Peter earned a Bachelor of Archeology and Creative Writing from the University of Alabama and has since joined his love of driving and riding with storytelling. His voice is full of southern pleasantries and witticisms. Peter has been writing stories about cars, trucks, and motorcycles since 2017, which can be enjoyed in The Gentleman Racer, The Vintagent, Gear Patrol, Iron & Air Magazine, Classic Car Club Magazine, and MotorBiscuit.
Before working as an automotive writer, he spent years as a working musician in NYC, playing shows, making records, and composing for TV and Film. He spent some time learning to race with the Classic Car Club of Manhattan, doing forestry work in Wyoming, roofing in Alabama, and leading the sales team at Matt Umanov Guitars. All of these varied experiences seep their way into his writing.
When you talk about the best used sedans on the market, you usually get a predictable shortlist: the Honda Accord, maybe a Mazda6 if someone in the room still believes in handling, and the usual smattering of German picks from people who haven’t paid for a water pump in years. But there’s one car that keeps slipping under the radar—quiet, cushioned, unbothered by the rise of crossovers, and still built with the kind of old-school durability corporate shareholders seem to hate now.
That car is the 2022 Toyota Avalon, the final chapter of Toyota’s full-size sedan legacy and a deeply unfashionable, profoundly smart purchase in a market obsessed with giant screens, light-up badges, and whatever constitutes “sporty” this week. The Avalon, now dead, didn’t do trendy. What it did, and still does, is work – every time. And in a world where even new cars are struggling with software glitches, sensors, and over-engineered complexity, a sedan from 2022 feels shockingly refreshing for, again, the only reason that matters: it works. Every day. Without fuss.
This is why the Avalon is the hyper-practical used sedan to buy—one that outperforms many brand-new models, not just in dependability but in real-world composure, comfort, and cost of ownership. Let’s break down how this big, unassuming Toyota became the King of competence.
Longevity and reliability don’t have to cost extra. These ten affordable cars are known to last more than 300,000 miles, giving you years of driving.
Toyota built the Avalon the same way a craftsman builds their creations—polished, tuned, tightened, and refined until there’s nothing left to improve without changing the formula entirely. Although that’s maybe a touch hyperbolic, the Avalon really is a masterclass in building a killer, no-frills sedan for the people. However, the people didn’t know what they had, and Toyota made the 2022 Avalon the last model year, replacing it with the Crown, which is a more modern-market-friendly crossover-adjacent thing than the more traditional flagship sedan buyers once knew.
So the Avalon went out the way old luxury sedans should: fully sorted, dead quiet, and deeply focused on mechanical longevity. If you talk to Toyota techs—people who spend their days diagnosing misfires and listening for failing turbos or whatever—they’ll tell you that the Avalon is one of the least problematic sedans they ever see or don’t see. It’s the car that shows up for routine oil changes at 180,000 miles, running exactly like it did at 18,000.
This is partly because the last Avalon sits on Toyota’s TNGA-K platform, shared with the Camry, ES, and RAV4. But it’s also because the Avalon is overbuilt in the ways modern cars rarely are. The suspension components are thicker, the cooling system is more robust, and the V6 isn’t burdened with turbos or complicated hybrid packaging that can introduce long-term headaches.
The 2022 Toyota Avalon gives you two options: a classic, gas-only setup or a hybrid that leans hard into efficiency. The star of the lineup is the 3.5-liter V6, a smooth, quietly confident engine with 301 horsepower and 267 pound-feet of torque. The same engine found in the Sienna, Camry, and more. It feeds its power through an eight-speed automatic to the front wheels, and in testing, it moves the Avalon to 60 mph in a perfectly respectable six seconds. It never feels rushed. It never feels strained. It just…goes.
If you prefer burning less fuel, the hybrid trims swap for a 2.5-liter four-cylinder paired with two electric motors. The system makes a combined 215 horsepower and uses a CVT to keep things seamless and drama-free. This is a powertrain made to infuriate gas-station owners the world over.
