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2011 Toyota Avalon

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Comments

  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    I owned a wholesale car business for years. I am NOT knocking Honda's when I say this. They have excellent resale value and so do the Toyota's.

    However if you was to compare road noise, which is very importan to me, then by far the Avalon wins.

    Hope this helps,
  • jwillinjwillin Member Posts: 16
    I have a 2011 Avalon and went to the dealership to get the car serviced and noticed the 2013 on the showroom floor. I was with one of the guys in service when I saw the car and told him how small it looked. I entered the car and immediately could see that it was smaller than the 2011. The service manager tried to tell me that it was the same size as previous models. I told him that car is small. It reminds me of an Infiniti or Maxima where there is no room in the back and the front is also a bit tighter than previous models.

    It is unbelievable. I like my Avalon, but in the future if I trade what else is out there, but a big gas guzzler?
  • finfin Member Posts: 594
    Absolutely right on the noise factor... we have had 7 Hondas and 3 Avalons in our extended family in the last 15 years. If noise is a concern, Avalon wins every time and these were all v6 "top of the line" Hondas. Both are very dependable makes with excellent trade-in value if kept up properly. Avalon also wins the ride factor, nice and soft, if you want that.

    The 2013 Avalon is truly different in many ways. The inside IS much smaller than prior generations, about 5% actually, you can feel it. They are selling well so maybe the current market wants that (I don't, but...). Time will tell.
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    Well, Toyota of Plano got in a 2011 Blizzard Pearl Limited Avalon Friday. I went to see it today. It was sold by that dealership, serviced by them and the couple traded it in on a 2013. I checked the carfax on it. It had 23,000 on it- a little more than the black one I looked at in Dennison, but I got a better deal on this one, I think. Maybe not. Anyway, I didn't like the salesman at Dennison. This salesman was not pushy and the finance guy was not pushy. I gave them $17,500 difference plus my car -05 LTD w/almost 60,000 miles. That included tax, license, etc. I did get a 96 month, 100K warranty that even includes door dings/ dents, lost or damaged key fobs. It is a Toyota extra care. He wrote down what my payments would be with gap, with warranty and with none of that stuff. My payments were going to be $347 per mo. without any of it, and with the warranty, they are going to be $333. I'm not sure how he did that. He said he knocked some more off the car or something. Anyway, I got 1.49 per cent financing. Hope I made the right decision! My granddaughter is mad at me because she loved my burgundy color. I did too! But this one will be easier to keep clean and wax! Somebody out there is going to get an awfully good car when they buy mine!!
  • gramzgramz Member Posts: 106
    I tried out both the Avalon and the Accord and like you said road noise was a lot worse in the Accord.
  • rotterdam6rotterdam6 Member Posts: 36
    As you say, the Avalon is much quieter than Accord. Also, after owning 3 Accords I discovered the A/C sytems are not as reliable as Avalon's System. I had major issues with each of my Accords A/C systems. Also they never cooled as well.
  • carlupicarlupi Member Posts: 52
    My family has owned several Toyotas and Hondas over the past 30 years. Consistently, the Hondas have been excellent mechanically and a great value, but they all have had pronounced road noise issues. I am puzzled that Honda has not successfully addressed this problem despite being criticized about it over the years.
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    I made the jump and bought a blizzard pearl 2011 Avalon LTD. Already miss my 05!! The salesman came over and showed me how to operate everything. Well, I guess I have short term memory loss because I can't operate the CD player. I finally got CD's loaded, but now can't figure how to go from one disc to the next. Is there not a way to skip from CD #1 to CD#3, etc. if you want to or do you just have to wait until the whole CD plays and goes to the next one! On my other car, I just hit the disc button and chose which one I wanted to listen to. Yes, I read the manual, but it isn't very clear. HELP! I am ready to see if they will trade back with me! It isn't as clean as mine was either, even though it is 8 years newer! Seat belts are dirty. I didn't notice it at the dealer ship. Didn't even think to look at seat belts straps! How do you clean those?? Oh, and another thing - the display of songs etc. stays on a little while then goes blank. Is that normal. Still hear the music, but screen is blank! I knew I shouldn't have bought one with all this high tech stuff! All three of my sons warned me, too.
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    I guess I'm not as tech illiterate as I thought. I am learning by trial and error. By the way if you trade a car with navigation in, remember to delete everything in the nav system!! I went back to the dealer in Plano today and hit the home button to take me home. When it started giving me directions, I thought, "WOW, never gone this way to Denton before." I got totally lost!! FInally pulled over into a parking lot and checked my destination. It was evidently taking me to the previous owner's house!! So, I typed in my address and it took me right home! I then proceeded to read the Nav. book and deleted all of their previous addresses!! So - be sure to delete everything if you trade your car in!! I was even able to use the hands free Bluetooth to make a call just by saying the name of person I was calling. I am very proud of myself! Still miss the color of my old car, though. I traded the floor mats in this 2011 for the mats that were in my "05". My 8 year old floor mats were in much better condition than the ones in my "new" car- a two year old car!
  • robsisrobsis Member Posts: 162
    edited June 2013
    lnt,

    That's the difference between a good salesman and a fair one. When we traded in our '11 Avalon for a new '13 Hybrid, he met us at the new car and said he'd already cleared out the GPS and the Homelink (which, BTW, is another one that might need clearing on your '11, unless you want to go open the previous owners garage door, for the heck of it!).

