Dear fellow avalon owners, i'm new to the club here (again i appreciate the approval from admin's)
I recently came into ownership of in my opinion one very clean & definitely rare late 04' build Mark III Avalon Grande. with a complete and full toyota service history to back it up.
Best thing is, everything works - sunroof was cleaned & greased properly on a regular basis. etc etc
it's got over 200k on it yet it's still running 5w30 full synthetic, doesn't burn a single drop in between services (i mean within the exception of PCV vapours obviously, but i never have to add oil
Just last year the entire intake manifold was off along with all the injectors being fully cleaned/tested or rebuilt depending (only going off what Toyota documents i have) - the manifold was fully cleaned inside out.
I also managed to track down both spec sheets including full features list, specs, etc
In my opinion i've always had a soft spot for the Avalon amongst other toyota models, with the exception of the Avalon could have been a superior product, along with that old school luxury which personally i adore, when Toyota Australia took over the MCX10R Avalon tooling from the good ol'e US of A, we made a solid car even better. and for the time, it didn't sell, but by the Mark III, they had a certain level of Lexus solidity. But just how over-built they are after seeing one in person really astounded me. Yes it does't have TCS, but half the time Commodore & Falcon TCS systems at the time were primitive at best. The level of refinement within a Mark III is quite impressive with the yanks to thank for certain items in my opinion Ford & GM never thought of.
Top 5 features i really admire that isn't offered by Ford or Holden at the time.
1. Electric sunroof with tilt & slide as standard equipment on Grande models.
2. Standard navigation DVD based system that still can be updated even now because the system is still quite user friendly once you get the hang of it.
3. Active front seat headrests that both adjust up & down but also can tilt forward towards you or further back to improve your driving position.
4. "Cool Air Bypass Switch" - Air flows from the centre vents within the following settings, not only is it a safety feature, it's quite nifty.
5. That extra comfortable Lexus-like leather they used on the Avalon's which stood up well over time.
All in all, i'm hard pressed to find a top spec Ford or Holden of the time that had navigation that either worked or was optioned for originally.
Along with the touch points feeling of a much higher quality finish
Will the Avalon catch on ?, only to those who are willing to give an otherwise brilliant car the time of day for.....
S_T_P_AVA_BR_VBR_03-04_AVALON0304_Avalon Brochure - March 2004.pdf
