2020 Toyota Avalon TRD

The 2020 Toyota Avalon TRD is something new, at least for Toyota.
 

This is the first time the company has re-trimmed its Sansabelt-friendly, largest family sedan for driving excitement. It's Lawrence Welk playing Nirvana, Alfred Hitchcock's version of Thor: Ragnarok, and Calvin Coolidge's podcast. As those would be, it's strange and awkward but kind of fascinating. And kind of lovable.

First, the front-wheel-drive Avalon TRD is not a fire breather. Toyota hasn't touched the standard 3.5-liter V-6, and it produces the same 301 horsepower here that it does in any other Avalon. The accompanying eight-speed automatic transmission is intact, and all-wheel drive isn't available. Fundamentally, the Avalon remains a Toyota Camry with a 1.8-inch wheelbase stretch and a couple more inches of overall length. And it's still built in Georgetown, Kentucky, on an assembly line shared with the Camry.

Modest yet Meaningful Upgrades
The functional substance of the transformation from regular Avalon into a TRD is pretty much the same bits and pieces that underpin the Camry TRD. So, starting with the Avalon in Touring trim, there are stiffer coil springs that lower the car 0.6 inch; stiffer anti-roll bars; retuned dampers; some strategically thickened underbody braces to reinforce the body structure; new front brake rotors that are 0.9-inch larger in diameter and clamped by two-piston calipers instead of single-piston units; and 19-inch matte-black aluminum wheels wearing 235/40R-19 all-season tires. Summer-spec performance tires are an option but not on the TRD-tuned Avalon. The Avalon TRD wears all-season Michelin Primacy MXM4s.

The best of the TRD stuff is the dual-outlet exhaust system. The polished stainless-steel tips look, well, spiffy. But it is the growling alto voice it gives the Avalon that elevates the entire experience of the car. And it's a natural exhaust sound, not a computer simulation pumped in through the sound system.

What the TRD loses is the Touring's Adaptive Variable Suspension (AVS) system. AVS is effective on the Avalon, allowing the driver to choose the right driving mode for the task at hand and noticeably restraining body roll under most conditions. Toyota says the Avalon TRD has 44-percent better roll stiffness in front and 67 percent in the rear.

Balanced Aggression
Looks-wise, the Avalon TRD also hews closely to the Camry TRD formula. The spicier Avalon adds a front splitter, aggressive side skirts, a rear underbody diffuser, and a decklid spoiler. All those bits, and the ginormous front grille, are piano-black plastic because Steinway & Sons is all about aerodynamics.

Lots of red contrast stitching, red accents, and red seatbelts offset the interior's black leather and Ultrasuede surfaces. The pedals are aluminum, and the front seats manage the neat trick of being both generous in accommodation and offering good support. The rest of the interior is mostly familiar Avalon, stuffed with all the whiz-bang safety and communication tech. It all works and manages to appear modern without looking like a spaceship console. And, in back, there are 2.3 inches more legroom than in the Camry.

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