When Toyota announced its in-house tuning department, Toyota Racing Development, would be working its magic on two sedans, one of them made a lot of sense to me: the Toyota Camry. The other made me go, “Wait, what? Is that for real?” That’s because the other was the Toyota Avalon, a plus-size sedan known more for comfort than sportiness. After getting behind the wheel of the 2020 Avalon TRD, does it make more sense?
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It’s quite a challenge turning the Avalon into an agile, sporty machine. I really enjoy vehicles that do unexpected things: small cars with lots of room, trucks with luxurious interiors and of course, big sedans that drive like sports cars. In theory, that puts the Avalon TRD — a track-tuned version of a large sedan that offers more agility with performance upgrades — right in my wheelhouse.
What Makes an Avalon a TRD?
The Avalon TRD trim starts out as an XSE, then gets stylistic and performance enhancements with the goal of turning the large sedan from something your grandfather might buy into a mean machine. To that end, the car adds a body kit consisting of a front splitter, side skirts, trunk lid spoiler and rear diffuser. The Avalon’s styling is far from subtle to start thanks to that gaping maw up front, but these additions take it to the next level.
To sit in the TRD is to constantly be reminded you’re in a TRD. Red seat belts, red stitching and prominent TRD logos on the front seats, gear knob and floormats blare at you, “This is no normal Avalon.” And to remind those outside, a louder dual-exhaust system ups the soundtrack.
Much work has also been done beyond what you can see or hear, starting with the suspension. The stabilizer bars and underbody braces have been beefed up to increase torsional rigidity to make the chassis feel stiffer. There are also TRD shock absorbers, larger front and rear brake rotors, and a 0.6-inch lowered ride height. The Avalon TRD does not opt for an adaptive suspension, which is somewhat surprising given the Avalon’s Touring trim level already offers one and it seems like a natural choice to adapt for the TRD’s purposes. But a fixed-firmness suspension it is.
What has not changed is the engine and transmission: a 301-horsepower, 3.5-liter V-6 mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission that drives the front wheels. Unfortunately, I think that’s where the TRD missed an opportunity to really crank up the dial for the Avalon.
How The Avalon TRD Drives
The Avalon’s new platform introduced on the 2019 model gave the car better road manners compared with the previous generation. Its stability and dynamics were both much improved, and though I wouldn’t call the car fun to drive, it felt competent. This gave the Avalon TRD a solid starting block, and the TRD upgrades do enhance those characteristics. The suspension is a hair tighter, though not at the expense of ride quality, and it feels super-solid. On the highway, the Avalon TRD still happily cruises along.
The cracks started to show when I took the car on my test loop I normally reserve for sports cars. It still feels very large when cornering, almost bulky — you can feel the car’s weight shifting as it lumbers in and out of corners. The added brakes are a blessing that help control the big sedan, but brake hard into a turn and the weight flings forward. Plus, there isn’t enough steering-wheel feedback to let you know how much those front tires are straining. That makes the Avalon TRD less fun and harder to push. The steering ratio could stand to be quicker, as well.
Those issues don’t feel like a shortcoming of the TRD tuning, but rather the vehicle itself. I think of the big sedans that are really fun to drive like the Kia Stinger and Dodge Charger, which are rear-wheel-drive-based and have big, powerful optional engines (the Charger especially). The front-wheel-drive Avalon can’t switch to that kind of platform, but I do think that for the TRD to be taken seriously, it needs a serious powertrain upgrade.
The existing a 301-hp, 3.5-liter V-6 and eight-speed automatic transmission are more than adequate for day-to-day driving, but they come up short when you’re trying to have fun behind the wheel. It’s very hard to keep that engine in the powerband, and the transmission is not very responsive, either. Left to its own devices, the transmission kept upshifting and taking the car out of its go-go rpm range, and gear changes took a bit too long even with the steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters. The problem is that Toyota doesn’t really have another engine it could put in here; it perhaps needs some kind of forced-induction V-6 that can really spin up quickly to give the Avalon more impetus.
2020 Avalon TRD Pricing
The Avalon TRD starts at $43,330, including destination charges, which lands it between the Limited and Touring trim levels and makes the Avalon TRD the second most expensive gasoline variant in the lineup. That represents a $4,000 premium over the XSE upon which it’s based. My test vehicle stickered at $46,287, with its optional JBL audio system and navigation package accounting for much of the increase.
Looking at the Avalon TRD’s competition makes this price harder to swallow. For $46,435, you can get a Kia Stinger GT1 with more features, a better engine and a lot more fun. And for $48,175, there’s the Dodge Charger Scat Pack Daytona, which gives you a tire-shredding 485-hp, 6.4-liter V-8. For performance amongst large sedans, those two will give you different kinds of fun beyond what the Avalon TRD can provide.
I get what Toyota was going for with the Avalon TRD. It’s a reputational repair job for a company that is mostly seen as a peddler of reliable transportation devoid of spirit. And in that regard, I appreciate that Toyota has made this car — at least it’s trying. But to make this car compare to the rest of the class will require more than tweaks and fancy body parts. It will take true commitment, not half measures.
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