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Toyota Avalon

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Zaidoun of Freeport NY writes (2/26/01):
In 1997 I purchased my first new car. It was a Toyota Avalon XL. I have been the only driver and owner of this car to date. When I first got it it seemed that the suspension was a little rough. I did not make much of it because this was my first Toyota and I did not know what to expect. After a few months of having the car my father and other friends that went on rides with me mentioned that the car must have some serious problems with its struts and shocks. Everyone noticed the ride was rough and that the car was not operating normally.

I brought the car over to trusted mechanic and asked for his professional opinion. He pushed down on corner of the car several times and drove it around the block. When he came back he said take it back to the dealer as soon as possible. He said that the car's suspension was shot. I brought the car back to the original dealer and got the run around they told me the car was fine and that it drove normally. I was reluctant to believe this was the way Toyota's best car drove.

A few months later I drove the car to another Dealer and wanted them to take a look at it. I was treated like dirt by the staff and told nothing was wrong with the car.

Angry and humilated I wrote a letter to Toyota. A few weeks later I recieved a call from Toyota who arranged for the car to go back to dealership. They had their lead mechanic look at it who said at first that nothing was wrong. I asked him to take a ride with me in any other Avalon on the Lot before I left. The difference was night and day. He agreed to change the front struts. This was done at 30,000 miles. When it was changed the car drove a little better but not good enough to call it fixed. I was so exhausted from trying to get the car fixed the first time that I just said oh let it go.

Recently I had to change the entire steering system on the car and when the mechanic saw how the steering was destroyed he was shocked that these repairs would need to be done at 55,000 miles. He said he could not understand how it went. I spoke to him about the rough ride the car gives and he said that if the car bounces and crashes over every bump then that would destroy many things in the car over time. When he looked closer at the shocks he noticed that the bushings where bent and that the shocks were leaking. I have 60,000 miles on the car now and the warranty is over. I called Toyota up again to tell them the car is a lemon. They have not returned my call as promised as of yet.

It has been very hard trying to deal with this problem. I purchased an expensive new car to have piece of mind. The car was out of my budget but I figured you get what you pay for so get something good. I have had to get numerous ballances and allignments along with having to change the steering. The financial burden has been about $1600 while the continous nerve racking ride is driving me nuts. Toyota does not help by always incinuating that its the driver and not the car.

Unfortunately, it is probably too late for Zaidoun to achieve significant satisfaction because so much time has passed since he purchased the car. It may be an expensive way to learn that there is no truth to the adage that you get what you pay for.

Jiri of Fairfax, CA, writes (5/7/01):
I would like to bring to your attention the way Toyota handles questions related to crash test results of Toyota Avalon 2001 model. Toyota Avalon 2001 model recently received a 3 star driver-side frontal collision crash test rating, issued by NHTSA. It was one of the lowest ratings of any car tested, most other cars received 4 or 5 stars.

Hoping that it was just some kind of a coincidence, because other crash tests of this car performed by IIHS and NHTSA were OK, I tried to contact Toyota for an explanation. I posted a question on Toyota web page asking to explain what happened during this particular crash test so that it turned out so poorly, and also asked whether Toyota is planning to let this car to be retested. After two weeks, and two additional phone calls requesting a response, Toyota responded. The response avoided answering the question what happened during this crash test and why, it just described what the tests are about and said that Toyota meets applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards.

Then I contacted NHTSA and got the following answer: "According to the data in the NCAP office, the 2001 Toyota Avalon scored 3 stars in the front driver because the Head Injury Criteria (HIC) and the Chest Deceleration(Chest G) were high resulting from the seatbelt and airbag not working in union during the crash test. This car scored well thoughout the test scored average to above average in all tests offered by NCAP."

This means, there was a problem with this car in this particular test, but Toyota does not want to talk about it. Then I posted one more question to Toyota web page, asking when Toyota is going to fix this flaw. After waiting in vain for a response, I called them and from the phone conversation it seems that Toyota will not respond to this question. Toyota's attitude refusing to respond to questions about Avalon's crash test results is worrisome. I wonder if you could possibly help make Toyota answer this question. Many potential Avalon buyers would like to know the answer.

We think the question's been answered pretty clearly and we'd recommend buying one of the five-star models.

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