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A couple of weeks ago I decided that the rear wiper needed changing. It should be straight forward buying one. Halfords do not list it, Euro Car Parts also do not list it either. I could get it from the online sellers but the price is the same, or more than what I eventually paid for it locally. My gripe is that ECP actually sell the correct Denso DRB-030, which I bought from a local independent motor factor. It would have been a few pounds cheaper at ECP than any where else - including online. I did a bit of research and have told ECP to add the part number "485771926" to the Avensis Tourer T27 for future reference. It has not been updated at the time of this post. The Denso wiper is used on other cars, and I checked the Denso catalogue which confirms this. I then checked the other vehicles shown on the Denso catalogue, on the ECP website and they all matched! So a bit of cross referencing helps. I chose Euro Car Parts as they are the largest and are price competitive. Main dealers can be expensive! The fronts are Bosch and easy to obtain from anywhere.

I decided to have the Mk3 MOT'd 3 weeks early, just in case of any problems. I need not worry and the car passed. The thing that surprised me was the low emissions of the Valvematic 1.8 engine. CO registered at 0.002 and the HC registered zero! The Lambda reading took a while to comedown , because the exhaust had a lot of water. The tester said the car has not done much driving, and he was right. The car has only done 5000 miles since the last MOT, and just over 2000 miles since I bought it. I still drive my Mk1 which contributes to the lack of use of the Mk3. This may change in the coming months. The Valvematic engine is very good. The oil level has never needed topping. Toyota have sorted out the engine after the nearly disastrous vvti 1ZZ, and the oil burning issue, that plagued it for the first 5 years. The brakes are fine after a recent replacement, and everything else is solid and good condition for a 7 year old car. Now to get the scratches and marks sorted.

Ahhh okay. Glad you found it. I actually noticed some of the padding/ sound deadening coming from that area the other day so that's probably where it's coming from on mine. Probably a previous owner fiddling with it all!

I know what you mean - if my 4 year old, 53,000 mile Gen 3 is half as good as my last Gen 1 was (kept it 9 years, did 163k, still in use with 180k on clock apparently) it's nowhere near halfway through it's useful life... but... an awful lot of goodies on new model, including some very appealing safety and convenience features - now, if only it had 4WD, plugin, AND spare wheel with 15" wheels (and, oh yes, 360° camera like some Lexus, Nissan Leaf etc.) Not sure the VED is a major factor in the overall scheme of things though