2014 TOYOTA Avalon

Hybrid Avalon Touring 2014

Comfort Rating: 4 Performance Rating: 5 Interior Rating: 4 Reliability Rating: 4 Safety Rating: 5 Technology Rating: 4 Value Rating: 4

For some reason Edmonds doesn't know there's a Hybrid version of this car so I selected the V6 version. I Really like the Avalon now that I got rid of the OEM Toyota chosen Bridgestone Turanzas. DO NOT get an Avalon with Bridgestone (rocks) tires. I test drove the care with Michelin tires and the ride was firm but comfortable. My located Avalon came with Bridgestone Turanzas and the car rode brittle and handled terribly. I did some investigation and found others had Bridgestone Turanzas and hated them and got rid of them. At 16k miles they were getting so loud I couldn't bear it any more. I went to Toyota and they did not care or help. So I was on my own and put Pirelli P7s on the car and it rides, handles, stops, goes through rain great and is very quiet and is a LRR tire that gets great MPG. My headliner behind my sunroof fell down and the Toyota dealer fixed it once (including nasty fingerprints all over the headliner that I had to argue with the dealer to clean) and it fell down again. Toyota came up with a second headliner fix and they got it right. The radio every once in a while goes dead on AM or FM. It works fine through Bluetooth or other sound inputs, radio just dies. It's intermittent so of course the Dealer can't fix it. Poor quality radio though buyer be ware. The NAV system that Toyota provides would have been outdated in 2008. It has no speed limit and updates are horribly expensive and don't come out very often. My $100 Tom-Tom Nav or my apple phone do a far superior job than the one Toyota sticks you with. Regular free updates and speed limit display on the Tom-Tom. So after my flawless 2012 Camry XLE Hybrid, this Avalon has come with some issues and Toyota has not been much help. What I do like is the MPG for a car this size. Comfort is pretty good. I've gone on some long trips and the seats are firm but not fatiguing. I would expect more padding in the seats for a car like this. Overall I like the interior layout. The armrest on the driver side at 17k is starting to wear through. Not too happy with the lack of durability of the arm rest vinyl. The steering is great. very low effort and accurate with decent road feel for a big car. The styling is pretty nice for a car in this price range. Over all a pretty nice car that I enjoy driving now that I prematurely had to get rid of the Toyota OEM Bridgestones. I have always owned Toyotas, and I still like this Avalon, but the quality and customer care is sadly slipping from Toyota and the dealers.