Doublebase

Well, miraculously my truck went back to “normal” again. No more misfire...fuel trims where they’re supposed to be. Not sure if it was bad fuel, a dirty injector or the flex fuel system was causing the engine to make adjustments it wasn’t supposed to be making?? No idea.

So this is something I’ll keep an eye on but it appears it’s “fixed”. I never had to worry about driveability concerns with my LS once in my entire 178,000 miles of ownership. Truly spoiled. So hold on to that 460 as long as you can, it’s an amazing vehicle.

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

That's great.

Doublebase

Well, just an update. Got rid of the truck/GM Junk. Got tired of feeling it shutter and misfire driving up an incline on the highway. Got tired of a transmission that seemed absolutely baffled by just what it was supposed to do. Called the dealer, told them I was still under factory power train warranty and if they could take a look at the transmission...they said they would, but they’d charge me $120 just to look at it. I really didn’t like that. Two weeks later I sold it for $24,500. Took a little hit, but honestly not that bad really. I bought it for $34,000 and put 53,000 miles on it in two years.

So I went looking for something else. I was looking to spend around $13,000-$14,000 because just bought my wife a new SUV, we sold our house and we’re looking to upgrade into something bigger/better. So I looked at used GS350’s, really liked them but to get into a GS350 at around $14,000, I would have to buy a 2014 with 115,000 miles or so. Which believe me - even at that mileage they drive amazing - they still feel “new”. And I was looking at used Tundras, but the gas mileage scared me. Looking at Jeep Grand Cherokees, but then I thought...do I want to go from GM top of the line junk to Chrysler top of the line junk? And at $14,000 you’re getting a Cherokee that’s 8-9 years old with 115,000 miles. No thanks.

I ended up buying a 2016 Toyota Avalon off a retired school teacher. Garaged, 50,000 miles. I asked her she maintained it well, she said, every three months it gets its oil changed. I was sold. I didn’t want an Avalon. I really had no intentions of buying it. BUT I drove the thing and I loved it. Honestly I was shocked. I’m averaging 29.6 mpg in this thing and it feels plenty powerful and responsive. Drives so damn quiet and straight down the road (I’ve never owned a car that drives THIS straight and effortlessly down a road). She was asking $15,000 for it - I asked, will you take an offer? And she said, no, the last guy offered me 14,500, he’s gone and the car is still here...I paid $36,000 grand for this thing three years ago...I just put new tires and brakes on it...I’m only selling it because we’re moving and I can’t take it with me. I turned around and looked at my wife and mouthed “I’m buying this car”. So I did. Loaded, pretty nice ride.

I can tell the little differences between the Avalon and the ES in the interior. The door panels have a little bit of a plastic squeak when your leg presses against it. The overall design of the interior is not as high end and sophisticated as the ES. The driver’s door has a beautiful “thunk” when you close it, but honest to god the other doors don’t. It’s like they might have skimped on the other doors. The leather is cheap compared to the look of the Lexus. The seat bottoms are hard and they don’t extend out far enough on my legs (this might be a long term issue I'll have to work out because I’m 6’1” and I can feel it). Might buy some sort of seat extender or cushion. Other than that? I love this car. This engine is butter. And Toyota really has this 6 speed transmission dialed in to that engine. It just knows what to do. I can’t get believe the fuel economy with this type of power/performance. I’m able to able to bomb around with the AC on, doing 70-80 on the highway and I get home and I averaged almost 30 mpg. It’s insane.

The Avalon forums are a ghost town. Total crickets...I’ll have more fun here than there. I mean it’s really dead over there, no one goes there. That’s probably the only thing I miss about my Silverado - the forums were an absolute circus - the busiest place you’d ever see. Truck question after truck question. Then you’d have a whole bunch saying there’s nothing wrong with these trucks, just go out Put some Amsoil in them. It was very active. Well, I didn’t end up back with a Lexus, but I feel pretty good about the Avalon, especially where I’m a 25,000-30,000 mile a year guy living in New England..

mbarron37

Good for you Doublebase. I will never buy any GM product again. When I was a kid, I bought an S10 pickup - was my first and last.