    Glad you are enjoying your 'newer' car. I'm surprised they didn't detail it a little better for you when you picked it up...or throw in a new set of mats.

    Robert
  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    Yea, the floormats in the 2011 was/is a big complaint by most everyone on this site. Very cheap mats and as far as I know only came in black. I bought replacement mats. I might buy some of the weater tech mats. Although those are very expensive. I sure do like them.

    I have 25 thousand and no complaints other than what I mention in previous post. Decent MPG and LOVE the ride and size of the car. I hope this is the last car I'll ever own. My wife and I don't drive much but it's sure a pleasure taking the Avalon on trips.
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    They did give me the floor mats out of my '05'. They looked brand new. They cleaned the seat belts again today. I watched them. I guess they are just kind of stained. They just look browner than mine did. But, hey, I am a clean freak. I wash my vehicles about 2 times a week and wax about every 6 weeks. I did remind them today to be sure and delete my homelink code. My -5 didn't have navigation, so don't think anyone could find my garage. Good thing I am not a thief. If the wrong person had gotten this 2011, those people could have had some real problems. One thing I don't like - the seats are the same as my '05'! I just made some seat cushions out of thin foam and a nice fabric that matches the seats. I'll just use them on long trips. Thanks for everyone's advice.
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    Oh, the car I bought did have black mats in the trunk. Guess the previous owners bought the tan mats that were in it. I just couldn't take the black ones. They looked really out of place!!
  • gramzgramz Member Posts: 106
    Different mats were an option on the 2011. I got beige ones and they are really nice mats and it included one for that covered the entire trunk. Not real sure the trunk one is really needed.
  • nceencee Member Posts: 419
    I think the Beige mats make the car, if of course you've got the almond interior.

    I've had them in the last 3 Avalons I've had. My first Avalon had all Black interior so Black was it.

    Skip

    PS I also got the WeatherTech DgitalFit rubber mats and wouldn't have a car without them anymore. Take out the carpets in Fall, put in these, and then replace again in spring. It does wonders for making both the mats and the carpet look like new for ever.
  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    I stand corrected, I thought everyone got the black, cheap mats. I ordered a Limited so you would assume they would put nice mats in the LTD edition.
  • stormin800stormin800 Member Posts: 39
    Color coordinated mats may have been an option, but my 11 limited was built in Nov 2011. It had the tan/ivory interior and came with Black floor mats. I made an issue about this and was told all Avalons came with black mats. I even looked in the trunks of 3 other Avalons and they all had black mats. I just bought ivory mats and sold the black mats.
  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    I kept a pair of greyish mats from a 1992 Cadilac Allante I bought and sold. I really don't know why I kept the mats so many years ago but I did. That was a nice car, two seater, but was only bought to sell. Number one rule, "never fall in love with your invortory" if your in that business.

    So I've been using them over my black mats. The black mats are cheap. I thought about buying a nice set of those rubber "weather tech" mats. Cost 179 is pretty expensive but design to hold water and protect your car. That's for 4 mats. Anyone out there bought any of these "weather tech" mats. Ebay has them too about the same price 179 perhapsh it was 169 but close. With that said, the old Caddy mats are nice, thick and work pretty good.
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    Okay, I AM tech illiterate! Sometimes, I know where I am going and don't need that voice on the nav telling me where to go. Even if I don't type in or say the address I want, she proceeds to direct me to my home - even if I AM in my driveway and haven't left yet. I want the nav on because I don't like looking at the blank screen, but how do I turn her voice off? I push the voice button, but that doesn't turn her off. And, yes, I have read the manual.
  • robsisrobsis Member Posts: 162
    edited June 2013
    Activate voice menu via the steering wheel then say: "Cancel Guidance" (You can also say "pause guidance", too) That will keep up the screen and turn off the voice guidance. You need to do this every time you don't receive a message after guidance that you have reached your destination where the guidance will shut down. It can be annoying as my house is about 50 yards from where GPS units say it should be so I always had to cancel the guidance once close to home (and some other locations, too!) The 'Pause Guidance' works great on long trips when you pull off for gas or a bite to eat, too! You then just say 'resume guidance' when you get back on the road.

    You can also do this manually through the menus, but I found the voice command to be best.

