The Avensis evolution

[Morton54]

I have owned all the Carina and Avensis versions and now have ended up with the last model that will be produced. End of an era. In 6-7 years the Battery technology will hopefully have taken a quantum leap and more and more will drive electric..

But like most car models the Avensis has evolved to the better thru the years.

-The first I had was a generation I, 2000 , 2.0 liter estate. It was still a typical Jap car for the time with simple inventory and kind of cheap materials. But I remember this engine, with manual GB, was quite hefty.
-The second one was the Avensis II, T25,(2004)  with a 1,6 pertrol and conventional automatic GB. Now something really had happened to the Avensis. It looked good and more classy and it was a much more quiet and comfortable car with interior matching its european competitors.
-But the 1.6 liter was to weak for this car so I swapped to a T25, Executive (Facelift 2006) with the 2.0 liter with leather interior and all kind of accessories. Right engine, beautiful car to drive, but the automatic had only 4 steps so if you stepped on it one the highway, it downshifted to 3 with the RPM going sky high.
- With a short ownership of another brand I went back to the Avensis with the first T27, 2009, 1.8 petrol with a CVT. Allthough the model was a complete new car it was really not revolutionary compared to my previous T25 Executive. The road handling was better, but in fact the T25 felt more comfortable. Personally I thought the  T27 had more engine and  road-noise. The GB was now, for some, the notorious CVT. But when you adapted and learned to drive it was not that bad.
-Enter the T27 last generation (2016), my present car. Now here Avensis again took a great leap forward, like from model I to II. Allthough visually very similar to the previous, the car feels totally different. The CVT is much better, the noise isolation of the engine and undercarriage are first class. My neighbour, driving a Volvo, admitted the Avensis was probably more quiet. Steering is now lighter and feels very direct and nice. The interior compares to any german mid class car. The Avensis retires on it's peak..