2013 Toyota Avalon

All-New 2013 Avalon Combines More Emotional Styling, Improved Dynamic Performance, and Greater Refinement to Help Reposition Toyota’s Flagship Sedan within the Segment

For 2013, Toyota has dramatically altered the chemistry of Avalon’s formula, creating a new potent and persuasive sedan that helps shift the product’s generational appeal while symbolizing Toyota’s exciting new design and product direction for future sedans.

“The 2013 Avalon showcases Toyota car-building prowess and infuses the Avalon nameplate with new levels of excitement, dynamic capability, and refinement”, said Bill Fay, Group Vice President and General Manager Toyota Division. The all-new 2013 Avalon will combine passionate styling, innovation, and an elevated level of craftsmanship to help reposition Toyota’s flagship sedan within the highly competitive premium mid-size segment.

Exterior

The 2013 Avalon’s elegant and athletic design offers a longer flowing roofline creating a more appealing side silhouette with a lower vehicle beltline that suggests a sense of motion with a road holding stance. Its chiseled shoulder line sculpted into side sheet metal starts over the front wheels and creates a strong, fluid body side design cue adding to its athletic stance. The new Avalon exterior is designed to communicate a greater sense of performance and agility to better match the car’s vastly enhanced dynamic capability.

Keeping with the more athletic and expressive design theme, the new Avalon’s exterior lighting compliments the design lines. The industry-first Quadrabeam™ headlight cluster utilizes a sleek and compact double-eye PES headlight design with two square glass condenser lenses that have been adopted for the low beams and offer outstanding lighting performance. Halogen and High Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs are available for low beam double-eye PES front lamps. Available Daytime Running Lights (DRL’s) using six high- performance LEDs bulbs are available lending a distinct, more modern image to the front of the vehicle.

A stronger, more expressive front-fascia design with larger grille opening creates an aggressive appearance while enhancing cooling air flow and pedestrian impact protection. The new Avalon’s exterior turn-signal indicators have been located at the lower section of the front bumper to contribute to the slim and sleek appearance. The 2013 Avalon’s sleek and sculpted rear tail lights utilize LED lamps to help ensure visibility and reduce the gap of unlit dark area between the trunk and rear quarter panel.

Interior
The all-new 2013 Avalon’s interior elaborates on the exterior’s elegant, athletic theme to create a premium interior experience that combines high technology and craftsmanship with an artistic level of sculpted surfaces. Looking outside the cabin, the sculpted dash panel and its concave surfaces in front of the passenger help add to the sense of the cabin spaciousness. This panel is covered in supple, hand-stitched premium soft-touch material with the seam adding some creative flair as it goes across the dash panel. The broad, low and layered dash-board design helps divide the panel area into a balance between an intimate driver space, with focused angles on the meter, and a wide open passenger space.

The new Avalon’s interior surfaces are finished in premium materials such as hand sewn soft-touch material for the dash panel, unique smoke chrome trim surrounding the center panel, and high-quality glossy panel trim around the shifter. All of this attention to detail to touch surfaces and subtle enhancements to texture and visual appeal are aimed at elevating the overall interior experience for driver and passengers. Extensive use of soft-touch materials helps enhance the interior’s feeling of quality and comfort. A generous, dense-foam support is used beneath the supple soft-touch material covering many of the interior’s touch surfaces, while a soft-skin surface with a deep foam construction is used for many of the dash surfaces to create a greater sense of tactile quality.

The 2013 Avalon’s interior surfaces are available in three color themes: almond to help create a warm elegant, luxurious atmosphere; light grey that stays cooler and creates a modern interior space; and black that offers a greater sense of driving performance.

Powertrains
A primary focus for the new Avalon was to enhance its dynamic character while maintaining superior fuel economy. The challenge was met by the TTC engineering team by utilizing a proven V6 to achieve better performance with superior fuel economy, and also creating the first Avalon Hybrid. The gas-powered Avalon features a powerful, all-aluminum 3.5-liter V6 engine mated to a conventional six-speed automatic transmission. Avalon Hybrid is equipped with a modified version of the 2.5-liter Hybrid Synergy Drive system that also propels the Camry Hybrid.

V6 Engine
The Avalon utilizes a 3.5-liter, 90-degree, DOHC, six-cylinder engine that features Dual VVT-i (Variable Valve Timing with intelligence) to help offer superior power and efficiency by optimizing the intake and exhaust valve events to increase engine performance across the entire rev range. This robust V6 produces 268 horsepower at 6,200 rpm and 248 lbs.-ft. of torque at 4,700 rpm, and provides the new Avalon with competitive acceleration and a 0-to-60 mph time estimated at less than seven seconds. The fact that this brisk acceleration occurs with a more fuel-economy friendly 3.23-to-1 final drive ratio as compared to a 3.54 final drive ratio on the outgoing model is testament to the Avalon’s weight reduction and improved drivetrain tuning.

