1998 Toyota Avalon review from North America

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

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.