2014 Toyota Avalon Hybrid Limited Review

Made with the power of the GoPro Hero 3+

Hey there guys christian mow four tops be calm today we’re looking at the 2014 toyota avalon hybrid and as you join me i am cruising along one of my local highways at a reasonable speed and lots of comfort enjoying myself and using almost no food so this car the avalon hybrid especially this trim i have to limit it which is the highest spec model you can get is

Probably the perfect blend between the other two hybrids i’ve had over the last couple of weeks the lexus rx and the toyota prius v so rather than a v6 that swallows gasoline like the lexus was i’m back to a 4-cylinder engine it is bigger than the one in the prius though this is a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder going it is again it is mated to the toyota hybrid synergy drive

System i’ve got an electric motor and some batteries i’m all together it makes about 200 horses horsepower and the toyota says i should be good for 40 miles to the gallon in the city and 39 miles to the gallon i have been beating the crap out of this car and i’m getting just over 38 and it’s still going up so fuel economy is fantastic and because i’m in the limited

Trim comfort is astounding as well i’ve got wonderful leather seats leather steering wheel leather on the dash leather on the doors there’s dead cow everywhere just like i had in the lexus but i also have seat coolers that work and i’m not sitting 400 feet up in the air and again my fuel economy is doing great so it definitely better than alexis on the fuel economy

Front it feels quicker than both alexis and the prius did so points there but again i have all this luxury i’ve got a sunroof i can see the sky above me and i’m loaded with lots and lots of safety tech as well i have the tech package on this car so i have radar-guided cruise control i’ve got blind spot monitoring i have pre collision alert so the car will beep

And yell and hit the brakes of things i’m in a crash into something i do have toyota entune system with navigation so i’ve got that whole set up in here with app control for pandora and iheartradio and everything else if you attach a smartphone and one of the coolest things on this car is first time i’ve seen this in a production car i’ll just actually also have a

Wireless charging system so if you have a phone that supports wireless charging you can get a plate for it for certain galaxy s4 phones i think all galaxy s5 phones have it there are a few cases you can get for apple products that will do it as well as long as it supports the g charging standard that you can set your phone down here in front of the shifter on the

Special leather coated pad and it will charge your phone for you no wires needed beautiful piece of technology that’s integrated very well if you don’t have one of those phones you hit the little button and that tray will slide away and underneath you have all the storage and that’s where there’s your 12 volt plug in your usb port and your artillery port so it

All stays tucked away nice and hidden superior valuables in there and then when you want to you can get the car you let your phone down charges you’re feeling wirelessly it’s great ergonomics usually really strong toyota point same thing here you know the steering wheel feels great it’s in the right position it’s sculpted well cup holders are in the right spot arm

Rests are perfect they’re nice height everything that i want to reach i can reach really easily it’s great there are a few sort of weird things mostly it has to do with the seat so while the seats are extremely comfortable 99% of the time they do have this sort of stiff upper back bolster so i kind of feel like i’m laying against something that’s a little weird

But otherwise like it’s been great i’m really enjoying this car performance is not outstanding but it does have a sport mode that will get you moving quickly i haven’t done a time zero to 60 run yet but it does feel quicker than both the lexus and the prius did i can also do a sport shift mode and if i push it over into sport mode and you stand on the gas pedal it

Gives you an rpm gauge in the center of the dash and it will actually hold the ears for you so you can stand on the pedal the car will rev all the way to 5,700 rpms and it’ll stay there and won’t up shift on you automatically so if you were someone looking for a slightly racy toyota hybrid this is probably your best bet again with 200 horsepower it does feel quick

Just like the prius v because i have all these batteries sitting down low in the back of the car you know handles fairly well again if you push it hard it’s going to plow wide it’s just way too – knows having tires are too greasy to do any real you know background bombing but it’s more than enjoyable for what you might want in fact that’s my entire thing about this