The V6-powered Avalon features a hydraulic automatic transmission that has been optimized for improved fuel economy and performance from a lightweight front-wheel-drive transaxle. The transmission can be shifted from D mode into S mode on the shift gate, where shifts can be actuated with + or – shifts of the lever. The Sport mode adopts highly responsive upshift control and throttle blipping downshift control, which are adopted for quicker shifting performance. Steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters help actuate fast, responsive shifts while keeping both hands on the wheel. The transmission response is further enhanced by utilization of a faster-locking torque converter that locks up early even in second gear. The transmission is also kept at an optimal temperature for consistent performance with an automatic transmission fluid warmer. The shift gate is actuated by a lever and shift knob that is covered by either standard leather or premium leather.

The V6-powered gasoline Avalon offers three drive modes: Eco, Normal and Sport. The Eco Mode prioritizes fuel efficiency by balancing driving performance, air conditioning function and fuel efficiency. It reduces driving force when accelerating at low speeds to enhance fuel efficiency. Sport mode helps create a more engaging driving experience by enhancing the Electric Power Steering effort and a more direct, responsive steering feel. It also adjusts throttle response to help increase the sensation of the engine’s torque response during acceleration.

The gasoline drivetrain offers superior efficiency and performance for a premium mid-size sedan, with an EPA-rated 25 mpg combined (21 city/31 hwy). When equipped with the 18-inch wheel combination, the 2013 Avalon is EPA-rated at 24 mpg combined.

Steering and Handling
The TTC engineering team put great effort toward re-inventing Avalon’s road-going character with a dramatic revision of the chassis. The new 2013 Avalon will offer vastly elevated levels of control and handling thanks to revised suspension that benefits from a unibody that is 12 percent more rigid overall, and 23 percent more rigid at the rear than the outgoing model. To take advantage of the new platform’s increased rigidity, the suspension tuning has been dramatically revised. The front Macpherson strut suspension is tuned to provide outstanding ride comfort, but also flat cornering with enhanced agility. Inversely wound coil springs are matched to dampers that help control the wheels with improved steering feel across a variety of surfaces. The rigidity of the 0.98 inch diameter (25 mm) front stabilizer bar and a 0.63-inch (16 mm) rear bar promotes flatter cornering. Unique, more rigid knuckles and lower control arms are adopted for the 18-inch wheel applications that help improve handling and steering feel.

The dual-link rear suspension design helps the vehicle achieve an ideal balance between ride quality and handling precision. This suspension design offers a reduced toe-in angle during turning and braking to help improve rear stability. Pillow ball joints are adopted in one of the suspension arms to help enhance handling precision. Though the Avalon rides on a long, comfortable 111-inch wheelbase, the steering and suspension tuning help the car feel agile and nimble.

The Avalon’s electric power steering system (EPS) has incorporated tuning to improve feel while reducing engine driven accessories to help improve fuel economy. This electric rack and pinion system’s power assist has been optimized in response to vehicle speed to create a lighter effort sensation at lower speeds and increased effort and on-center feel at higher speeds.

The Avalon’s steering wheel has been designed to help improve the driver’s tactile feel and control, enhancing driver confidence behind the wheel. The steering wheel’s shape, grip and tactile feel helps create enhanced grip to improve the driving sensation. Available smooth, premium leather and padded foam help finish the steering wheel. It also includes a four-direction audio switch to enhance operability, in addition to a cruise control switch, DISP (Display) and TEL (Telephone switch). The steering wheel offers buttons for available voice recognition, vehicle-to-vehicle distance switch for Dynamic Radar Cruise Control. Large paddle-shift toggles attached to the steering wheel, on the V6-powered XLE Touring and Limited Avalon models, help enhance driver control during spirited driving.

The new Avalon and all Avalon Hybrid models ride on aluminum 17-inch wheels with 215/55R17 tires. An 18-inch alloy wheel, on V6-powered XLE Touring and Limited models, is shod with P225/45R18 tires that offer enhanced handling and grip. The 17-inch wheel design on the Avalon Hybrid model features a unique design with thinner spokes.

Advanced Technology
The new 2013 Avalon offers a long list of convenient, user-friendly technologies as one would expect with the Toyota brand’s flagship sedan, in addition to offering special features that enhance the car’s functionality, capability and the level of safety.

There are two types of climate control systems: one with three-zone independent temperature control and another with two-zone temperature control. The three zone system allows for temperature to be independently set for rear seat, driver seat, and passenger seat; while the two-zone system controls temperature for the driver and passenger seat.
The Avalon features a standard Display Audio System with 6.1-inch TFT touchscreen that offers audio system operation, Bluetooth compatibility, customizable vehicle settings, available rear-camera display, driving information such as fuel consumption, and operation of iPod® and USB devices.
Avalon will also feature Toyota’s Entune™ multimedia system, which functions through a smart phone interface and brings applications such as Bing™, iHeartRadio, MovieTickets.com™, OpenTable®, and Pandora® to the vehicle audio display. This audio configuration also features real-time traffic, weather, fuel prices, sports, and stocks.

