybody decides to sue everybody else, and the lawyers get rich from the multitudes of mysterious injuries... Probably take years, better keep this posting so I can recount what happened 5 years from now?
I do agree that there seems to be more low speed engine "noise" or as I call it a pleasant sounding "growl". I also notice a little stiffer ride as well but I think the trade off is more secure handling and steering balance compared to earlier Avalons. Overall quietness at highway speeds is very impressive. With 2,900 miles so far, I have experienced none of the often mentioned "problem areas" with the exception of fog lights that are not as tight as I think they should be. Perhaps my rear is different than most but I find my limited seats with their adjustability extremely comfortable. Also of note, in mixed driving, I am currently averaging 25.0 to 26.5 MPG. My Avalon is 2006 Limited, Phantom Grey with Ivory leather, VSC Stability control, All weather floor mats, XM satellite radio, body color siide mouldings. As fond as I was of my previous Avalons, they lacked the pizzaz both inside and out that this new one has. No one ever commented on my Avalons until this one!!
When I test drove the dealer's 2005 limited I noticed there was an engine roar when you hit the throttle. I decided to accept this. While this is noticable it is livable. Why didn't toyota install headers on the engine? This might reduce engine noise and increase horsepower. Maybe they will do this later to recover the HP they advertised in their literature and car window stickers.I still am unhappy about their origional HP measurements they used.
Ford had boasted about a quiter dual exhaust with headers and they were right. Their main muffler had an unusual rectangular shape that was tapered in the middle.
The windshield does have some sound reducing benefit. You notice the sound of the rain making a slight sleet sound. I am not sure this is a benefit. I can't notice any other noise reducing, if does happen. ange1
Dealer's in my area quoted $20 for the "official Toyota" bracket (must be gold plated), so I purchased a nice plastic universal bracket for $5 at a local auto store. The universal bracket provides the flexibility to align the plate vertically much better than the factory one does.