Introduced as a 1995 model, the Avalon was Toyota’s first true full-size family sedan sold in North America. Although externally smaller than most front-wheel drive, full-size rivals including Chrysler’s LH and GM’s H-body sedans, the Avalon nonetheless boasted full-size interior space and an available feature characteristic of more traditional American full-sizers: a front bench seat.
(Bad sun glare, I know)
In offering a front bench seat, Toyota was clearly appealing to the tastes of the older-skewed demographic who primarily purchased the Avalon. In hindsight, offering the more open-feeling front seat traditionally found in large American cars was probably a smart move in gaining a few potential conquest buyers who otherwise never would’ve considered “one of those cramped feeling foreign cars” (regardless of the fact that Avalons were built by American hands in Georgetown, Kentucky).
The front bench seat with column option was very unusual and out of place for a North American market Japanese sedan. Seldom-ordered and thus a rarely-seen option, the bench seat was offered as optional equipment through this second generation Avalon’s tenure in 2004. To the best of my knowledge, the Avalon was the only Japanese sedan ever sold with a front bench seat in North America. But that’s not a Buick?
Photographed on First Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts – January 2020
Dad replaced his third Lincoln Continental (at the end of string of three-year leases after the ’89 Oldsmobile crapped out within four years of purchase) with a lime-green version of this Avalon in February of 2003.
He then drove it 360,000 miles in seven years, replacing it with a 2011 Camry.
Comfortable car. I liked the column shifter and the lack of a center console, and it rode and steered very well – accurately and precisely and balanced. And it went like that far longer than any of the Oldsmobiles or the Lincolns Dad had used since ’77.
I tried to persuade Mom back into a wagon with the new Buick, to replace her ’09 Avalon (which she got with Cash for Clunkers with the last Chevrolet full-size wagon in 1995), but she and Dad were burned far too often by General Motors.
Actually, my grandparents had a Toyota Corona as a second car in the early 70’s with a bench seat and “Toyoglide” automatic. As a little kid I thought it was so cool because it was like a mini version of a “real car”. Keep in mind that from my 4 year old perspective a “real car” was something like the one on the other side of their garage, which was a ’69 Chrysler Newport. I’m not sure whether the following generations of Coronas offered that configuration, but I vividly remember “The Little White Car”.
It was a ’72, I figured out.
That model Corona could be got in NZ with tree shift manual, I had a 71 in Aussie but it had bucket seats and 4 speed floor shift.
Yep, I was going to say the original Corona was offered with a bench seat and column shift. There’s even one in the CC arvhive:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/curbside-classic-1969-toyota-corona-it-all-started-here/
This one has a bench seat, too:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/curbside-classic-1978-toyota-corona-baseball-apple-pie-and-a-corona/
A bench seat and column shift are handy when you buy something (here, Girl Scout cookies) and you’ll have a passenger in the car but need to put the stuff somewhere. Actually I must be among the target demographic for the Avalon though this isn’t one, nor is it a Buick.
This is recent. just yesterday, in fact.
I wonder what proportion of Avalons were sold with the bench seat? My recollection is that a fair number of them were sold in the first generation cars (mid-to-late ’90s), but by the early 2000s it was rare to see one. Maybe the Avalon conquested every potential import buyer who was remotely interested in a bench seat, and then after those people bought their Avalons, there was no one left?
A co-worker for mine in the late 1990s had a bench-seated Avalon. He was much younger than the typical bench-seat demographic (in this 30s at the time) — I think he’s the only person I’ve known who owned one.
I rode once in the front center seat of a bench seat of a first gen Avalon. It was not comfortable, not nearly as wide as the olde timey full sized American cars. There wer three of us in the front, none of us large, but all adult.
I wouldn’t mind having a bench seat with a fold down armrest. The auto companies invested all this money to get rid of the tunnel and give us front leg room, only to fill it with center consoles.
Bench seats went the way of the dinosaur with the compulsory airbag for front passengers, a few taxi grade Aussie cars came in bench front seat and tree shift auto but those were the last I can remember seeing, Avalons crashed and burned in the market place out this way they simply failed to find buyers, I guess you can still get one if you really want one but why would you a Camry does the same thing.
The Avalon they sold (or tried to sell) in Australia was the original thinly-disguised LWB Camry. I’m guessing they didn’t try with these later models as they saw no need for anything bigger than a Camry.
Cadillac (and presumably other GM cars) had an airbag to cover all three front passengers. They called it “Airbank,” and it looks like they were pretty proud of it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L1hBOGpvMeE
>Bench seats went the way of the dinosaur with the compulsory airbag for front passengers,
If I’m not mistaken, full-size pickups and SUVs, which still have 40/20/40 front benches, aren’t required to have an airbag for the middle front passenger.
I thought for sure that the 2021 Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon redesign would finally do away with the option for a 40/20/40 bench on the base trim, and the outgoing 2020 models would be the last full-size SUVs with available 9-passenger seating, but it’s still listed as an option in the fleet order book.
The big thing is the 360,000 miles. It seems like most people who bought/currently buy Avalons hang onto them until they stop driving.
I bought a gently used 2001 Avalon for a 120 mile daily commute back in 2011. I took it from 123,000 to 213,000 in 2015.
Hands down one of the best cars I have ever had. This was from Toyota’s golden age. 22 MPG in mixed driving, comfy seats and nice ride once I replaced the struts and springs.
And no, the 3 liter V6 was not a sludgemaker, at least in my experience. Dino juice every 4000 miles (every 7 weeks) was all it needed.
