The Avalon itself really is a great car. I have had a few problems with the Toyota dealership experience, the sound system, the braking system, and the DVD navigation system though, which I will discuss at the end of this review.

First let me tell you about the “bells and whistles”. Automatic headlights, automatic windshield wipers, 3 integrated garage door opener buttons, heated seats, a standard AC electrical outlet (not grounded) is available for rear seat passengers, two DC outlets are available for front seat passengers, midlevel air vents for rear seat passengers, reading lights for rear seat passengers, a huge sun roof and a completely passive DVD navigation system with no monthly subscription fee (also includes inertial navigation for those times when it can’t get a GPS fix). Almost everyone who rides in my car loves it. They comment on the room of the rear seat and the “cool” navigation system.

Second let me tell you my opinions about the “bells and whistles”. The automatic headlights work great, I have no complaints here. The windshield wipers work well most of the time, but depending on the outside light level I have noticed that around dawn and dusk they seem to be less sensitive. There is a manual control that allows the driver to adjust the rain sensor sensitivity, but I have found this to be only marginally helpful. I LOVE my heated seats. Nothing feels better on your lower back than a nice little heat wave. My only negative comments here are that the seat heaters tend to work in cycles. They get really hot, then you don’t notice them, then a little bit later they are really hot again. There is no heat setting available, it’s either on or off, and if you want it on, each time you get in the car you need to turn it on, there is no memory function. I haven’t used the AC outlet in the back seat yet, so I can’t tell you how that works, but I know I would like it better if it were a three prong outlet instead of a two prong outlet. The Navigation system is my favorite, but as you will see later in this review, it is now becoming my problem. The system is really functional. It has a DVD which has a very detailed map of the entire US, along with phone book information for just about any business you would want to drive to in your car. What I mean by this is that if I’m in the mood to go to a Chinese Buffet I can select restaurant, then Chinese, and the car display will show me all the Chinese restaurants in the city, I select which one I like, it gives me their phone number if I want to call them and verify they are open, or ask what is on their menu, and when I decide which one I want to go to, I select it, and the car gives me three options on how it can guide me there (fastest, shortest, or alternative route).

Third let me tell you about the performance. I like to accelerate very smoothly. When I have a passenger in the car my goal is to make changes so gradual they don’t feel the g-force. This model year doesn’t have enough gears to make this possible. When accelerating slowly the car seems to shift abruptly from one gear to the next, with a noticeable jerk in the cabin. On the other hand, when I decide I want to accelerate to pass someone, it is smooth and responsive. So for smooth high acceleration maneuvers this car does fine. The interior looks great. For the price I don’t think you can find anything nicer. The interior controls were very intuitive, except for setting the clock, which is integrated into the Navigation system and I still haven’t figured out how to get it to automatically account for Daylight Savings Time.

And now here are the problems that I promised I would discuss. The car was not delivered as ordered from the dealer. I custom ordered my car. The dealer called me a few days later and told me they found the exact car I had ordered only 200 miles away and they could drive it to their lot. I agreed. Two features were not listed on the window sticker when the car arrived on the lot. I accepted the car with the agreement that a "mobile vehicle" from Toyota's port of entry would come to their lot and install the two options I had agreed on with the dealer. After over a month of fighting with the dealership they finally had scheduled the installation. When I dropped off my car they kept it all weekend (they did give me a free Camry rental). When I picked up the car neither option had been installed, and they had broke my automatic gear shifter while it was on their lot, so I had to wait for them to receive the parts to fix that.

I had problems with excessive vibration from the built in bass speaker. It would drown out all the music completely and rattle the entire car. To fix this they took apart the interior fabric and added some foam insulation around the sun roof.

I had problems with the braking system after the car sat in the rain for 5 days when I applied the break for the first time the excessive rust caused large grooves to be formed on the braking surface which caused uneven breaking force, pulling, and abrupt stops, along with a vibrating type sound.

What I am most upset with though is that I spent almost $2000.00 to upgrade to the remote control DVD Navigation system (which worked great the first couple of years). Unfortunately Toyota has refused to offer support for their products or produce an upgraded DVD. All 2003 models are operating off of a 2001 Map DVD. In the last 4 years a lot of roads have changed, and the DVD system is effectively useless in major cities now.

I would like to buy another Avalon; despite the blunt review I am very happy with my car. I have had to fight with the dealerships to get what I wanted and to get the service I was entitled to, especially for such an expensive large sedan. But until Toyota demonstrates that it stands behinds its products (by offering an update for all their navigation systems) I will not buy another Toyota.

The Avalon could be a great car if Toyota would stand behind their systems a little better; and if their dealerships would actually order the car you specified.
Amount Paid (US$): 32,800
Condition: New
Model Year: 2003
Model and Options: XLS, 6 Cylinders, Automatic, DVD Navigation System