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Comments
competitor for the Avalon,less costly,more standard goodies,more interior leg room
and yes their famous warrantee.To see this car now go to the NY auto show.
I test drove an Avalon earlier in the week and liked the limited a lot but still have not been convinced its the car to buy. No dealer in town lets you take it on a long test drive.
How does the car handle compared to a DTS.
How is the interior leather.
How does the plastic wood look and feel compared to the Zebrano Wood in a CADDY.
Emotionally how do you feel about the Toyota name after having another car like a Cadillac, or Lexus or Mercedes. I know its the top of the line for Toyota but its still not a Top dollar name brand (not meaning anything insulting about that).
This is a great site for answers and I appreciate any responses.
Sounds like a Hyundai commercial!
This is a great site for answers and I appreciate any responses.
kcmover,
It's hard me to make a fair comparison relative to the 05 Avalon since my Caddy and
Lincoln experience goes back 9 and 15 years respectively. However, I did replace the '96 Caddy Deville with a 2000 Avalon XLS and at that time there was no way I would go back to a Caddy or Lincoln for that matter. The only thing the Caddy had going for it was the power in the premium gas required Northstar engine. Just for fun I tried pricing a Caddy with the features of my 05 Limited and came up with $52,000. True it was not possible to price feature for feature since a lot of the Caddy options were obtained in "Packages". But, there are a lot of $$ between the MSRPs. The Plastic wood looks great and the leather has the same feel as the leather in the sofa I'm sitting on right now. And, you can't beat the cooled seats here in Florida. And lately, with the way rain fronts have moved in and out, the automatic windshield wipers have performed flawlessly. Finally, "how does the car handle?" Not like the 280Z I owned a few (many) years ago but certainly as well or better than the '96 Caddy and (I can't remember the year) Lincoln. We are about to embark on a vacation trip of about 3500 miles and I intend to report back to this Forum, so stay tuned.
My dealer (who also sells GM & Cadillacs) mentioned the depreciation on the Cadillac is considerable, compared to the Avalon. Leather interior on the Avalon is perfect and the vented seats are pretty neat. The plastic wood may be plastic, but I would never tell the difference in the wood I had on my Lexus.
Too bad your dealer is stingy on test drives. Mine, in central Kansas, turned me and my wife loose and we were gone for a quite a bit, up & down the interstate & side roads.
I highly recommend the car - so far, absolutely no issues nor defects. This is my second (first was a '98) and it too, was perfect. I can't think of a GM or any other make that I would buy right now. (Plus, the gas mileage is great!).
zekeman1
Steve
If you checked pressure when you arrived home, it would be high as the tires were hot. Always check pressure when tires are COLD. On the other hand, if you just want to make sure the pressure is uniform, you can check them warm. If one is low, match it to the others, then re-check all when cold for proper pressure.
Second, I have a question regarding the Interior. Is the Leather used a genuine Leather? And what about the wood work. Is it "genuine" wood or as post earlier said its plastic with a wood look to it.
I asked Toyota's dealer in Saudi Arabia, and couldn't get a clear answer.
Thanks
its not plastic i am positive
Just wondering if the dealership was ever able to fix your cargo netting problem. Mine popped loose today and won't stay put. I would sure like to know how to get it to stay in the hole before I approach the dealership about it.
Thanks
Other than that, I'm approaching 6,000 miles and have none of the transmission, rear windshield, trim, steering issues, etc., problems that others have commented on. I'd buy another one in a minute.
allavalons -
How do you de-program and/or remove the default setting? What is the trick?
Max
Ed
NWBLIZZARD
Get on the highway where the Avalon shines - for at least 20+ miles immediately following a gas fill-up. You'll see the fuel economy skyrocket into the high 20's/low 30's and stay there provided no traffic and constant speed below 70 mph. If you get on the highway with the mpg readout showing anything near 16.8 having already used a 1/4 tank or more, the relatively small amount of gas you use for a twenty mile hwy trip will have a very small effect on the gas mileage readout. Try filling up then immediately going out on highway, see the great hwy mpg and then continue with your routine 6 mile or less trips and mpg will neccessarily plummet. when I do primarily suburban trips as you do, I see 17-18 mpg w/AC on all the time, but I'm in Maryland, and perhaps the compressor isn't working as hard here b/c it's a little cooler, and because the temp is set at 70-71 degrees, w/fan on lowest or next to lowest setting.
Your routine trips must consist of numerous stop signs, traffic lights and low speeds to get such low mileage. The engine turns about 1500 rpms in low speed suburban driving, but when driving faster , say with rpms at 2000+, and your not using much more fuel but you'll see a disproportionately higher speed, which means you're traveling much further on not much more fuel, and that's where you'll see higher miles per gallon.
Regards,
Deanie
the leather is genuine
As an aside here let me tell you a short story that occurred this past weekend. I was on a golfing trip with my friends. On on them told me that his wife just got a new Lexus 430. When he compared my car to the 430, he was impressed. My Avalon has almost everything the 430 had with the exception of the Nav system, the laser cruise control, and a back up camera as well as a few small other things. However, my Avalon was around $32,500 plus tax an the new 430 was $50,000 plus their trade of a 2000 Lexus ES-300 and tax. The decision is obviously a personal one.
good luck on finding the "Perfect Car", remember, they are made by human beings who have good and bad days.......
Just a thought.
The important thing is to err on the side of "nice" rather than "funny" at someone else's expense ... and a couple of recent posts don't manage to do that.
Again, we ARE here to help. And if any of you find that you can't manage that, then you need to not respond to serious questions.
Sdaj, this is normally a very helpful discussion - hang in here and I'm sure we'll be hearing from some others with useful thoughts about your question.