Toyota Avalon, 2013

 

 

 Toyota Avalon, 2013

For 2013, Toyota has dramatically altered the chemistry of Toyota 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 all-new 2013 Toyota 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
For the mission of re-positioning the Toyota Avalon brand and shifting consumer perception of the sedan, Calty fashioned an exterior that offers a much more athletic expression in sheet metal. The new Avalon sedan represents a dramatic styling departure from previous Avalon models.

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 Toyota Avalon exterior is designed to communicate a greater sense of performance and agility to better match the car's vastly enhanced dynamic capability.

Compared to the 2012 model, the new Avalon offers more compact and athletic exterior dimensions and with a greater styling sophistication that does not sacrifice interior comfort. The vehicle's stance has also been improved with more taut and compact exterior dimensions. Overall height has been reduced by 0.98 inch (25 mm) while the overhangs have been reduced by 0.59 inch (15 mm) at the front and 1.77 inches (45 mm) at the rear. Filling the wheel well, the gap between the body and the tires has been reduced by 0.27 inch (7 mm) compared to the previous Toyota Avalon model. The new Avalon's visual stance has been further enhanced by 1.29-inch (33 mm) reduction in width of the rear side rails surrounding the rear glass to tighten the proportions of the greenhouse. Vehicle tread has been increased by 0.39 inch (10 mm) at the front and 0.59 inch (15 mm) at the rear, widening the wheel placement underneath the more athletic Avalon body.

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.

The more sculpted, athletic exterior design also helps the new Toyota Avalon cut through the wind with a low 0.28 coefficient of drag that helps fuel efficiency and on-road stability. The rear tapering design of the new Avalon body and the floor under covers help enhance vehicle stability at speed while improving airflow. The Avalon side mirrors offer improved aerodynamics to help reduce wind noise while also offering a weight reduction of 14.6 ounces (415 grams) compared to the outgoing model. The side mirrors alone help reduce the co-efficient of drag by 0.001 compared to the previous model. These new aerodynamic side mirrors offer features such as; a turn signal lamp, electrical adjustment, a mirror heater, memory positioning, a puddle lamp, available Blind Spot Monitor indicator, and electro-chromatic glass. Also, the new Avalon is equipped with a new, lighter weight, more aerodynamic wiper design that stays in contact with the window longer. The new Toyota Avalon's rear valance houses stainless steel dual exhaust outlets integrated into the body.

The hybrid model is distinguished by blue-trimmed Toyota emblems at the front and rear of the vehicle. In addition to unique hybrid badges located on the trunk lid, front doors and a hidden exhaust outlet. The new 2013 Avalon will launch with two new colors, Moulin Rouge Mica and Champagne Mica, to compliment overall color choices for consumers.

Interior
The all-new 2013 Avalon's Calty-designed 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 instrument panel has been widened by 1.18 inches (30 mm) in the upper region and 2.56 inches (65 mm) in the lower region compared to the outgoing model, helping enhance the interior's spaciousness. The driver is engaged by an Optitron-type combination meter, which produces a sharp, high quality display and 3.5-inch Thin-film Transistor (TFT) color multi-information display. The Avalon Hybrid's display features a needle-type Hybrid System Indicator, which displays hybrid power output and regeneration. An Eco area on the dial display helps show when the vehicle is being driven in an Eco-sensitive manner, and it can help guide a driver's throttle input to develop economical driving habits.

The new Toyota 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.