Car is it is way more enjoyable than i expected and it’s more enjoyable than most people walked it is extremely comfortable it is extremely well built as you can probably tell is super quiet in i’m barely having to raise my voice at all to make sure the camera can can hear me and i’m cruising along at not a slow clip if i’m honest um it’s just very good this is

What i wanted the lexus hybrid to be but i didn’t get so this is reasonably priced i don’t have an actual winters window sticker on this one but it should run after options about 46 or 47 thousand dollars so you know 12 grand cheaper than the lexus as far as people space is concerned there’s actually just i think there’s actually slightly more room in this for

People than there is inside of that lexus i’m getting almost 40 miles to the gallon and i’m having a good time doing people want to know why toyota and lexus have become the kings of hybrids and it’s not because they’re just putting their hybrid tech in everything that they build is because everyone wants to buy their hybrids because it’s so good like i said i

Am doing 55 miles an hour down a nice highway and extreme comfort and refinement and i’m getting thirty eight point three miles to the gallon now it’s gone up since i got in in this car so it’s really hard to beat the combination of quality and fuel economy and comfort that toyota has managed to do with their hybrid system again when i slow down or stop i go into

A full eevee mode using nothing but batteries it is impossible to tell when they ended cuts out or when the engine cuts in you just sort of get in at the button and the car you just drive it like any normal car and all the hybrid magic happens in the background we don’t see them that’s one of the biggest keys to system of this if there were a few things i would

Change it would probably be colored so you can’t see it through this camera but if you look at the photos in the review this car comes in a special shade of on the website it looks sort of purple toyota calls it a color of crimson i think it looks i like metallic brown extremely unattractive but you spend most your time on the inside of the car the stereo system

I’ve got a nice expensive upgrade jbl synthesis audio system sounds okay considering the branding that’s on it it’s not stellar i would expect something better especially once we start getting into a car of this range in price point again this is the biggest most expensive car you can get from toyota this is their range topper so i would have liked a better audio

System and the controls here on the dash are really annoying so it’s all beautifully laid out and it looks amazing but almost all the controls aren’t touching controls in fact let’s see i have one two three four five six actual buttons here on the dash but i have a touch panel for radio control media control track up and down eject for cd info button apps button

Setup button my map button my destination button phone call buttons the temperature control for driver and passenger the auto on/off switch for the automatic climate control system the fan control the fan speed the ignition control and then a sync button all of that is on this one big touch panel that if i just happen to graze with my hand as i reach over to pull

A beverage out of the cup holder will activate i do have a big knob for volume and power and have a big knob for tuning so that’s great i also have controls on the steering wheel a little handle a lot of this stuff over here so you don’t have to mess with it but it is annoying to see them using touch panels i know it’s high-tech i know people like the way it looks

It is very aesthetically pleasing but for something i want to actually use and i actually have to drive i don’t prefer it but like that’s my only real complaint about this car has on the whole there’s plenty of space it looks fantastic the fuel economy is great like i said the performance is more than acceptable it is more than enough fun to drive around i see why

Toyota is doing such a good job and i see why some people are willing to pay money for this thing i really honestly don’t have much much more to say if you are in the market for a really big luxurious car to haul around some people and you don’t need the rear cargo space of something like an suv this is easily one of the best hybrids on the market that i’ve driven

It’s it honestly is a really good competitor to some of outies diesel wares you don’t get the power performance from a diesel engine but you get near matched fuel economy and you get the same level of luxury and looks so yeah plus this probably be a little bit cheaper compared to a lot of the audi stuff that you can buy it with ddis so how do you might be a little

Bit of notice here but again this is christian mow we have been looking at the 2014 toyota avalon hybrid it’s a stellar piece of kit and if you really want a big wushi car with pretty good fuel economy it’s a solid choice so christian mode for top speed calm i’ll see you guys next time

Transcribed from video
2014 Toyota Avalon Hybrid Limited Review By TopSpeed