The '07 Toyota Avalon is perhaps best characterized by what's missing: noise, vibration and harshness. The Avalon will never annoy you. It offers a smooth, quiet ride. It always feels under-stressed and quietly relaxed. Driving it is never demanding.
Like the rest of the car, the suspension is set up primarily for comfort. The handling is extremely well balanced, and the rack-and-pinion steering offers a good balance between road feel and easy steering, avoiding the over-assisted vagaries common with large SUVs and American cars. Driving hard on tight roads will induce some body roll (lean), yet the Avalon Limited we drove held any reasonable line we cared to strike through a corner, protesting only at careless tossing, and absorbing pavement irregularities at the apex. The Avalon is front-wheel drive, with front struts located by L-shaped lower arms, and a multi-link/strut arrangement in the back. So it tends to squat slightly coming out of corners, and pull through them from the front.
The Touring model is set up for sharper handling performance than the others, with stiffer shock tuning, higher spring rates, and Michelin MXV4 tires on 17-inch wheels. The Touring has quicker reflexes, at the expense of some ride comfort and noise control, and delivers a secure, on-center feeling through the twisties. If you're not sure which suspension you want, then you probably don't want the Touring.
Avalon's engine and transmission deliver unobtrusive performance. Fifth gear is a relaxed overdrive, allowing the engine to loaf on the highway. Driving over steep mountain passes with some determination, we appreciated all 268 horsepower, backed by an automatic that knows when to shift. In tighter sections, where our speeds were in the 30 to 50 mph range, we decided to operate the transmission in manual mode, tap-shifting from second to third gear and revving up and down through the corners.
The V6 pulls strongly at higher rpm and right up to the 6200 rpm redline, but it remains remarkably quiet in the process. It's a double overhead-cam unit with four valves per cylinder and an aluminum block and heads. A short stroke dimension means that it likes to rev, abetted by very low reciprocating mass and a very-low-friction cam gear. These are the characteristics of a long-life, efficient everyday engine with exceptional passing power. Our forays into canyon carving were not perfectly consistent with this type of design, and yet they were not frustrating, either. The horsepower is there, and the transmission will allow you to access it. Add the tighter suspension of the Touring model and the Avalon is decidedly sporty. But that's not what the Avalon is about.
The Avalon is a car that makes everyday use a pleasant experience. It's a versatile cruiser and around-town chariot that shortens long trips, thoughtfully insulating occupants from the jagged loose ends of the real world. That's been Avalon's mission since its debut in '94, and with changes since then it has only gotten better.
The V6 is a smooth power plant, and its very low levels of vibration are no accident; an active control mount cancels low-rpm engine motions. Transmission upshifts are governed by third-generation electronic software with specific engine mount tuning to reduce shift shock. Part-throttle upshifts are barely noticeable.
All this, and EPA city/highway fuel efficiency ratings of 22/31 mpg.
Optional Vehicle Stability Control, Traction Control, and Brake Assist are dynamic systems that remain in the background until a problem is detected. VSC helps keep a skidding vehicle on the road by instantly braking one or more wheels, individually. We were able to activate the traction control by hammering the throttle from a standing start, with one front wheel on pavement and the other on a sandy shoulder. Sure enough, no wheelspin, just a smooth departure. We're told it works on wet surfaces and snow-covered roads, anyplace with mixed friction driving surfaces.
Brake Assist steps in when you stab the brakes, as if you were in a panic stop. Very hard, sharp application of the brake pedal automatically triggers full braking response from the anti-lock brakes (ABS). Brake Assist helps the driver stop the car as quickly as possible, even if the driver mistakenly relaxes pressure on the brake pedal.
