2004 Toyota Avensis D4-D T4 5-dr review from UK and Ireland

Rear suspension bushes needed replacing at 40k miles.

Tailgate struts starting to fail (make a groaning noise and don't lift tailgate properly)

My wife inherited this car as a company vehicle when it had done 22,000 miles, it has just gone back with 96,500 miles on the clock, which was covered in 20 months, and it has been brilliant.

Initially I was unsure, as the only criticism I can level at it is the performance for a modern 2.0 litre diesel is a bit sluggish (although the engine did improve with more miles under it's belt).

However, I think this is possibly the best handling car in the class, it is possible to really throw it into a corner and it just sails through (no traction control or esp), I don't think I ever unsettled it, even with some serious driving.

The ride quality was also very good, despite riding on 17" alloys and ultra low profile tyres, the only issue being the turning circle, which is crap because of the big alloys and tyres.

I would also argue that build quality is certainly up there with German competition, perhaps even above some now, after 96,000 miles it still felt very tight and rattle free.

Just before it went back to the lease company we did a 2,400 mile round trip in it to France, Switzerland and Italy, this was the final credit to the car-it averaged 50 mpg despite lengthy autoroute journeys at up to 100mph (125mph at one point!), was extremely comfortable to travel 7 hours + in, the built in Sat Nav was superb and got us everywhere we wanted to go, and it was doing 530 miles on a tank before the warning light came on.

What a car-it will be sorely missed.