Press the playback button on my tape recorder and you hear a muted but very evident and enthusiastic snarl of engine sound followed by the cryptic comment "80 km/h to 120 km/h in 5.5 seconds."
And a moment later, in a voice revealing a mild degree of surprise: "A prompt downshift to as low a gear as it can grab and it just lunges forward. This is a pretty quick car."
What makes these statements interesting is that I wasn't making notes about the latest hot sports sedan, but the 2005 Toyota Avalon XLS, a full-size, family/luxury sedan stuffed like a goose with a liver destined to become foie gras with high-caloric goodies.
Like those fattened fowl, the Avalon XLS is far from athletic, preferring to waddle comfortably along in self-contented fashion, but give it a kick in the tail feathers and it will honk on. Those wanting a little better toned musculature can opt for the Touring version, which has a somewhat sportier suspension setup.
The first Avalon, based on a Camry's underpinnings and drive train, arrived for 1995. Never a very high profile model it nevertheless sold in enough volume to make it worthwhile to keep in production and to work on a second generation. This appeared for 2000 with improved style and performance, even higher levels of luxury and like all next-generation Toyotas was a generally all-round better car.
But it still didn't move the sales needle very far, likely because anybody looking at spending the $46,000 being asked, could have had a slightly smaller, but more prestigious Lexus ES330 for a few thousand dollars less. Size matters, but not as much as it used to.
The 2005 third-generation Avalon appeared in showrooms earlier this year in base XLS form for a much more reasonable $39,900, and with a Touring model added at $41,800.
This lower pricing makes the Avalon a more easily attainable step up for Camry owners looking for something larger and plusher. And who will remain content driving something wearing a Toyota badge. They can feel inner content in knowing that this new version could easily have gotten away with being a Lexus.
So, what do you get for $6,000 less than last year's Avalon?
Well, even more of it, for one thing. The new car, with styling drawn to North American tastes at Calty, Toyota's design centre in California, is 135 mm longer, 30 mm wider, rides on a 100-mm-longer wheelbase and has a wider track. This is a large car by today's standards and carries its new and more distinctive look well.
The increased dimensions haven't made a big difference in interior room, but there never was a shortage of that, and three will fit in the flat-floored rear compartment in reasonable comfort. Trunk space is 408 litres and can be expanded thanks to a 60/40 split rear seatback that also reclines 10 degrees.
The interior of the silver XLS test car was done in grey plastic and leather and a you-could-have-fooled-me faux wood-grain trim. The wood- and leather-trimmed steering wheel frames a Lexus-look Optitron gauge pack and info centre.
The centre stack, faced in silver, hides the audio system under a flip-up panel and below that the controls for the navigation system fold out. This gadgetry admittedly presents a clean face, but in reality only the truly fussy will likely ever close the panels because, well, you need these knobs and buttons, don't you (although some are also incorporated in the steering wheel).
A large screen for the optional navigation system is centred under the wide-sweeping top of the instrument panel.
