CYNICS might take some convincing, but the Toyota Aurion sits comfortably into its role as a Holden Commodore/Ford Falcon/Mitsubishi 380 challenger, even if it’s little more than a V6 version of the now four-cylinder-only Camry. Forget about the Camry for a moment though and consider the Aurion’s presence on the road, its indisputably generous interior and its generous serve of punch, all allied to the fact that it’s smooth, sophisticated, well-equipped and built like a bank vault. No, the Aurion still hasn’t quite nailed it as an enthusiast’s car, but that’s never held Toyota back in the past. And it sure looks a lot more acceptable than the Avalon - which remains its spiritual, if not actual, predecessor - as a means of grabbing a share of the Australian six-cylinder family-car market.

Toyota Avalon
Released: July 2000
Ended: July 2005
Family Tree: AurionThere was really no such thing as a previous Aurion, although the Toyota Avalon introduced here in 2000 and quietly faded away in 2005 aimed to do the same thing: Give Toyota a viable challenger for the volume-selling Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon. The Avalon wasn’t at all a bad car – its 3.0-litre V6 went well and it offered massive back-seat legroom - but the styling belonged to another era and it unhappily bore the reputation for blandness to which Toyota has long been manacled.
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