2005 Toyota Avensis Luna 1.6 petrol from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Sturdy and reliable, but the 1.6 engine is very weak

Faults:

Used as a taxi so more wear than your average Avensis.

The clutch has been replaced. Apart from this, it has been little run of the mill things such as light bulbs etc.

General Comments:

1.6 unit is seriously weak for the size of the car itself. With people in the back it has to work hard to go through the gears.

The cabin is fairly dull with a black interior. The dials in orange look good however.

The cup holder doesn't seem to be very sturdy, and rattles eventually after some use.

If you're looking for a good family saloon, go for the 1.8 or 2.0 models, don't touch the D4D as it is massively expensive to buy, and if anything serious goes wrong, you will have a big bill as opposed to a petrol model.

Toyota make it extremely difficult for the owner to do simple jobs such as changing light bulbs, as there is a special "Toyota clip" which only they know about, and isn't in the owners manual. Toyota servicing is over priced.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 2nd December, 2007

23rd Mar 2015, 13:27

The company I work for used to run these for the main fleet. We hated them, doing 50,000 a year in an Avensis is a real pain. They would need a new gearbox at 170,000 miles and the A/C compressors would go 20,000 earlier. Overrated junk TBH. Horrible to drive and look at. Management replaced them with Passats in 2012. Much better cars.

2005 Toyota Avensis D-4D Sol 2.0 turbo diesel from Norway

Summary:

Huge disappointment

Faults:

There has been engine problems from day one with rough running and dealers has not been able to fix. Has been in contact with two different Toyota dealers and neither can help me. The car also uses a lot of diesel and sometimes "smokes" and engine warning light comes on and off.

Also there has been a series of smaller issues repaired by local dealer, like front light stopped working and one of the front lights had fallen into pieces which was a manufacturing defect. I think the other one needs to be replaced as well since there is moisture inside it.

General Comments:

I've been running different japanese cars for the last fifteen years and never had any kind of problem, even some of them has been second hand cars. So I thought the Avensis would fall into the 0% error category like most other japanese cars, but I was definitely wrong. This car is bad and after what I understand the Avensis has some serious problems in general.

I imported it from a dealer in Denmark and my local Toyota dealer has a "I don't give a damn" attitude even if I have a 3 years EU wide warranty.

So be aware!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 20th February, 2007

24th Feb 2007, 09:23

Yes I'd agree with the reviewer. I also had a Toyota Avensis (2004 model) with it's fair share of complaints.

28th Mar 2009, 09:42

Japanese cars are way over rated. I ran a BMW and my friend ran a Honda. Yes I had a few more problems than him, but when it did go wrong it was twice as much to repair!

In reply to 28th Mar 2009, 09:42

29th Jan 2015, 13:48

Well, I had a 15 year old Peugeot 306 and then I had a 20 year old Toyota. Toyota parts were twice as expensive, but over the course of 4 years for both cars, I had spent two times more money for repairs on the Peugeot than on the Toyota. Not to count the time lost and hassle of something going wrong all the time.

Japanese cars are still machines, and as such they need to be maintained. Japanese reliability is often misunderstood as "thrash it and it will never go wrong", whereas it should be seen as "take care of it, and there will be no unpleasant surprises".