Toyota Avalon

Toyota Avalon Models

The Toyota Avalon has two models: XL and XLS.

Both models use Toyota's silky-smooth 3.0-liter V6. This engine produces 210 horsepower with 220 pounds-feet of torque.

XL models come fully equipped with side air bags, dual-zone air conditioning, power windows, door locks and mirrors, and a 120-watt AM/FM stereo with cassette and CD players. XLS models add automatic climate control, a driver information display (compass, trip computer, outside temperature and calendar functions), fog lights, aluminum alloy wheels, remote keyless entry, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel.

Driving the Toyota Avalon

If the Toyota Avalon is merely nice at a standstill, it's an eye-opener on the road - if you pay attention. But the car's big trick is that little attention is required, it works so well. Toyota couldn't have asked for better work from the guys in NVH (noise, vibration, harshness). At nearly anything less than full throttle, you'd swear you were coasting. All we could hear on a rainy day was a creaking in the windshield wipers, like an old screen door opening and closing, opening and closing.

The ride is flawless. Handling via rack-and-pinion steering is tight, even direct. While some still call such feeling "no character," we think "purity" is a better call. Oh, the chassis can be felt lightly rising and falling over undulations, but that's not a flaw, it's a soft balance appropriate to the car. We haven't taken the Avalon on a long trip, but we feel safe in saying our bones won't feel a thing after hours in the saddle.

Michelin 205/60R16 tires were impressive in the wet. We aimed for narrow rivers in the road that stretched for half a mile at a time, places where water collects in the worn spots from tire tracks, and at 60 mph we could have taken our hands off the steering wheel. We could see the water, we could hear it, but we couldn't feel it. We hit a shallow double pothole in the river. We heard a light thump, but scarcely felt it. We drove over a washboard-unpaved road. We felt it, but not much.

Then we got a little daring in the wet, blasting through a two-lane sweeper heavy on the throttle at 65 mph. The traction control connected in the middle of the turn, three or four times on and off, each time for a mere instant, and the car's direction stayed true without our having to do a thing except point it the first time. Something faster, smarter and more sensitive than us was doing all the tricky work.

We mashed the brake pedal as hard and fast as we could. Excellent anti-lock brakes said, "No problem. Thumpeta-thumpet-thump, there you are." We were stopped before the final splash landed. Because we were full on the pedal, Brake Assist wasn't triggered. Brake Assist applies the brakes full force if a sensor thinks that's what you need based on how quick and how hard you hit them. It was invented because most drivers don't brake hard enough in panic stops with ABS.

We found a hard-packed logging road, vacant on our rainy Sunday and slick from oil as well as water. We found a sharp curve with good visibility and no ditch. We charged it at spinout speed: all gas, no brakes.

Because the Toyota Avalon is front-wheel drive, understeer was our obstacle in this slow turn. We heard the VSC warning ding that says, "Whoa Bucko!" saw the orange traction-control light out of the corner of our eye, and then felt the car magically bite and come back into position. VSC had cut the throttle and hit the ABS brakes on all but the outside rear wheel.