What's Wrong with the 3rd Generation Avalon?

Front 3/4 view of a Toyota Avalon

The 3rd generation Avalon spans the 2005 to 2012 model years.

It has accumulated 405 owner complaints over those year and ranks 63rd in reliability out of 81 eligible Toyota generations.

Our reliability rank is based on our PainRank™ system. A higher number means you can expect more significant problems. The average Toyota score is 6.36 while this generation comes in at 10.34.

Compare With Other Avalon Generations

The Worst 2005-2012 Avalon Problems

  1. TRW Crash Sensor Defect

    There's growing concern that some sort of electrical overstress is messing with airbag control units (ACU) in certain Toyota vehicles.

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  2. Musty and Moldy A/C

    Toyota air conditioners smell like mold in numerous vehicles. So what's causing the musty smell and just how dangerous is it?…

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  3. Unintended Acceleration

    Toyota believes the problems are caused by stuck gas pedals or misplaced floor mats that trapped the gas pedals. Independent testing by NASA and other outside laboratories agreed with Toyota and concluded driver error was also a contributin…

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  4. Rodents Chew Wires

    Somewhere in the mid-2000's there was an industry-wide push by automakers to replace plastic and glass-based wiring insulation with a more eco-friendly soy-based coating. It's biodegradable, commendable, and a complete disaster for owners. …

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  5. Melting Dashboards

    One of the automotive world's worst science projects is coming to an end. Toyota dashboards have long been known to melt under the heat of the sun. The melted dashes warp and extrude a strange, goo-like substance that is oddly shiny and sti…

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What Owners Complain About

Sometimes it helps just to tally up the complaints and see where the biggest stacks are. Use this information to learn about troublespots or to run for the hills.

Worst Issues

What Breaks

Years to Avoid

3rd Generation Avalon Key Numbers

  1. 8 model years

    Grouping all models by their year can reveal some baddies.

  2. 405 complaints

    Running tally of owner grievances filed to CarComplaints.com.

  3. 63rd in reliability

    Overall reliability rank out of 81 eligible generations.

Recent 3rd Generation Avalon News

There's a lot of news out there, but not all of it matters. We try to boil down it to the most important bits about things that actually help you with your car problem. Interested in getting these stories in an email? Signup for free email alerts over at CarComplaints.com.

  1. Toyota has blamed a musty A/C smell on microbes [i.e., mold] growing o the evaporator surface and now a lawsuit wants them to do something about it.

    The plaintiffs claim the vehicles have defective heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that cause smells and health problems from mold that collects on the evaporators. Numerous complaints have allegedly been filed with the government, Toyota and Lexus dealerships nationwide since at least 1999.

    This isn't the first time Toyota has been sued for musty A/C units.

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  5. When Toyota switched away from using plastic or glass-based inulation in favor of soy, it invited in some very unwelcome Toyota loyalisits.

    According to the plaintiff, she learned the hard way about the soy wiring when her Avalon wouldn't start and a look under the hood showed wires chewed, so she had the car towed to a dealer. Toyota told her rodents had caused the damage and it would be no problem to repair the problems as long as she could cough up $6,000 to cover the bill.

    The soy-based wiring is allegedly attracting in rodents, who love to chew it up and use it for nesting material. The lawsuit, Heidi Browder vs. Toyota Motor Corporation, et al. follows a similar lawsuit filed against Honda earlier this year.

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  6. It's been a while since Toyota announced their extended warranty program for melting dashbord in 3.5 million vehicles.

    So, how are things going? According to [a] lawsuit, when Toyota first announced the warranty program the automaker notified customers and said it could take months to gather the replacement parts. However, Toyota then sent a second notice that removed the information about a timeline for repairs.

    Oh, well it can't be too long before everyone gets their replacement dash, right?…

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  7. How hot do you like your seat heater in the winter?

    If you like it really toasty — as in, with an actual flame — you’ll probably love one of 7,700 Toyota vehicles with seat heaters that catch on fire. The vehicles have been recalled because fire and cars don’t get along, what with their tanks of highly flammable liquids and all. All the affected vehicles are equipped with aftermarket accessory seat heaters that contain copper strand heating elements. The recall is being handled by Southeast Toyota Distributors (SET) which is the world’s largest distributor of Toyota and Scion vehicles.

    The recall is expected to begin on July 14, 2016 and the seat heaters will need to be disconnected. Owners will be reimbursed.

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  8. Toyota doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation when it comes to unintended acceleration.

    And so, when Corolla owner Robert Ruginis petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to investigate low-speed surging in the 2006-2010 Corolla, it seemed like a slam dunk, home run or <insert sports cliché here>. Go sports team! But instead NHTSA said no to the investigation. The agency said they analyzed data from an event recorder cited by Ruginis in his petition and came up with a completely different conclusion. Ruginis said his Corolla moved forward with the brake pedal pressed, NHTSA said it didn't. Ruginis said Corollas can move forward even with the brake pressed to the floor, NHTSA said they can't.

    Instead, NHTSA placed the blame on Corolla drivers in most cases. They also said an investigation wasn't worth their time:…

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  9. Like something out of a bad music video, the subwoofers in the 2011-12 Toyota Avalons are catching on fire.

    The problem doesn't have anything to do with how loud you crank the volume or how many times your local station plays that Taylor Swift song -- although let's be honest, it could use a break[1]. Instead, it all comes down to the subwoofer's exposed wires. When something in your trunk slides around it can knock the speaker's wires out of position. Once that happens, if they come in contact with the woofer's metal frame you could be singing come on baby, light my fire on your next commute.…

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  10. It's Friday, so in the immortal words of Loverboy I feel I can say that "everybody is working for the weekend."

    That is, unless you're one of the defective airbags in over 2.1 million vehicles. Those suckers don't work at all. The airbags have a nasty tendency of randomly deploying due to electrical noise and have been recalled. If that sounds familiar, it's because they've been recalled before. Unfortunately 40 of the recalled vehicles still had a random deployment after they were "fixed", according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). That's unacceptable, even by government standards.…

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  11. One of the automotive world's worst science projects is coming to an end. Toyota dashboards have [long been known to melt and warp][19] under the heat of the sun.

    The deformed dashes have also been known to extrude a strange, goo-like substance that is oddly shiny and sticky; like something you'd find in a toddler's coat pocket. This led to some understandably upset owners and a couple of lawsuits. Feeling the heat of pending litigation, Toyota announced they will extend warranty coverage on the dashboards in 3.5 million vehicles rather than go to court. I guess they wanted to avoid a sticky situation (I never promised that the jokes would be good, folks).…

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  12. Toyota thought the scourge of unintended acceleration was finally behind them.

    They had, after all, recalled millions of cars, paid hefty fines to the government, entered talks to settle hundreds of class-action lawsuits and even paid out $1.6 billion to owners because the trade-in value of their vehicles had diminished. Besides, the world's attention had turned to GM's ignition switch fiasco. So are Toyota's problems with unintended acceleration in the rearview mirror? Not so fast, or in this case ... slow.…

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