Toyota Avensis Saloon (2009 - 2018) 1.6D Active 4d Owner Review

Looks horrible. Over styled and ornate front. Driving is worse. Here are the problems. 1: It is impossible to dim the dashboard lights at night and in particular the central information display. It is bright blue and dazzles. It is dangerous. You have to cover it with a piece of card. 2: The sat-nav/media display catches sunlight and flashes and dazzles dangerously during the day. 3: The design of the dashboard is awful - over styled and confusing - it is bright and full of irrelevant detailing which means you can miss the fact that the fuel light has come on or that you are driving without headlights on. 4: The internal central locking switch is not illuminated, and when you do find it during the night it is impossible to tell whether or not the car is locked without opening the window and trying the door externally - this is a staggering bit of poor design. 5 : If you open the boot when it has been raining, water pours over the contents of the boot - in my case, over paperwork and a laptop - moronic design. 6 : The media display for the radio looks like a 1980's 'max headroom' video. Lots of perspective lines and confusion, but the font reading essential information is so large that it can only display half the track info that is playing ... for example : ' now playing Roxette and Joyri ' as opposed to displaying ' Roxette and Joyride ' but is slightly smaller font. 7 : There is an annoying tinny engine noise coming from the offside footwell....it is seriously tiresome. 8: The 'hand'brake is difficult to locate quickly and takes some fumbling to activate - why hide it? 9: The roadsign recognition system, in particular relating to speed signs is more inaccurate than accurate - God help us if anyone, in particularly 'Toy'ota thinks that they can make a driverless car. 10 : The 'auto headlight' function WILL dazzle oncoming traffic as it rarely reads situations correctly at junctions. This is a truly horrible car designed by people who clearly do not understand industrial design. Absolutely pathetic.