    HTH

    Robert
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    Thank you soooo much! She was driving me crazy!
  • robsisrobsis Member Posts: 162
    Glad I could help. Toyota does a number of things well...their GPS units, while not bad, are average at best, and their voice command menu is not nearly as good as many others out there.

    As a matter of fact, in my new 2013 Avalon, they changed many of the commands, deleted others, and I'm having to relearn it all again...with little help from Toyota themselves (video says: "Coming soon" :surprise: ).

    Enjoy your new (to you) Avalon. We loved our 2011! Great car.
  • nceencee Member Posts: 419
    A nice series of video's on the Toyota Avalon Nav system can be viewed here

    -https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/2011-toyota-avalon-navigation/id388938852

    Skip
  • jim3jim3 Member Posts: 19
    All of a sudden I'm getting bad static, popping noises on the radio, I think just on fm. I can't seem to locate the warranty info on this unit in my packet. I bought the car in may of 2011 and have 68000 miles on it. Seems to me the sticker price on this was 850 bucks. Are these repairable?
  • neil1neil1 Member Posts: 20
    Your radio is almost certainly out of warranty. I suggest you take the car to any car radio shop - not a Toyota dealer. In the best case it might be something simple and fixable at the shop. In the worst case they will remove it and send it off for repair. The worst case happened to me on a Lexus ES a while back and set me back about $350 bucks. The lexus dealer would have sent it to the same shop and charged more. Good luck.
  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    Sounds like an antenna to me. However the other person who had a comment is probably right. Have you had your car cleaned recently? Or any tint put on? I believe the antenna is in the back glass but I'm not certain.

    My car: 2011 Avalon, 25,000 miles and running fine. Next service they want to change inside filter and my breather filter under the hood. Any tips on this. Plus I'll have to pay for my first oil change and tire rotation.
  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    How are you liking the Hybrid?
  • stormin800stormin800 Member Posts: 39
    Nan48,
    The cabin/AC filter is a very easy replacement. First, buy a cabin filter
    ( OEM15.99 or less on line). I am not sure how much toyota charges.
    Remove the philips head screw on the far right of the glove compartment to release the glove compartment. Squeeze both sides of the glove compartment to lower it. Remove the filter panel cover just above the compartment opening. Pull out the old filter. Install new filter (arrow up).
    That is it. Do reverse of above to put glove compartment back.
  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    Thanks! So you ordered cabin filter on-line?
  • gramzgramz Member Posts: 106
    I'm sure you can get them online. I got my at the local NAPA parts store.
  • stormin800stormin800 Member Posts: 39
    Yes, I buy mine online. I always have because they are so much less expensive than buying from the toyota dealer. I think the dealers are charging $27.00 and I can get toyota brand filters for 15.99. You can buy non toyota filters that fit for $5-10, but I have always used the toyota filters.
    You will be shocked at how much dust and pollen is trapped in the filter if you never changed yours. Good luck
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    HI, Hope you don't start charging me for questions! lol. I have a question about voice calling a number (dial by name) on my hands free phone. Most of the time it works great, but one name I have on my phone, Beth, does not work. I know it is probably because the "th" is silent, but no matter how distinctly I try to say the name, the person on the computer doesn't recognize it. She says, "Pat" or all kinds of names but never "Beth". So, I need to change that name and call this person by another name that is more easily understood by the computerized voice. How do I go in and edit and change the name that goes with the phone number I am trying to call? I am afraid I will mess up everything or delete everything! The salesman is the one who connected my iphone, but that's a long ways from my house. I read the manual and didn't find how to edit a name. Help!
  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    I can't wait to hear this answer. I don't know how to even add a name. The names on my blue tooth are the ones we put on when we bought the car. I have almost everyone on there but I did notice I didn't have my personal home phone the other day. I had to actually PULL OVER and dial the number. I couldn't figure how to add the name. Waiting for someone to answer you and perhaps that will help me.
  • _bill_wa_bill_wa Member Posts: 37
    I wouldn't even worry about the edit feature......I'd just make up a new name, and save that.

    I have Verizon for my cell phone service......If I wanted to edit a name, I'd just stop in there........because they work with all brands of phone, they can ALWAYS answer ANY question I've ever had. If they aren't busy, they will go right to my car and "do it for me". Sure worth a try!!!!!
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    edited July 2013
    SO, if I put her "new" name in my iphone, will it automatically sync with my car? One other question. My tire pressure light came on. I read the manual, but I do not see any kind of a switch where the manual tells me to look to reset the light. Where is the silly thing? My other car had the valve caps that were green and when a tire was low, the cap turned red. I wish I had taken those off when I traded cars! The book says it is under a panel. I just looked and don't see panel they are talking about. The valve caps were much simpler and you knew which tire was low!
  • gramzgramz Member Posts: 106
    The tire pressure warning switch is there but they hid it well. Under the steering wheel on the left side follow the dash all the way down and to the back and then underneath about an inch. Really hard to explain but it's there.
  • robin5robin5 Member Posts: 19
    If the tire pressure is low, check all five of your tires, don't just turn off the light. DON'T FORGET TO CHECK THE SPARE- it also has a low pressure indicator. (It would be very disappointing to need a tire change only to find that your spare is flat, too.)
  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    No reset button on the low tire gauge.