And no matter which version you pick, the Avalon stays true to its mission. This is a big sedan built for comfort first, and it shows. The ride is calm and well-mannered, shrugging off potholes and cracked pavement with a kind of confidence that new “sporty” sedans seem to have forgotten. It’s the effortless, everyday refinement that makes the Avalon such a standout in the first place.
These models prove that natural aspiration, though a fading aspect, still delivers solid results in today’s market.
New cars chase “sporty.” They stiffen suspensions. They sharpen throttle response to feel quicker than they really are. They let in fake engine noise because somebody in marketing thinks every buyer is a frustrated Nürburgring regular. The Avalon didn’t get that memo. Or maybe it got it and crumpled it into a ball. This car is comfortable. Unapologetically comfortable.
The Avalon glides, floating just enough to smooth out broken pavement without ever feeling sloppy. The steering is light but precise enough for easy placement. The seats are wide, soft in the right places, firm where they need to be, and shaped for long drives—actual long drives.
Compared to many brand-new sedans, especially those below the luxury bracket, the Avalon feels like it was tuned by people who genuinely care about how a car feels at 70 mph, for hours at a time. There’s no twitchiness, no weight, no constantly adjusting adaptive dampers to overthink the experience. Just the kind of serene, predictable ride that used to define premium sedans.
This American sedan may not get the attention it deserves, but it is still an alluring combination of power, luxury, and performance-focused features.
The used sedan market has changed. Many new models are cutting costs—thinner door panels, cheaper switchgear, basic displays with subscription-based features. Meanwhile, the Avalon’s cabin is a soft-closing door away from a Lexus.
The materials feel high-end but durable. The layout is simple and elegant, without the hyper-digital minimalism that forces you to swipe through menus just to adjust the temperature. The seats are plush. The sound insulation is thick. The cabin feels like it was built for silence first and aesthetics second—a combination modern cars rarely get right.
Even the infotainment system, while not the flashiest on the block, is reliable, straightforward, and doesn’t require over-the-air updates to maintain basic functionality.
And here’s the kicker: a used 2022 Avalon, in today’s market, often costs less than a brand-new base-model family sedan. You’re effectively getting a premium interior for commuter-car money.
With the Avalon, the resale values stay strong precisely because the ownership experience is uneventful. No expensive surprises. Few surprise shop visits. No notorious problem years or “watch out for…” lists. And while some new sedans depreciate like raw meat, the Avalon remains a wise buy.
This is why the 2022 Avalon is often named one of the smartest purchases in the used sedan market: you might have to spend a touch more to get one, but you won’t spend much keeping it running, and it’ll continue its slow trickle of value loss with halfway-decent care.
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Not everyone wants a crossover. Not everyone wants a turbocharged four-cylinder pretending to be bigger. And not everyone wants a touchscreen the size of a cafeteria tray. Some drivers just want a car.
The Toyota Avalon is that car. It’s the sedan for people who don’t care that full-size sedans aren’t cool anymore. It’s the sedan for people who care about their butts, who want a car that can handle a decade of commuting without complaint, and who prefer quality to marketing.
The phrase “built to last” gets thrown around a lot. This car is the definition of long-term value: minimal maintenance, proven components, outstanding comfort, and a reliability record that new models would love to have.
For its final year on the market, the 2022 Toyota Avalon went out on a hell of a high note. J.D. Power named it the Best Large Car of 2022, giving it an overall score of 80 and a Great rating of 85 specifically for reliability. Consumer Reports echoed that confidence, reporting the Avalon Hybrid’s perfect 5/5 for Overall Owner Satisfaction. Edmunds landed at 7.9 out of 10, with owners themselves rating it an impressive 4.6 out of 5. And when it comes to safety, the Avalon checked every box: the IIHS awarded it a Top Safety Pick, and the NHTSA gave it a full five stars overall.
Call it old-school. Call it boring. Call it a grocery getter. Call it Zandar, Lord of the cosmos… It doesn’t matter, as long as you also call it what it is; the most reliable, most comfortable, most effortlessly capable used sedan this side of the Milky Way.
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