Goodbye Avensis

[Artiom]

Hi all,

This is a quick review of my Avensis that is now gone to a new (hopefully happy) owner.

I had an Toyota Avensis 2005 T-Spirit, 2.0 D4D. The engine is 1CD-FTV (older, belt-driven). Had full service history.

The car had maximum spec for its age and was packed with pretty much everything except the bigger 2.2L engine. Comfortable to drive and control - it is not a racing car, but it allowed for some "spirited" driving.

I had it for slightly over 5 years and here is the list of "issues" and relatively-major services for the ~46k miles driven (bought with 106k miles):

1. Replaced the cambelt once, including the water pump.

2. Replaced the clutch. The new one broke after 1.5 years - the metal center ripped off the rivets from the friction disk. Had it replaced again with a huge discount and this time I went for SMF, as we were suspecting damage for the DMF as well. During clutch replacement the mechanic replaced the oil in the manual gearbox as well - maybe it is just placebo, but I think it made a huge difference as the gear change became much softer.

3. Replaced one wheel bearing - as the old one developed a slight grinding noise on speeds around 40mph.

Apart from that, was servicing it strictly once a year, replacing all consumables as required.

The car was sold in excelled mechanical state as I decided to go for a big 4x4 - but that's another story...