Looking at buying a 96 Avalon

[BigDaveZJ]

Found a 96 Avalon at a Jeep dealership I used to work at that I can get a sweet deal on. It's got 70k on the ticker, has a 3.0V6, and the body is in decent shape (some scrapes along the passenger side). I've always heard good things about Toyota, but don't know jack about Avalons! What kind of mpg can I expect from this thing and are there any decent performance mods I can do it? My current ride is a 95 Grand Cherokee ridin on 33's so I need something pretty streetworthy, but want it to be a little sporty and quick too. Thanks for any info! Sorry for the highly newb questions too, I'm a forum vet on many 4x4 sites and the newbie questions bug me every once in a while, but I read through some of your guys' archives and couldn't find a whole lot on Avalons.

[tnjohn]

That's really good mileage for that year. If it's got good maintenance records and depending on price I'd say it's a good deal.

The only caveat is that by far it's not a sporty car, it's a pawpaw car. But it will ride pretty good, and mine gets 33 - 34 mpg on the highway consistently, though 20 in town is average. But that highway is better than my '88 Camry got.

It will scoot with the v-6, but it's pulling some weight and that won't go away. I've only had one problem so far in 8 years which just started, flickering headlights at speed (see other post) but that seems to be rare. Some dash rattle and noisy shocks but that's only a nusiance in cold weather.

If you're looking for reliability and room, lots of room, it's a good way to go, assuming it doesn't have problems already.

Oh, one other thing, make sure the timing belt was changed, or you'll have that expense, which would be way overdue.

John

[BigDaveZJ]

How hard is it to change stuff like the timing belt? I can fix damn near anything on my Jeep (I haven't paid a mechanic to touch my Jeep in about 3 years and 60,000 miles) but am clueless on these things.

[BigDaveZJ]

Bueller? Bueller?