Used 2016 Toyota Avalon Consumer Reviews
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Love my Avalon better than Lexus
This is the second Avalon I have owned. I bought a Lexus the last time but chose the Avalon Limited over the Lexus ES 350. Better ride than Lexus. Love the interior and the power it has.
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The "Avolanpong"
The 4th generation 2012 -16 Avalons has the ride comfort of a bouncing ping pong ball. Just terrible...most large sedans also have re engineered suspensions to give a much stiffer ride but Avalon wins the award for having the ride and seat comfort of a hay wagon. Avoid it like the plague if you are looking for a comfortable large size sedan.
- Performance
- Limited SedanMSRP: $17,000125 mi away
- XLE SedanMSRP: $18,999147 mi away
- XLE Plus SedanMSRP: $16,995128 mi away
Great car, two exceptions
Great ride overall. My 2016 was my second new Avalon, and I'm thinking about the 2019! Thank goodness they now have Apple car play. The Entune system is pretty hopeless. Minor but annoying: the rear window shade broke on my 2009 twice and once on my 2016. This issue is well documented on the Avalon message boards, and the fix is costly $2000 replacement, parts and labor. (Fortunately my 2016 was still under warranty). On older models you could just pull the fuse to the rear window shade and forget about it. Now the rear window shade fuse is integrated with circuits, so you have to replace the shade! Basically they have you over a barrel on this one. The Poway dealership is solid. My only complaint is the forceful suggestive sell in the repair department. I guess this is true of most service departments, but there is always a push for "dealer recommended" service items in addition to "factory recommended" items.
To Avalon from Lexus and mostly happy
The front end disappears behind the hood. With the seats all the way up I still can't see where the front of the car is and I have perfect depth perception. Backing this car to park is actually easier with the back-up camera display, so that's become the preferred parking method. The Touring has a much meaner look than the XLs or Limited because of the large frowning grill. At first I was not impressed with its look, especially with the grill extending beyond the drivers field of vision but the look grows on you. The Opera windows in the rear end in an upward point which resembles the Lexus ES 350, VW or Benz . While this is an improvement over the box look of older Avalons it just doesn't seem quite right and may have been better had the top line of the window swung down rather than up. The car I owned previously was a 2006 Lexus GS300 with 164840 miles on it and with valve and head gasket problems on two cylinders ran so smooth I wasn't aware of a problem. The Lexus also had a Vehicle Control Unit (VCU) which failed during connection with a DMV Smog Check Tester. The VCU had to be repaired before the smog test could be started ($3300 with to OX sensors as well) plus $8500 for the engine repair. I'd been waiting in the showroom for the diagnosis and was seriously impressed with a Avalon Limited. It was $7000 more than the next level Touring, mostly due to aftermarket high end 18 inch wheels and wider tires. I previously owned a 2003 Avalon XL and put 130,000 miles on it in three years. It ran excellently until the day I traded it in on the Lexus, which was a major step up. This Touring version is sportier and has some unique technology and styling but it is not a GS-300 but it certainly is much cheaper yet, in my opinion, quite similar in quality and performance with the LEXUS. The Midnight Black paint has a very deep blue and silver metal flake, which when it catches the light, makes the car sparkle as if it had facets. The interior three color scheme is a bit of a knock off of a Mercedes. All the Touring models come with the paddle shifters, black wood grain accents, faux leather steering wheel, which isn't as pretty as a wood accented steering wheel but it will be much better when summer comes around. The back seat can accommodate a six foot person with room to spare. There is no hump in the middle of the bnack seat because of the front wheel drive, so there is room to move your legs around and get comfortable. The pull down center armrest is poorly appointed. There is no strap to pull it down and the built in cup holders are cheap looking plastic of the same color of the seats rather than the chrome lined, accent colored ones in the front seat. That seemed a rather petty downgrading in my opinion. I'm getting about 19 mpg average in town but I'm going no further than a few miles on suburban streets for the most part. the vehicle got 34 mpg average on the freeway. Nodody is going to turn their heads and give you an oh Wow look, unless it's another grandpa looking for his own new boat with some vroom to it.
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Aggravating car
What an aggravating interior. ABSOLUTELY no front storage,you have to use the storage under the arm rest..what a pain,the navigation is useless as is the stereo.The ride is no better than my 2009 camry.Nothing to write home about...I do not enjoy driving this car..as matter of fact,it stays garaged and I drive my camry
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