2003 Toyota Avalon XLS review from North America

I had problems with excessive vibration from the build in bass speaker. It would drown out all the music completely and rattle the entire car. To fix this they took apart the interior fabric and added some foam insulation around the sun roof.

I had problems with the braking system after the car sat in the rain for 5 days when I applied the break for the first time the excessive rust caused large grooves to be formed on the braking surface which caused uneven breaking force, pulling, and abrupt stops, along with a vibrating type sound.

What I am most upset with though is that I spent almost $2000.00 to upgrade to the remote control DVD Navigation system (which worked great the first couple of years). Unfortunately Toyota has refused to offer support for their products or produce an upgraded DVD. All 2003 models are operating off of a 2001 Map DVD. In the last 4 years a lot of roads have changed, and the DVD system is effectively useless in major cities now.

The car was not delivered as ordered from the dealer. I custom ordered my car. The dealer called me a few days later and told me they found the exact car I had ordered only 200 miles away and they could drive it to their lot. I agreed. Two features were not listed on the window sticker when the car arrived on the lot. I accepted the car with the agreement that a "mobile vehicle" from Toyota's port of entry would come to their lot and install the two options I had agreed on with the dealer. After over a month of fighting with the dealership they finally had scheduled the installation. When I dropped of my car instead they kept it all weekend (they did give me a free Camry rental.) When I picked up the car neither option had been installed, and they had broke my automatic gear shifter while it was on their lot, so I had to wait for them to receive the parts to fix that.

I would like to buy another Avalon; despite the blunt review I am very happy with my car. I have had to fight with the dealerships to get what I wanted and to get the service I was entitled to, especially for such an expensive large sedan. But until Toyota demonstrates that it stands behinds its products (by offering an update for all their navigation systems) I will not buy another Toyota.