General Comments:

The car is very silent when running and very comfortable.

The seating position is high and lovely.

I live in a complex of town houses. In early January I saw two guests of my neighbour coming to see my Avensis. I opened the car and let them admire whatever they wanted. They left very impressed with the features including the electric seats. They were driving a new VW Jetta which they had just packed.

I have travelled with the car from South Africa to Malawi across Zimbabwe, and Mozambique; a journey of 7800 km and never had to add a drop of water or oil. Recently I took a tour of the garden route and my my car continued performing wonderfully.

Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

The car is very good.

The comfort from the suspension is very good. The suspension absorbs everything in greek roads, which are the worst roads. Very good suspension.

The manual gearbox is also very good. The gearbox is so good, a classical Toyota gearbox, that the gear changes are smooth and soft.

The engine is great, classical Toyota engine. I think is the fastest car in its class.

It is powerful, and the most impressive thing is the fuel consumption, which is very low for a 1.8 petrol engine. I have managed to see 6.7 lt/100km on national roads. I do not press the engine, but I thing this is an extremely low fuel consumption for a 1.8 petrol engine!!!

Ergonomics are very good; you will find everything in the right position. The rear view mirrors are so large, and this is very helpful for the driver. The luggage space is large too, but the lights are not strong and it does not help at night.

Also the interior plastics are good, but when the road is not good you can hear a little noise from the plastics of the interior.

The space for the driver is small, and it is a bit difficult for the driver to get in the car.

The steering system is slow and it is very light. This is good at low speeds, but it is not at high speeds.

But do not forget, it is an electric power steering, not hydraulic, and this is the reason why it is light.

The brakes are very good.

Generally a very good car.

Faults:

The CD player has gone faulty. Radio still works fine.

General Comments:

The car has been totally reliable. I have owned it since April 2006 and have used it as a taxi. In this time I have changed the tyre's three times and the brakes three times. Nothing else except for the oil and filter every 15000km. There is 170,000km on the car and no problems except for the CD player failed at 120,000km. Toyota have refused to fix because the car is out of warranty.

The interior is too black and the seats get very tatty or dirty. Ideally this car would be better if the seats were leather and if there was an automatic available with the diesel engine. The passenger space is excellent for use as a taxi and the boot is plenty big enough for suitcases. The drive is fine, but the plastics on the steering wheel and gear lever need to be a lot softer as this is causing a repetitive strain injury on my hands, as I do 90,000kms per year.

There are certainly better cars out there for driving experience, but I know I will buy Toyota again because of the low cost of ownership. Nothing has gone wrong except for a faulty CD player.