    When you put the proper amount of air in the tire then your warning light will go out. It might take a little time finding the low tire. I have one tire that I had plugged. This tire has a slow leak, so I watch the tire pressure. If I miss watching the tire pressure the light comes on. So I know it goes out after you put the proper amount of pressure in the low tire.

    One time, the tire pressure was low in the spare tire. So keep in mind it could be your spare tire that has low air.

    Hope this helps,
  • stormin800stormin800 Member Posts: 39
    Is there somewhere in the dash to see what the tire pressure is in each tire
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    Thanks. It was the spare tire and the light did go off when it was aired up.
    I had forgotten about the spare.
  • lntlnt Member Posts: 192
    My sales manager told me it resets automatically when all the tires are aired as they are supposed to be and NOT to mess with that switch under the panel!
    THanks to everyone for all their help! Maybe by the time the car wears out, I'll have everything figured out. lol
  • _bill_wa_bill_wa Member Posts: 37
    Hi:

    Had a Limited 2011, loved the car but it was a car I purchased when the wife was alive, she passed, and I decided "to gift the car to my oldest son".

    I bought a 2013 Limited with all the options.....

    It was about 2 weeks that I had both car, at my place...so I could drive/test both.

    2011.....more room, bigger gas tank, push button gas cap, NO WAY to lock the trunk(no button in glove box), soft ride.

    2013....smaller gas tank, gas door(mickey mouse)no button inside car, paddle shifters, can select 3 modes for transmission shifting, stiffer suspension, better GPS, gas mileage better.

    2013 cost more but I got more options that weren't available in 2011. I like the way the 2013 handles....in corners and overall on the road, not a soft ride. I like the paddle shifters, use them lot's......sports car like feature.

    Both great cars but, for me, 2013 gets my vote!!!!!
  • oldman925oldman925 Member Posts: 22
    its time to buy the the platinum warranty , does anyone know any reason not to use the contact offered by the guy in Kansas as was discussed in the posts in the year of 2011 car is great but i think its time to buy the warranty . only got 18000 miles . What say you ???? Help for the old man . I have the # as 1 800 530 5789 . cant remember his name . Question !!!! the price quoted was $564.00 any change relative to that number?????
  • gringoviejogringoviejo Member Posts: 11
    They wanted $150 to change the cabin filter on my wife's Acura TSX. The dealer price for the part was around $25; OEM from online parts houses was around $15. I bought a big carbon filter upgrade for about $20 and installed myself in about 15 minutes with constant reference to a nice YouTube video. If I'd done it before, it would have been 3 or 4 minutes.

    They all (or most) install about the same. Now that I've done one, I'll do the Toyota as well.
  • gringoviejogringoviejo Member Posts: 11
    Has anybody collected anything substantial based on one of these extended warranties? It's bad enough trying to get Toyota to honor the original (usually, in my experience). Consumer's Reports advises against them. So has anybody with, let's say a $500 warranty extension had a more expensive repair, such as a transmission replacement, paid for? If so, how much effort did it take?
  • nan48nan48 Member Posts: 350
    Jerry, bought one too but so far I never used it. He sent all paper work. If I have ANY problems, I will first to post.

    All my free oil changes are used up. Now it's time to pay the piper. Their telling me next oil change and cabin filter change will cost me about 175.00, wow! I think I can change the cabin filter myself. I only have 27 thousand on my 2011 car.
  • oldman925oldman925 Member Posts: 22
    what happened to the $564.00 price ?????? QUESTION can you buy a warranty after the 36 th month passes ??? must you buy the warranty before the 36th month goes by ????. Major QUESTION has anyone used the warranty we are talking about ??????? if not how do we know the warranty is any good . !!!!!!! I got a notice from some outfit that i*m sure was a scam offering warranty protection before the end of the 36 th month time frame , it did not identify it self as a Toyota entety and it called it self a Repair Saver . if your time is coming up you may get one also .Repair service claims to be a registered product with the Calif Dept of insurance through the powertrain protection LLC. Any one have any info on this
  • Kirstie_HKirstie_H Administrator Posts: 11,148
    No full names, please (first name, last initial only), and we don't permit contact info to be posted. Thanks!

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  • oldman925oldman925 Member Posts: 22
    just heard from toyota must buy before 3 yrs or 36000 miles never heard what price would be . bunch of bums these dealers . trying to grind out every last dime and expect good will from us the buyers . just like the politicians
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