A Previous Avalons drove softer than feather pillows and about as agile as a tuna casserole. Toyota has tightened the 2013 up by about 30 percent. The new Avalon isn't exactly going to melt your face, but it's good enough. It still veers away from fun and more towards comfortable, but at least it doesn't feel like you're drifting on an oversized marshmallow. The standard V6 engine, which includes a six-speed transmission, gets up to 268 hp. It's got decent pickup and steering that's at least average, if not better. Higher-end trim models feature a paddle shifter and a Sport mode, though for a car like this, "Dynamic Rev Management" feels a bit superfluous. Also, with a 21/31 mpg fuel economy rating, the Avalon doesn't exactly get to stand first in line for fuel-economy awards.
That award is reserved for the hybrid edition of the car, which gets a classy 40 mpg, the same as the hybrids of the Camry and the Lexus ES350, with which it shares a drive train. But despite sharing all the design improvements of the V6, the Avalon hybrid, as so often happens, has to sacrifice a bit of performance, getting only 156 hp. That goes up to 200 hp if you can figure out how to drive it optimally using the battery pack. You'd have to have a pretty broad definition of fun to say that it's fun to drive.
As for the brakes on the hybrid, let's charitably call them "challenging." The Avalon seemed to slow down easily, but then it would stop with a sudden, jarring jerk, which didn't seem normal. My drive partner, who's far smarter than I, explained this as the hybrid-specific problem of an "abrupt transition between regenerative and friction braking." It wasn't ideal. The brakes on the V6 model didn't have the same problem, and worked efficiently.
Pricing will range, depending on trim level, from just under $31,000 to $39,500 for the conventional engine and between $35,555 to $41,400 for the hybrid. That's not going to help Toyota's ambition of shooting for a younger demographic, which seeks value most of all in car purchases, even luxury ones. This new Avalon is clearly a better car than before, in almost every way. The company has successfully updated the Avalon from Matlock to The Good Wife. But as a card-carrying member of Gen X, I'm hard-pressed to see it appealing to us.
