While I wouldn't buy this car, I can see why it would be a very good car for some people. Like the aunt I test drove it with. She has a Camry now. And if you really like a Camry, you'll just love an Avalon.

Who would it be good for? People who think lots of room and features, comfort, quietness, and smoothness make a great luxury car. Some people look at the Avalon and conclude it's better than any Lexus. They should. This car was designed (in every sense of the word) for them.

I've driven Lexus. My father has an LS400. What does a Lexus have that this car doesn't? The Avalon is nearly as smooth and quiet as a Lexus. It rides about as well as an ES300, though nothing in my experience matches the LS400 in this area. The Avalon's handling is as good as most people can appreciate. It won't engage anyone, but neither will the handling of an LS400. Many good mainstream sedans handle this way today. They go precisely where you point them, keep you out of trouble, and let you get back to that conversation on the cell phone. The seats are reasonably comfortable. My aunt especially liked the electrically adjustable lumbar support. The engine is smooth and quiet and pushes the car along as quickly as anyone interested in this car would want it to. Much like the engine in an ES300--because it is the same engine.

Where the Avalon clearly beats any Lexus is room. Room was clearly Toyota's focus when developing this car. The side windows have very little tumblehome--they stand nearly straight up. This allows the interior of the car to be much wider than it could be otherwise. It does even more for the perceived width of the interior, since it has the greatest effect on the width at eye level. The instrument panel, somewhat like that in the late Lincoln Mark VIII, follows a long arc across the car, bowing away from the passengers (there aren't really drivers in this car). This opens up front seat room in a big way. The dash seems far, far away (though the controls are still magically within arms reach). I can't remember another car that feels this roomy in the front seat. This isn't entirely about the numbers. What Toyota has done here is carve out the largest space they could within the exterior package and then design this space to feel even larger.

It's the exact opposite of the Lincoln LS, which I drove the same day. The Lincoln is roughly the same size on the outside, but feels at best half the size on the inside. On the Lincoln everything in the interior comes toward the driver. The A-pillar is practically in your face. As a result, the Lincoln feels like a subcompact from the driver's seat. This didn't go over well with my aunt. Though I like a sportier sedan, and would personally strongly prefer the Lincoln, it was a definite weak point in the design for me as well.

One other aspect that my aunt really appreciated is that this car has usefully large storage compartments all over the place. (The Lincoln, in contrast, had enough space here and there for four or five card-deck-sized objects, as long as you didn't want to keep two of them in one place.) If you like to take everything with you wherever you go, and many people these days do, the Avalon will make you very happy. Most of what you own will probably fit somewhere in there.

As I mentioned above, much of the rest of the car was designed to leave as little impression as possible, and succeeds in doing so. Like any other Toyota sedan lately, the Avalon is very smooth and quiet. You can't even hear or feel the engine running at idle. (The engine's one sin is that I believe it is supposed to have premium, though no doubt many of the people attracted to this type of car will give it regular anyway.) The seats don't poke you in any of the wrong places. Reliability should be exceptional.

So what's not to like? Why wouldn't I personally want an Avalon, though it might be a very good car for you? Well, there is the fact that this is definitely not a driver's car. It'll do just about anything the average driver will tell it to, and do it well, but it won't make you feel good doing it. The goal here is to keep you from feeling anything.

But that's the #2 problem on my list. The #1 problem is that I find this car seriously unattractive. Engineers are always trying to create a car like this. In most companies the stylists have enough say in the matter to keep it from happening. Apparently not at Toyota. (For further proof of where the balance of power lies at Toyota, see the new Echo.) The reason most cars don't have tumblehome (or lack thereof) like this is it does not look good.

At least the lack of tumblehome is functional. There are no functional reasons for the front end or the instrument graphics. They're just plain ugly, at least to me. And I don't mean the ugly that I think I'd get used to, or at least learn to ignore. You don't have to look at the front end when driving a car, but you do occasionally have to look at the instruments. I don't think I could take it. No matter how many times I looked at these, I think they'd still be glaringly ugly every time I looked at them. The kind of ugly you just can't bear to look at. "Actually Officer, I don't know how fast I was going..."

One hypothesis for the styling of this car suggests itself. Maybe the engineers kept pushing the stylists on the tumblehome issue, till one day the stylists simply said,"OK, if you think you can do a better job designing this car, then you can do it yourself," and were never heard from again. Dilbert may have styled this car.

To wind this diatribe down, I'll return to my Lexus comparison. I intentionally left styling out of the list of luxury car attributes above. While Lexi are not stunningly beautiful cars, they tend to be very pleasantly styled, especially in the details. To make it in the true luxury car market, they have to be. Some people will perceive the Avalon to be a luxury car, but in reality it lacks the aesthetics to truly compete in that market.

If you measure luxury by the amount of stuff you get and can fit, the Avalon is as good as any Lexus for you. Better, if you value roominess above all else. However, if you care about aesthetics, and feel that luxury is as much in the form as in the content, then this is not the car for you--unless you're an engineer yourself and get turned on by the practical beauty of upright side windows to such an extent that the front end and instrument faces don't matter.

Reliability

People often email me asking about the reliability of the cars and trucks they are considering. Existing sources of reliability information just aren't helpful enough.

In response, my website, truedelta.com, will more clearly identify what difference it will make if you buy an Avalon rather than something else by providing "times in the shop" and "days in the shop" stats (among others). Those who help provide the data--which will require just a few minutes a year--will earn free access to the site's reliability information. To encourage participation, this access will otherwise cost $24.95.

For the details, and to sign up, visit www.truedelta.com.