The Toyota Avalon is a very nice car – comfortable and large. The engine is powerful and the car is spry for it’s size, quite capable of zipping past a string of cars to make an exit.

We took it up commonwealth avenue in Boston, a street with a far, far less than perfect surface and it the suspension never got upset, nor did it get noisy in the car. While the car is roomy it is easy to navigate though narrow streets filled with stochiometric Boston drivers and pedestrians.

We found the stereo plenty loud and very quite good. The car came with satellite radio, which is kind of entertaining – a punk channel even – but doesn’t work all that well under trees or on narrow urban streets; just blacking out is a bit more annoying than the fade out of standard radio and we find ourselves tuning into the very fine local radio. The radio cover door is a bit over the top: why would you want to cover a radio? It isn’t for security – it’s just aesthetic and makes the radio hard to control when closed by the door edge is ugly when open.

• Quiet – very quiet, very silent.
• Comfortable – extremely comfortable and easy egrees. Well designed controls.
• Engine – fast, powerful and quiet.
• Suspension – very agile and stable. Never got upset.
• Basic amenities – everything that could be reasonably powered is.
• Stereo – excellent sound quality though the low frequency isn’t hip hop friendly.
• Security – a large, roomy, secure trunk.