I always toy with the idea of getting rid of my 2013 LS, but why since it’s paid off and low mileage. I do want an SUV though. I am waiting to see what Toyota does with the Sequoia and what the next LX looks like. No way in hell am I buying an SUV that averages 15mpg. I just saw the thread on chat that details the new Ford F-150 that can get up to 700 mile range with the electric option, now that’s what I want if I buy an SUV, but with Toyota quality.

rick3242

I hear what you are saying on the GM. I was a sales rep in mid michigan late 90's and it was pretty much mandatory to drive GM, Ford or Chrysler (regardless of where it was made) if you did not want to be harrassed. My dad was an engineer at GM and worked their his entire life as an engineer. I use to get a new Silverado every year and use the family discount. I do not think I had one silverado that did not need to go into the dealer minimum twice and I had about five of them, so that was two visits per new vehicle per year on a brand new truck. The main issue I had with them is the dash board would squeek and rattle - drove me crazy.

I purchased a 2010 tundra when I moved to NC. Still have that truck and it looks almost as good as when I drove it off the lot. I purchased a 2010 lexus about 2.5 years ago and man does Toyata / Lexus have their act together. Both vehicles are wonderful. What is really crazy is that they both have the same 4.6L engine. Tuned differently.

Seems that the american auto makers retool and redesign a car every few years without ever perfecting the small items. Whereas the Japanese keep the same model longer and fine tune the car for years so that after 4 years it is solid. I asked my dad about that one time and he said something about marketing determines facelifts and models - not engineers?

So yes toyota and lexus are great cars.

SW17LS

Congrats!

Those Avalons are great cars for the money, thats a great choice for your commuting situation. Very inexpensive to maintain also.

Nospinzone

Congrats on the new Avalon and I wish you good luck with it. I'm not familiar with the market for these, but it sounds like she priced it fairly and you got a good deal even paying the asking price. I guess it was the private seller version of dealer no haggle pricing!

Nospinzone

The new Highlanders look good. Friends of ours just bought one. I haven't seen it in the flesh yet though.

Dave144239

I like the Avalon too. I looked at one back in the late '90s (used), but it was the base model, and pretty spartan inside. I ended up buying an ES 300 Coach Edition instead, which was a much nicer car at the time.

Doublebase

Agreed, I love the look of the new Highlanders. I test drove a 2019...liked it until I drove it, is the best way I can describe that experience. The thing is just tuned kind of strange. Transmission just seems to shift funny. Have a friend who owns one and asked him, what’s with this thing? He said, I think they really try to get the most fuel economy out of it and it just is kind of dialed back a bit. Honestly the one I drove felt like a four cylinder.

Oliver Enterprises

Doublebase - Good thread. I did the seat design on the Avalon just prior to the generation you own. The previous Avalon (we called it the 900T) was an awesome car too. I loved it. It had a look all on it's own. Maybe not some people's cup of tea, but I really liked the styling. It was just as you described the newer generation, but with a bit less power. I think it had a 5 speed, but it was dialed in and shifted perfectly. I never owned one, but drove them all the time since I did development work on them.

I have my LS, and I have a 20 year old Dodge Ram (and a few other cars). The Ram has a 6 speed manual and a Cummins engine. The Ram very rarely gives me any trouble. And I hear crap from coworkers all the time about driving a Dodge. But my old truck is trouble-free. They can't say that with their whatever brand truck that they're still making payments on. It baffles and irks me that they have no respect for my truck of choice. I haven't had a payment on that truck in 18 years. It is a real cream puff. What is DEF anyway? So I try to ignore them and go on about my bidness. My Lexus is as well (a cream puff). It's needing control arms, but that's it. A 2010 LS 460L, with 53k miles.

I wanted to mention, why not find you a beater truck to do truck stuff in, and still have a nice LS? But since you're in an Avalon now, which is a helluva good vehicle, now it's time to pick you up the beater truck for "truck stuff."

Doublebase

Wow, you’re really keeping the miles in your LS down, seems like years ago we were talking about your exhaust vents and such...if I still had my LS, I’d be at 250,000 miles by now!

My son is getting his license soon, we’ll probably get him a pickup...and he probably won’t be thrilled I’ll be using it from time to time. Haha.

Anyway, I’ll be putting a good 30,000 a year on the Avalon...hope it’s reliability is as legendary as I think.