Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £16,485 to £27,515
Space, reliability, comfort, strong diesels, low running costs, safety kit, good stereo
Dull image, unimaginative interior, not at all sporty
Not desperately exciting, but very thoroughly thought out and pleasant to drive. A sensible buy.
Toyotas enjoy legendary reliability, as borne out by its scores in the JD Power customer satisfaction index, which places the brand near the top together with Toyota's upmarket Lexus division.
The Avensis itself is robustly and neatly constructed, benefitting from interior trim components of greatly improved quality compared to the last model. Some of the earliest cars weren't great in terms of attention to detail, but these latest versions really are good - Toyota could get away with badging this car as an entry-level Lexus. The initial impressions have been borne out by customer reports; apart from some early niggles with the D-4D engines, now sorted, owners generally seem to be very happy indeed, with only very minor glitches reported.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Toyota Avensis
wrote on 27 03 2008