1999 Toyota Avensis CDX review from UK and Ireland

Every light failed at least once.

The engine over revved itself on start up and had an irregular idle speed.

Going down the motorway a 70MPH in heavy rain the engine mysteriously cut out, but restarted on the hard shoulder 10 minutes later never occurred again, but was disconcerting.

The dashboard was little more than a joke, the "wood" wore away to reveal some nasty black plastic, it squeaked badly and is generally looking tired.

Alloy wheels corroded badly leaving bare metal on display despite being washed weekly, the paint on all sections of the car is of a generally low quality.

A really disappointing car this, I believed when I bought it that I was going to get something super reliable that would last forever, but instead I got a truely badly designed vehicle.

There was no headroom in the back, there were too many small buttons on the radio, the handbrake was in the wrong place - too far forward, the gearknob unscrewed itself as you went along, the magazine on the CD changer was really tricky to get out so I hardly used it and its positioning prevented me from getting to the spare wheel easily.