2004 Toyota Avensis t4 from UK and Ireland - Comments

3" paint drip on tailgate.

Steering rack replaced.

Toyota cd player skipped.

Engine under cover came away whilst on m1.

Rear window dermister doesn't work.

Central locking temperamental.

Air bag light intermittent.

Gearbox wines in third gear.

I have owned Citroen's for twenty years and at last felt like a change. I went for the toyota avensis because it was given a good review and was reliable.

Sadly I have been most disappointed in the car and the 3 dealerships I have had to deal with.

The car has been back to the dealership, in a year more times than my last Citroen did in 6 years.

The car looks OK, a bit bland.

The interior is Very Black and boring compared to my pevious XM.

Passengers always seem to have the temptation to throw up in the back, might be due to the bouncy ride.

May be reliable, but build quality sucks!

How can you think a Citroen XM is a better vehicle than an Avensis.

First of all most Citroens are renowned for appalling reliability, a myriad of electrical gliches and desperate build quality. Have you really driven an Avensis... gearbox whines, intermittent central locking and all those comments you made do not ring true.

I would be the first person to agree with you had I ever encountered such problems, I have covered 50,000 miles combined in several different Avensis in the last one and a half years and found the build quality etc to be top notch, not a hint of dodgy warning lights or anything at all.

You must be very very very unlucky if this review is bona vide.

I have now sold the Avenesis to my local Citroen dealer as they where the only group to give me 60% of what I paid for it. I have now bought another Citroen XM (2000). This time a top of the range model. It has to be said that this car is ten times better than the Avensis. Mainly because its so comfortable, 0% road noise, 0.1% wind noise at 80mph. The car is also fantastic looking - a real future classic car. It has also been so far 100% reliable.

I will accept that my Avensis may of been a one off or a Friday afternoon car, but with faults like the ones mine experienced I wouldn't own another.

The dealership really need to get sorted out as well as they have proved to be utterly useless.

I have owned Citroen's for years, my Dad years before me and neither of us have experienced these sort of problems from new cars. Hysteria inspired unreliability polls may of put big Citroen's near the top of the list, but most owners will another. Read the Xm page and see how many have owned two or three over the 15 year production run.

I have just bought the same model as you with 15,000 miles on the clock. I took the car to the local dealership with what I thought was a gearbox whine, it turned out to be a loose plastic manifold cover which vibrated at certain revs. My central locking has also been troublesome, this has also now been sorted. The main problem I have now is that the "check engine" light sometimes comes on, there is no difference in performance or any other effects. I took it to the dealership yesterday and they can find no faults on the cars ECU. They say that the only way to cure this may be to replace the ECU, but this would be under warranty anyway.

I am pleased with the car as a whole and see it as value for money, but also I agree with the author of this review that for a manufacturer in the top of the reliability polls the Avensis is a little disappointing.

What is it with those manifold covers, I'm on my second Avensis and they've both been back to the garage to get them sorted. Do Toyota not communicate with there dearlerships? Sort the rattles and vibrations!!

The Avensis on whole is okay, but it is the only car in its class to make the Vectra look exciting.

I am getting a whining sound from my 2004 Toyota Avensis... I don't know much about cars so I am just realising it could be the "gearbox whine" you are talking about. The dealers also recently "refaced four wheel discs" (49,000 km) I really have no idea why... after all it's a fairly new car... it is after this was done that I am hearing the sound. I am now not sure I want to take it back to them...

I bought a 53 plate Avensis T Spirit automatic with 37,000 miles. I love Japanese cars and have owned many, but now I am faced with a car which has a really annoying whine between 20 and 45 miles an hour. I'm pretty clued up with the mechanics and sure this is coming from the gearbox, it's enough to drive me wild.

I also get a lot of clicking and clucking when doing maneuvers, and sometimes when cornering. I think it's the bushes around the suspension area.

The engine also uses a small amount of oil, which I find shocking as I have never had this with any of my previous Japanese cars.

The brakes also squeal a treat, and can be quite ear piercing at times. This will be rectified next time I change the pads/discs hopefully.

Apart from the above, it is built very well and oh so comfortable. It's not tiring to drive and apart from the gearbox noise, which is the right pitch to tick me off, it's a very quiet car!

I bought a Toyota Avensis 1800 (1998) just over 4 years ago with around 80,000 miles on the clock. It´s now done 132,000 miles & the only trouble I´ve had is the ignition switch packed up. All my friends comment on how comfortable it is & they can´t believe it´s that old as it´s living in Spain with new Spanish plates! However, it still looks good & runs great. What more can you expect from a car? Eric.

I own a Toyota Avensis 2004 and have been disappointed with the build quality. Within the warranty period the dealers had to change out the headlights, and the inside roofing material started falling apart before it reached four years. It is now stripping and hanging down in the car and I have to get it changed. I have NEVER had a car with this problem... and in such a short time.. Nissan, Daihatsu, Suzuki, even Lada... anyone with similar problems?

I brought a new Avensis, 2002 style, in 2003; the new shape was released by then so I got it for a few grand less. This was probably the only time I'll ever be in a position to buy a new car as I'd been left some money.

I chose this car as my companies service engineers used to run up huge mileages with them with no problems.

After 20K the front disks were shot.

The gearbox went on the motorway at 60K.

Now at 83K I've been told the differential needs replacing!

I've had the car dealer serviced from new and I'm so disappointed with it. I truly regret my decision as I had a free choice at the time.

I think there is a major clue to the root cause of the faults, there's a sticker on the windscreen saying 'Made in the UK'.

If you see this sticker, avoid like the plague, I wish I had.

Toyota Avensis 2005 110,000Km on the clock.

I have had my Avensis from new, where initially in the first few months I had to have the starter motor changed, as sometimes the car would not start, but the local Toyota garage changed this under warranty.

I have been happy with the car until a few years ago, until the xenon light problems started.

I did take the car back a year or so ago, as I had problems seeing in the dark Swedish months because my xenon lights did not appear to work, and the garage had the problem checked and said they could find no fault. I had another garage (not Toyota) check them and they said they could not find a fault either, so I thought it must be me.

This winter I felt the light was worse, and took it back to the local Toyota dealer who again checked the lights and said they were fine, and took it back to the same garage who initially looked at them last year. He said he could not find a fault, but would take the car out for a test drive and came back saying yes there was a fault, and I would need to see the Toyota garage again, which I did. Now they say that there has been a fault with Toyota Avensis lights since 2004, and it would have been covered under warranty for cars that were 3 years old or under 100,000km. I am to be charged for around £1100 for new lights if I buy them from the Toyota garage. Question why was I not told by Toyota when I first took it in that there were faults? Why are they charging so much for lights when they knew that a fault was there. It seems that because Toyota have had a bad batch that they want the customer to pay for it and not them.

I used to be a very big Toyota fan and was planning to buy another new one, but because of this rip off, I will not touch another Toyota again, and I will let as many others know that Toyota cannot be trusted to look after and be honest with their customers.