Faults:

I purchased this car brand new in 2002. I have been thrilled with its performance and reliability. I have kept up with all maintenance.

All was well until 6/1 when I pulled into the parking lot at work, and as I turned into my parking space with MY FOOT ON THE BRAKE PEDAL, going no more than 2 mph, my car suddenly accelerated, hitting the car next to me. I felt like I was in a go cart with no control.

The left front headlight was smashed and there is damage to the hood and bumper.

I had it towed to Toyota as I was afraid to drive it. 2002 Avalon's are not recalled vehicles. They cannot find anything wrong with it.

General Comments:

I am afraid to get my car and drive it. After all of these wonderful years, I can no longer trust it.

Faults:

No problems ever! This is an excellent car.

General Comments:

I would consider myself a bit of an authority on Avalon's.

The car, although 8 years old, has no rust and the paint is in excellent condition. Interior is holding up well and shows little to no wear and tear.

Stereo is excellent. Heated seats and Dual Zone AC are great features.

The car handles well as can be expected for a car in this class.

It is extremely solid and smooth riding.

Not sure what the gas mileage is as I only drove it for 10 minutes on a test drive.

Faults:

Run ability of the car has been fine. I really only had a few problems. The air bag light came on at about 80000 miles. and the car cannot sit more than a few days before the battery goes dead. Yes it's a new battery. The main reason why I decide not to purchase another toyota is the service department. They said the air bag computer would have to be replaced to turn the light off. They would not reset the the computer its against the law and would not prove that statement. Yes I call toyota and they reaffirmed that statement but could not produce it. I paid 80.00 for someone to tell me that??? I took it to a garage for 60.00 and they reset it for me it took 5 minutes. Toyota wanted 700.00 to replace it. So... I drive Hondas now, I bought two hondas since then and plan on buying another for my daughters graduation. So... after 23 years of toyota I switched, and Honda been good so far.

Faults:

We purchased a new 02 Avalon. We bought the car because of Toyota's reputation for high satisfaction along with previous Toyota experience. We got the fully loaded XLS.

Less than 1000-miles the dual zone climate control froze up on high heat setting. Fixed under warranty.

3000-miles, air bag light came on. Dealership fixed this under warranty. A faulty connection they said.

7000-miles at first oil change they found a code for ABS fault. They told me that they took care of it. After this I noticed that the ABS light would not come on like it did.

Called Toyota and they said to bring it back. They replaced some circuitry under warranty. Now it works fine. No ABS problems since. Light does not stay on all the time now. They siad that it is not designed to stay on and that the ABS is on with out light on. OK..

9000-miles, transmission starts to jerk sometimes when it is under a load around 40mph.

Taken in and they checked for codes and found nothing.

12,000-miles, Calendar function on drivers center will not move to next day. Stuck. Toyota replaced the whole assembly. I had to sign the warranty bill. It was $885. They paid it.

16,000-miles the transmission still jerks more and more. Toyota drove and checked out the car, but found nothing. It just does it like 1-time on a 10-mile trip.

20,000-Battery in airbag system fails. Air bag light came on. Toyota replaced for free.

40,000-miles transmission still jerks. Had transmission fully serviced. Still didn't help.

54,000-miles the compass is now showing that every direction is N. Also the instant fuel economy computer is showing that the car is getting 88.8mpg. Frozen up.

Not sure what to do. Toyota will no longer pay for repairs due to it being not covered now.

In college in 1988 I got a used Toyota 87 Cressida with only 8,000-miles on it. It had the strong 2.8 L engine. I drove this car to almost 200,000-miles with the only problems being the A/C loosing freon at 100,000-miles and 2-alternators. Maybe Toyota has lost its touch for building excellent trouble free cars.

I can say that our LHS has had many more problems than any other car we have owned.

62000-miles I took the car to Ammco Transmission to have them drive it because the jerking is getting worse. They diagnosed the car as having internal transmission clutch failure. Caused from overheating the transmission and or manufacturing defects. They ask me if we use the car to pull a trailer. I said no and we never have. They want to rebuild the transmission for $2,600 and I am going back to Toyota to see what they have to say about this. With papers from Ammco.

Ammco also told us that our Engine is knocking as well. We can't hear it, but we have an appointment to take it to them to have them check it all out again.

I hope for the best. We will not put a new transmission in it, we plan on trading it off, maybe another Toyota, depends on what Toyota says and if they are willing to fix this one. If so we will trade it in on the spot if they say yes. If not we will go else where. Not Chrysler or Toyota again. We'll see.

Not Chrysler again no matter what.

General Comments:

The car looks odd at first, but you will grow to like the looks.

The car needs more power.

The car never got the MPG that Toyota said it would. city avg is 14mpg and highway is 22mpg. Disappointment.

The car is super smooth, when working right.

The car is easy to wash and clean. Nothing sticks to the paint.

People who ride in the car think it is a Lexus.

Maybe toyota didn't spend the needed time to make the 02 Avalon what the older toyotas were.

We will see.