Faults:

Front struts and strut mounts at 130,000. Changed them with non-Toyota parts (Monroe) and they wore out in 35,000 miles.

General Comments:

This car is used daily on the expressways of Dallas-Ft. Worth and has been the most reliable car possible. Nothing has been changed on the engine or any drive part, only wear items like tires, battery, struts. It gets about 22 mph in town; 25 on the expressways; 30 on the interstate in cruise with plenty of power. None of the belts or hoses have been changed and the freon has never been checked (AC is almost immediately cold).

Back seat is cavernous and the ride soft and luxurious. No upholstery problems at all, but the power window module on driver's side is loose but works perfect.

Faults:

Initial quality not equal to Ford F250 purchased new at same time, as the F250 has needed nothing of any kind fixed (7 free recalls though). Avalon had vacuum tube fall off, the car alarm that car came with has always been intermittent. Minor issues.

One front and one rear wheel bearing failed. Dealer wanted 835$ to fix front bearing with new steering knuckle, easy fix with online used knuckle for 40$ including tax and shipping.

Bearings at top of struts rattle, as in many of these cars.

General Comments:

Exceptional materials quality. Plastic headlamp covers still clear, FORD F-250 purchased at same time clouded up 10X more. Rubber not cracked.

Engine still so quiet it is hard to judge weather it is running, 152Kmi with no valve adjustment. F250 clatters loudly upon start, has lots of different ticks and resonances. Ultra smooth turbine-like quality.

Did you know that soft springs and suspension make car motion sickness much more likely? Suspension, especially in rear, way too soft. Very stupid, Toyota designers.

Brake pads last 90kmi. :-)

Power steering pump does not have enough mass fluid flow, when an emergency happens and the steering wheel gets slewed life or death, and super-human strength is suddenly required (and the sudden inability to spin the wheel does give a big burst of adrenaline that does give super human strength).

All the springs are too soft, brake pedal stuck to the floor once, parking brake does not pop back up anymore.

Evidentally, Toyota equated soft with luxury, erroneously in my opinion.

Faults:

Nothing major. It does have a tendency to wear out tires a little faster than others cars I've driven.

General Comments:

This is actually my Mom's old car and now my brother's. We've had it since 1999. I've driven the car across the country a few times and done some maintenance when I come to visit.

My overall opinion of the car is that it is very comfortable, fairly quick, laden with a ton of comfort features like heated seats, an incredible sound system, and a sun roof. That said, this is about a boring a car you'll ever see. It has a rather forgettable and generic jelly bean shape. Unfortunately, it came in this sort of nasty looking purplish-brown color. You will not get any looks on the freeway, that's for sure. This is about as close to owning a Japanese Buick as you'll get.

On the other hand, the luxury and comfort level is right up there with Lexus, making it a good deal if you can buy a used one.

The reliability is rock-solid. I live 3,000 miles away from my parents and only see them once a year or more. My Mom isn't what you would call mechanically inclined, thus the only time it ever got serviced was when I came to visit, minus perhaps an occasional trip to Wal-Mart for bargain-basement oil changes. I finally changed the antifreeze at 200,000 miles and believe it or not, the original was still clean as a whistle. The transmission fluid was changed just this year.

My brother bought it off her last year and drove it all the way out to visit me. He is equally mechanically disinclined and therefore the poor car is being neglected equally. Even so, it just keeps going and going.