that's my first day to florida, boston to virginia, 7am to 8pm. i wish i could say the hycam was perfect, but this 60 year old back is incorrigible.
Before I start modifying, changing or criticizing car seats is what you just mentioned----AGE. I'm 77. When I was young I drove any kind of a car for long distances with no seat issues. Why am I so picky about seats now? It just has to be my old bony rear. When I go on a trip now I pretty well limit it to about 300 miles a day and then get a motel. I do pretty well with that. Just daytime driving as well.
Back support in the TAH Limited is excellent. The driver's seat has 10-way power adjustment, including: lumbar support that adjusts two ways, up and down as well as in and out.
Well I don't know if I'm lucky or Toyota builds a good remote. I left the remote in my pants pocket and put the pants in the washing machine. When transferring the clothes to the dryer I found and removed the remote so it did not go into the dryer. To my surprise the thing still works fine......
honestly, shouldn't we be making commercials for toyota? this stuff is real, and way better than the carp their ad agencies come up with.
They are just tough, simple devices that are sealed against the elements. The wife lost the fob to the Sable. I have no idea for how long since it wasn't noticed missing right away, but it was likely for over a year. One day while working outside, I found it. Encased in the dried mud of the driveway. Cleaned it off(seems I could just throw it in the wash now), pried it apart to make sure no dirt got inside, and I might have put in a fresh battery. The thing worked fine.
I just hit 18 thousand miles and 22 months with my Avalon. If I remember correctly the"Hybrid premium" was only $1400, model to model (that was sticker). High or low gas prices I can't understand why more hybrids are not sold. In this car the power is good, the mileage is better than a Hyundai Elantra (just drove a rental Hyundai for a week). I think Toyota has to do a much better job of advertising and explaining their hybrid system, it really should be more popular. I'm sure the government mandates for mileage in the future will force carmakers to the expanded sales of hybrids, but people wake up, these are very good cars! Yeah I know I'm preaching to the choir.
Education. It's the assumption that the only reason to buy a hybrid is to save on fuel costs and therefore if the price of fuel is low, there is no incentive. The other factors such as smooth acceleration, low ownership cost and quiet EV driving are lost on the general populace. Even when gas prices are high, it's not a consideration. There's also the decades of pushing horsepower and performance as a means of climbing the social ladder.
So obviously my avatar is long since irrelevant, but I'm back into a Toyota Hybrid as of yesterday. Picked up a 2015 Avalon Hybrid XLE Premium. Toyota is giving some really great prices on these and I am pretty happy with the cost. After dumping my Prius some years ago, I had a Nissan Leaf, which I loved except for its shameful range in the winter, so I was just unable to keep the vehicle past the 24 month lease. To be honest I Never considered another Prius, and still can't. They are superb, top-shelf utilitarian vehicles, but they are just too darn lethargic. The Leaf taught me that it's possible to be very fuel efficient but not have a 10+ second 0-60. The V6 avalon/camry are down right stinking fast, but even their hybrid models with 200 combined horsepower are perfectly sufficient. If you don't want any speed ever, the Prius remains a killer car and is still best in class. Some of the things about this car are weird. Heated front seats, moon roof, two front power seats, yet not a single avalon even has remote start as an option, something my lowly 2014 altima had. A post above about smell. Mine smells like a new leather car, no weird odor. I see a post above about Toyota needing to advertise its hybrid powertrains more. It probably does, but even to this day the myth of "having to replace batteries" continues to abound with hybrids. People are just blessedly ignorant. But also, let's be honest, I could have bought my Avalon a bit cheaper had I gone for a V6. The price difference in gas would probably take quite a while to break even in the hybrid, and the V6 is a killer powertrain, fast and responsive. To a lot of people it's a harder sell. A co-worker bought a camry recently and forwent the hybrid because he only compared cost and it would never be cheaper for him (he compared to a 4 cylinder, though, and the hybrid is a bit faster than that one). I found that the median age on an avalon buyer is 64. I'm in my 30's, lol, not really the demographic, but I wanted something slightly unique, slightly luxurious without it being as poseur "look at me!" as a bonafide luxury brand, not to mention since it is a toyota and not a lexus it was pretty affordable.
well done! i guess i'll be getting mine in 4 years. the thing with camry vs hycam is, camry's are always on sale, where hycam only when gas is low, etc. you can get a well equipped camry under 20k. is it as nice as the hycam? no, but a lot cheaper. you get an awful lot of car for the money.
Has anyone done some maintain on their Avalon? I'm thinking changing the cabin filter, or an oil change or even changing the air filter? We don't seem to have a subsection in this forum for that kind of thing, I know that in the Prius forums you can get videos on all that stuff.
@Munpot42, should be pretty much the same as the late model Camry. So any how to video for the Camry should apply.
I have the same car as you have. The only difference is mine is a 2014. I have not been able to find any routine maintenance videos on You Tube or anywhere for the type car we have. The only maintenance I have done on mine is changing the air filter and cabin filter. On other conventional cars I have owned I always changed the oil. Since oil change is only necessary every 10,000 miles on my car I think I will just have the Toyota dealer do it. You Tube video for late model (about 2012) Camry oil change should be the same for the Avalon. The cabin filter is easy to change. You don't have to take the glove box out. It is located in the rear inside the glove box. Just remove the plastic cover and the cabin filter element is right behind it.
Don't mean to be brash, but if you can afford an AvHy, you may want to have the oil change, etc at your local Toyo or local garage if out of warranty period. Some how using floor jack, sliding under a car again and disposing of collected oil is not appealing. Keep an eye out for Toyo dealer specials. Many times there are plastic shields, etc., that need to be removed. Yoi Radman ('13 Avalon Blizzard White)