The Avalon is available with either eight (Display Audio), nine-speaker (Display Audio with Entune) or 11-speaker JBL Synthesis® 7.1 channel matrix sound system (Premium HDD Nav system) that offers outstanding audio system performance. The Premium HDD system offers phenomenal sound quality through 11 JBL speakers with GreenEdge™ technology and includes two subwoofers. A 12 channel external JBL synthesis amplifier also helps boost power. The nine-speaker system utilizes two four-channel amplifiers (one internal and one external) to help boost audio power levels.
The new Avalon is equipped standard with a Smart Key System that locks and unlocks the front doors, and a trunk opening feature that enables opening of the doors when the key fob is within a short distance of the door handle. The key fob’s transmitter also allows the engine to be started with the push of a button. The Avalon is equipped with an available rear window power shade that blocks direct sun rays for the rear passengers. The switch activating the power shade is located above the coin box on the instrument panel, and the shade adopts an auto-down function when shifting into reverse. A lighter weight power sunroof design has been adopted to help reduce vehicle weight. The inner rear-view mirror is available with a variety of functions such as a microphone, a compass display and a garage door opener. LED backlighting helps ensure visibility of the buttons in the dark.

Safety Technology
Avalon is available with two millimeter wave radar systems that help add an additional measure of occupant safety. An available Blind Spot Monitor uses radar to enhance safety by helping detect vehicles in the adjacent lane where drivers may be challenged to see them. The same radar technology has been adapted to offer a Rear Cross Traffic Alert that is designed to detect low-speed cross traffic behind the vehicle. The Blind Spot Monitor indicators are on the outside mirrors’ surfaces with a display that also appears on the color display, and it can be activated from the blind spot monitor switch on the instrument panel. For the Blind Spot Monitor, the millimeter wave radar sensors are tuned to detect vehicles larger than 125-cc motorcycles at over 10 mph, with a maximum detectable speed differential of 26.8 mph. The system’s detection range spans from about 10 feet to 2 feet depending on vehicle location.

The Avalon’s Rear Cross Traffic alert uses the sensors in the rear quarter panels to help detect vehicles approaching from the side and behind the vehicle. If cars are approaching within the detection area, a buzzer will sound. The vehicle shift lever must be in Reverse to detect cars, trucks, vans and any vehicle over 125cc motorcycle. The maximum speed of the Avalon can be five mph with a maximum speed of the approaching vehicle not to exceed 18 mph. The system continuously measures the relative speed and position of the approaching vehicle to calculate a potential collision moment, which is the expected time that the vehicle will cross the driver’s path.

The Avalon also includes a back monitor display as part of the available back-up camera system, which uses guidelines superimposed on the display to indicate approximate distances.

A Dynamic Radar Cruise Control feature is also available that helps reduce the driver’s workload by using radar sensor at the front of the vehicle to help control speed and keep a safe distance from the vehicle running in front. The radar controls the vehicle speed within a preset range to help maintain vehicle to vehicle distance.
Like all Toyota models, the Avalon features the STAR™ Safety System, which includes Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Traction Control (TRAC), Anti-lock Brake System (ABS), Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist (BA), and Smart Stop brake-override Technology (SST).

Braking
The Avalon’s vented front rotor measures 11.6 inches in diameter and 1.1 inches thick, and the solid rear rotor is 11 inches in diameter. The Avalon Hybrid relies on an Electronically Controlled Brake (ECB) to help coordinate components of the braking system which also incorporates an electric motor. Beyond the conventional braking force generated by the Avalon’s hydraulic system, the hybrid also adds the regenerative braking force produced by the electric motor/generator in the transaxle. The ECB manages the hydraulic and regenerative motor to control braking to achieve the highest possible regenerative effect.

The 2013 Avalon is available with a pre-collision system that helps mitigate the effects of vehicle impact. The first stage of the pre-collision system tightens the seat belts and prime hydraulic brake system, and the second stage can compensate for inadequate brake pedal pressure by applying optimal brake system effort.

Warranty Protection and Toyota Care
Toyota’s 36-month/36,000 mile basic new-vehicle warranty applies to all components other than normal wear and maintenance items. Additional 60-month warranties cover the powertrain for 60,000 miles and against corrosion with no mileage limitation. The hybrid-related components, including the HV battery, battery control module, hybrid control module and inverter with converter, are covered for eight years/100,000 miles.

The 2013 Avalon and Avalon Hybrid will also come standard with Toyota Care, a complimentary plan covering normal factory-scheduled maintenance and 24-hour roadside assistance for two years or 25,000 miles, whichever comes first.