Toyota Avalon 2013-2019

Portions of this review were featured on Mark-Tech Review. 

The Toyota Avalon from 2013 was in many ways a harbinger for the Toyota brand.  It signaled a change from appliance cars with marshmallow chassis with high-reliability to a desire to create cars that can cause positive emotions.  One needs only look at the 2012 Toyota Avalon to see how stark of a change the 2013 Toyota Avalon was.  The 2012 was a large "buick", with fluffy seats, fluffy suspension and a weird dashboard.  The 2013 shed an inch of height from the 2012 Avalon and came with a suspension so taut that many complained.  In 2016 the suspension was updated to be slightly more forgiving but a far cry from the 2008 era Toyotas.  The suspension is tight enough to corner at speed without the traditional Toyota body roll. 

The chassis (along with the suspension) has been improved to the point where the body roll is minimal but flex is still detectable but far less than previous Toyotas.  It doesn't have the solid feeling of a nicer Audi or Jaguar.  There are rattles over bumps but not as many as previous toyotas had.  

This change later carried over to the 2018 Toyota Camry which is lower and more sporty than the previous Camry. 

The styling is reminiscent of audi's as it is designed by the same designer.   The engine and tranny work well together and receive high marks in both the naturally aspirated V6 and the Hybrid 4 with CVT.  Although I would suggest the V6.  The car has enough power but could use an additional 30-50hp to be really fun.  

Front wheel drive is evident and there is a minor amount of torque steer, however there is no "back seat tunnel" under the middle seat and it may drive slightly better in the snow than a rear drive would allow.  Around the corners, the Avalon is flat and can take corners at 50-60 mph.  The standard Michelin tires on later Avalons are welcome and nice.  I would argue they should be a bit wider perhaps 225 and 235 on the touring.  The brakes are strong but not good enough for repeated high intensity braking.  They are not as strong as a Range Rover Supercharged V8 may exhibit but good enough for mountain driving.  

Modifications available are fairly limited although there is some standard car configuration and carista and techstream offer more.  In the lower end models 6x9s 2ohm speakers fit but may cause the door cards to rattle, 3.5" coaxial speakers will fit in the dash and rear door.  In standard configuration the stereo is ok at best but comes without any tweeters.  There are 8 speakers fed full signal so modification is fairly easy.  I would highly reccomend using dynamat on the doors and inner door cards to reduce rattles as even the stock speakers will cause rattling.  Some Camry modifications will fit. 

The rattling is similar to a Maserati Ghibli, which also had some rattling from the panels, stereo implementation and chassis flex as well. 

The interior of the Avalon is nice with leather like materials on the door cards and dash.  There are hints of faux wood and chrome.  Later models have slightly darkened chrome, some have suggested that this chrome is annoying in sunlight.  With large, sailing style glasses that cover beneath the eyes I have found this to be mitigated. 

The seats are just ok, they needed another inch or so of padding. The black interior is highly recommended as the light interior dashboards can cause irritation to the eyes while driving.  

Overall the Avalon is a solid appliance car that isn't terribly exciting, but is inviting to be in and drive.   Better than the Caddillac ELR and a Prius, not as nice as a Jaguar, Maserati, Audi, BMW, or Range Rover but likely more reliable. 

Below are some of my thoughts when I initially reviewed the Avalon for Mark Tech Review. 

1. The Avalon comes loaded.  Even in standard XLE trim it comes with leather, real leather not Toyota faux leather that comes on the 42k TRD Pro 4Runner or the Lexus ES350. The only other toyota that comes with standard, real, leather on this side of the world to my knowledge is the $84k Range Rover class Land Cruiser.  The other packages add to it, but for me I need leather in my car, if it doesn't have leather I'm not buying it.  After all the hides of the steaks we eat should be used.
2. The Avalon comes standard with a 7" screen and a color 3.5" dashboard screen.  The radio comes standard with XM.  I updated the speakers to infinity speakers, and with my experience with my last toyota with JBL sound, I found the standard stereo easier to upgrade partially because each of the 8 speakers gets full signal so you can just add nice speakers with crossovers.  There is also an aftermarket android headunit available.  The stock sources is not bad but is certainly compressed.  The EQ is best on Bass +3, midbass+2, treble +0 but you may run into rattles. I will do a whole article on the sound system in the future, I think it applies to many common era Toyotas.  
3. The drive is ok.  There is actually a somewhat built in front tower strut (I added another one and then realized there was somewhat a strut brace built in).  You can actually take corners in the car without feeling like the car is about to roll over as you would in a Generation 2/3 Prius. The hard bumps do transmit in plastic rattles but overall it is a fairly good ride with a combination of sporty grand tourer.  
4. The car rattles like it was made to rattle.  The two biggest offenders are the dash end caps and the rear c pillars which if you remove them there is an area where a clip could be used but isn't if you add high strength velcro here it eliminates much of the rear rattle.  The dash end rattles can be mitigated with a combination of velcro on the inside and some foam on the far side near the rubber trim. There is a TSB for Avalons with memory seats. 
5. The style is akin to an Audi since the Audi designer designed it.  The paint is quite an upgrade from Toyotas from a decade ago.  The wheels too are upgraded with very intricate paint finish. 
6. The oil burns but not at a great rate.  However a 10k OCI is I would guess the maximum interval possible, I would certainly check the oil level every 3k miles (and change at 7500 or so but that is a different post I would also argue for full synthetic 5w-20 or 0w-30 vs the 0w-20 CAFE driven recommended weight.)