I didn't know the LS lacked them. I think the ES had them around 1995 with the new design. Personally speaking, I always licked the Toyota Avalon interior from the 2000 era.




Personally opinion....^^^ this 2001 Toyota Avalon interior is more contemporary than many new modern car interiors.....


Below is the 2001 Buick Park Avenue of the era. (A very uncompetitive interior design)

 

I'm pretty sure the ES didnt have any sort of trip computer, DTE economy readout etc or anything like that until the 2003 4ES. The LS definitely did not until 1998.

 

The Buick, IMO, actually had a better speedometer.....10-MPH increments are better than 20-MPH. I don't know why most vehicles don't have them any more. And, though I prefer a fore/aft shift-lever to a zig-zag lever, given a choice, I'd rather have a column-shift-lever like the Buick has. That's another feature I miss on today's cars.

Neither interior, I'll admit, has very convincing fake-wood-tone.

 

I prefer 20MPH increment speedometers

 

In this era with many vehicles capable of triple-digit speeds on highways like the Autobahns, it does fit in more speed-coverage on the dial, with a limited amount of real-estate on the dash. But in general, it is harder to decipher at a glance than with 10-MPH spacing. Yes, some cars (like my Lacrosse) will allow a digital readout in the middle of the gauge in addition to the needle, but I like to keep my tire PSIs up in that part of the screen...I feel that is potentially more important if your tire picks up a puncture and slowly starts to lose air.

 

I don't agree. I think the 10 MPH speedometers are too busy, too manuy numerals and the spacing between them is too small, I think its much easier at a glance to read a 20MPH speedometer.

 

So do I.... The 10mph is too clustered up...20mph increments is a better layout.

 

yea no trip computer on the LS until 1998, the OG model still had a mechanical odometer

until i just looked it up i would've guessed for sure that all 2nd gen LS models had a trip computer

 

M&M, Thanks again for another great write up!

My wife and I owned a '97 Avalon for 14 years and put over 145K on it. While it was a great vehicle in many ways, I always felt it was not as good as the Toyota products that were actually built in Japan. Generally, fit and finish were a notch below the Japan-built Toyotas. Too, the axle boots split before we got to 50K. The rotors warped multiple times. The AC failed. It had an issue with the turn signals going out intermittently. Several window regulators failed--two during warranty. The power steering system had multiple leaks. The starter failed just out of warranty. And those are the things I can remember off the top of my head! After 14 years, we sold it to my brother-in-law, and he's still driving it. He has had his share of problems as well, including sticky shift solenoids, but he loves it!

Regardless of the issues, it was more reliable than any American or German rival, and we loved owning it. Since I do my own work, it didn't cost a lot to fix the things that did break, as parts were reasonable and it was easy to work on. The Avalon got great mileage, was roomy and comfortable, and not bad looking to boot! I was not impressed by any of the later body styling. They were fugly (fat and ugly).

 

Thanks for your input, Wilson. Sounds like you had more issues wth yours than was average with these cars. Most of them were quite reliable, and I think the only reason we don't see more of them still on the road today, as we still do with the Camrys of that period, is that simply not that many of them were sold, whereas Camrys were going out the door at the rate of some 400K a year.

 

True, and reliability is relative. Even my Avalon was reliable compared to most vehicles of this time period.

After my experience with my Kentucky-built Avalon, I swore I would never buy another American-made Toyota. We replaced the Avalon with a made-in-Japan 2011 ES and it has been incredibly reliable. We want to replace it now with a 2021 ES, but I need to make sure we can source a Japan (vs Kentucky) copy. If we can't, I'll change my focus to finding something else made-in-Japan.

Remember way back when "made-in-Japan" was a swipe at a product's quality? When the Japanese first started building products for export to America, they would copy our products, but couldn't match our good old made-in-the-USA quality. Now the student has become the master and they kick our fat asses!

 

Absolutely, I do. And here was the classic example....the Subaru 360.

Consumer Reports, at the time, considered it arguably the worst new vehicle that they had ever tested;

 

Absolutely, I do. And here was the classic example....the Subaru 360.

Consumer Reports, at the time, considered it arguably the worst new vehicle that they had ever tested;

 

To the bold: what do you think the difference is?