Thinking about buying a 2006 Avalon Limited - Comments from owners pro or con would be appreciated!

Avalon took a bit of getting used to after driving an A6 for 5 years. I have the Limited with all of the gear including the Nav unit. Fit and finish was mostly very good but provided the only surprise. The FOG lights are not mounted flush to the bumper. The glass lens is about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch set back allowing an unsightly gap. Also the platic bezel moves around in the bumper opening. Not what I would expect from Toyota. It also make for additonal virbration and probably is the cause for the right side lamp to be burned out after only 6K miles (about 5 months) of driving. Dealer took care of it and compared my car to others on the lot and they were all similar.

Ride is vastly different from A6 but we are talking apples and oranges from a handling standpoint. I believe the Avalon rides and handles as most of the rags describe - a bit floaty in the turns but great on the highway going straight. Performance wise the engine on regular gas is very snappy (268 bhp). Almost too much for the streering geometry as when you get on it, you do feel some torgue-steer. Getting on it too hard and causing the front wheels to spin will immediately engage the vehicle stability program which will back off the throttle to eliminate the wheel spin and keep the car going straight. Stability program also helpful in snowy/wet weather.

The most outstanding features of the car are exterior styling and interior fit/finsh, color palatte and roominess. Gages well laid out - everthing is visible. Electroluminecent dash looks great and very visible day or night. Buttons on steering wheel are convenient but can be depressed inadvertently when hands brush across as in quick one handed steering (kooking a spoke by a finger during parking manuver).

Then there is the Nav unit. I've read the manual twice now and just getting used to all of the features. Especially the setting of points of interest vs. setting destinations by address. Havn't tries to set destinations across cities/regaions yet. That should prove to be interesting. Most features are accessed by an integrated menu (GUI) which is keyed to the speed of the vehicle. When vehicle is moving more than 12 mph, the Menu locks out most map functions. A safety issue (so you pay attention to where you're going) but quite annoying none the less. Nav unit does have lots of option including map orientation, but the more options, the more study required to effectively use them.

That the high level. If you have specific questions, le tme know. I'll try to answer the best I can.

Nice thorough review. Check the trim at the outside bottom of the windshield to see if it is mounted tight. It wasn't screwed down tightenly in the previous generation and caused aggravating clicks in cold weather after a couple of years of use. Did they learn anything or will history repeat itself.

Our 05 Limited has about 5k miles on it. This is our third Avalon.

I did not get Nav or Laser - didn't feel they were necessary or worth the about $5000 more. Had a hell of a time finding one with out them in right color.

Art might be right about windshield trim. There is occasionally a tiny bit of noise on the upper right dash area on really rough surface. I can't find it but wife swears she hears it. I will check the windshield trim!

I didn't notice the foglights being loose when I waxed it. But will look at them too. When wife went down ramp in parking structure she had a bit of awakening with the "leveling" of the headlights.

I can find nothing wrong with this car - like Dale says lots of torque steer if you really hop on it. No trouble getting on highway - can really accelerate. Easy to overtake someone when merging with the power.

As close as I can tell, the mileage indicator is pretty close to paper & pencil MPG figures. Most tanks of gas are about 20 with 23-24 if we leave town. Course not a lot of miles but its definitely head and shoulder in all respects over other Avalon's, inc mileage.

I even like the Michelin MXV4's that came on it. (saved me from changing!)

One little thing I noticed is that they increased crankcase capacity to 6 1/2 quarts.

Enjoy - Ron

Judging by what I'm reading in this thread about the Georgetown Avalons, I'm definitely going to set my sights on a Tsutsumi Camry.

Thanks to awful GM and Ford Management, certainly the Georgetown Toyotas must be of higher quality than the GM and Ford machines, but the Georgetown cars probably lag their Aichi bretheren in quality by just a bit.

Come on Georgetown. I'm sure you're getting close. Figure out what you need to do to equal the Tsutsumi plant.

For now though, I hope I can get a pretty silver Aichi Camry.

I am not sure of how many Camry's are made in Japan for export to USA. FWIW I seem to remember reading somewhere that somewhat more Camrys are produced in USA than imported and imported ones tended to be on West Coast.

The Georgetown Avalons as far as I am concerned are fine.