The following generation had a mushier ride and lower quality switchgear.
I’d look for another one if i was in the market for a used car again.
They really are fantastic cars. Like you said, still in Toyota’s golden age. I had a related ’96 ES300 with the same powertrain, 203k miles when I bought it, ran and shifted smoother than my wife’s 2012 Camry with less than half the mileage. This is before car makers were tuning their transmissions to eke out every last smidge of fuel economy with aggressive torque converter lockup. To the 2012 Camry’s credit, it’s 2.5L 4cyl+6A gave it superior acceleration and 30mpg to the ES300’s 21-22.
It looks like the feature car has a weird 50/50 split bottom but the armrest looks like it should be on. 60/40 split seat.
Kind of like combining 2 different styles of split seats together. I wonder if the armrest was attached to the drivers side or passengers side??
I have this car currently. The armrest is attached to the Drivers side seat and actually I realized that the way Toyota attached it makes the lumbar feature unavailable on the bench seat models. The seat is pretty supportive overall though, so that helps.
One of our professors in my undergrad years (1995-1999) had a first gen Avalon. I rode in it once from our little campus to the local “Big Boy” restaurant (he was the faculty sponsor of one of our student organizations.)
It was a short jaunt but I agreed with Car and Driver who had said something like “When better Buicks are built, Toyota will build them.”
I never rode in one of this generation. A former law partner bought one of the 1st gen for his wife – to replace a Buick. Hers had the normal bucket seats. She refused to replace it with one of this generation “because of that ugly chrome thing on the back”. Which I found an interesting comment from someone who had previously driven an 85 LeSabre Limited.
She got tired of being clowned on hard with that Buick, lol. The first Avalon was practically chrome free compared to the second, hence the chain of events I’d say.
Well this is unexpected. I have a 2003 Avalon XLS in black with those same rims. I have bucket seats and the shifter between them. My cup holders pop out of the console. But the outside is identical. It is one of the nicest driving cars I have had. It can make use of high octane for more power. It’s like cruising around on a high end heated La-Z-Boy. Awesome visibility and a cD of 0.28, even streamlined underneath. Built like a tank. Overbulit everywhere. One finger steering, but with modern handling. Sweet brakes too. Rides like a cloud. Really was the sweet spot for Toyota here. Also it never ever breaks.
Just buy one with the timing belt recently changed because with four cams I want nothing to do with that.
Best. Car. Ever.
Man you’re making me want to go craigslist shopping now. I really miss that era of Toyota. People deride them for being boring and not fun to drive, and where has that gotten us? Incredibly ugly modern Toyotas with much worse rides. The older cars, when in decent condition, have a very well balanced ride IMO. The handling is still competent.
As far as the timing belt change on the 1MZ, it’s nothing too scary. You’re only dealing with two cam gears that are belt driven. Watched my brother do one on my ES300 in a few hours.
Just for clarification, that is a split bench seat. Both sides adjust separately. A true bench seat is one full width seat that both sides move forward or backward together, everytime.
And that’s while I’ll always choose a split bench over a true bench, preferably a 40/60 or 40/20/40.
I have a 2004 XLS with the bench seat. At 6’5″ it feels way less cramped than my Camry’s did. I drove my ’99 XLE V6 for a long time and often drove between Pueblo and Denver several times a week. My right leg would get restless and feel very cramped. This Avalon gives me way less road fatigue. The extra leg space is very nice. I like the airy feel with the column shift. This car is a step up above the Camry for sure in terms of not only content, but room. My little brother is 6’9″ and when I had the Camry, I would have to lower the seat to the floor with the power seat and recline the seat back way back for him to even get in that car. I visited him this past weekend and he was able to sit comfortably in the back seat with no issue while my mom sat in front. Maybe it has an “older image” but at 33, I have actually never had a car meet my needs pretty much as perfectly as this well cared for example.
Huge trunk, stronger feeling HVAC system than Camry, and more features make this one a big winner.
When engineering quality, value, and interior quality are your top concerns, this car fits the bill perfectly. I want for nothing! My last Camry probably was my last because this car has spoiled me and it will probably be another Avalon next time as well! Even at 16 years old and 93,000 miles, it still feels so amazing.
Never drove an Avalon, but a co-worker (who originally drove Buicks) had 2 of them and liked them a lot.
Never thought much about bench seats growing up, but have become more of a fan of them in their extinction (at least on passenger cars). My departed Dad’s (now Mom’s) 2006 Impala has the split bench, and it really came in handy the last few years of my Dad’s life, when he got multiple Myeloma and essentially became an invalid in a week’s time due to effect of medication, we were taught how to get him into the car from his wheelchair via a transfer board, and the bench seat allowed us to “pull” him into the car sitting on a towel from the driver’s seat. He eventually qualified for a handicapped bus pass where they’d pick him up at the house for his 2x/week chemo treatments, but he could only go to doctors within 2 miles of an actual “regular” bus route, so we had to take him to plenty of other appointments for doctors with offices which weren’t near the bus line. It saved him from having to buy a handicap van (and the high prices that come with them) for essentially only local travel…the last “family” car trip we made with him was in 2011.
So…I’ve become a converted bench seat fan…don’t have them in my own car (they are scarce) but as the city I live in becomes ever more crowded, I can also appreciate access from doors on either side that you can’t do without the bench seat…how many times has someone hemmed you in on one side such that you have to squeeze into a narrow door opening? At least with a bench seat you double your chances of being able to make a more graceful reentry into your front seat, from the most accessible side.