wow this is the saddest thing ever first they use a V8 that has less torque and less power than a conventinal V6 its heavy they never get the suspension rite and the thing looks lik an oyster what could they think of next. and i’ve been to pebble beach in california and got a chance a see the lexus SC pebble beach edition, well i saw a scratch mark the brakes look more rusted out than my grandma. the mercedes S550 next to it was more intresting than that

my best friend leslie said oh, she’s just being miley

ummmmmm random…

Both utterly horrid automobiles by any and all standards; neither one exhibit any redeeming styling.

Less Toyota models! Excellent! Buahahahaha!

Who cares.

Roxy Music’s Avalon debuted in 1982, about the time Toyota should have thrown the cassette out the window on this model. I honestly remember looking at one of these in 1979 in a Toyota showroom and wondering if it was just the penultimate step before the silk lined coffin. They have done nothing in the last 29 years to change my opinion. Unfortunately this means those who wish to drive a Toyota to the grave are going to have buy used until their next equivalent of a burial plot comes along.

… the next time we hang out, I will redeem myself …

Maybe they need to look at the form of the SC. For the next-gen, get rid of the hard to convertible. Keep it a coupe, just like the original SC. Shave the weight, and give it some sportiness. Use the engine from IS-F. Done. As for the Avalon, sadly I do think it deserves the axe. If they decide to come out with it again, I think they should use a different name plate. Current Avalon has a grandpa car stigma attached to it.

Nice Johnny, taking American Psycho north of the border, where’s your chainsaw?

The next SC is already coming…it’s the IS convertible. It’s probably everything the SC should have been.

The first gen SC was nice, the current one is a bloated ugly-mobile… and they attribute the failure to no market demand, how about your design sucked.

The first generation SC300 & SC400 were amazing cars to aspire to. Car and Driver once asked if it was “The Perfect Car”, and it came as close to a perfect car as any. It was very luxurious and sporty, practical, stylish, reliable, and not too expensive. It wasn’t a sports car, but seriously there was NOTHING wrong with it. I loved them.
Then they replaced it with a much more expensive, far less practical, anonymously styled “wife’s car” and the sales dropped. Imagine that.
Japanese luxury coupes of the 90’s were amazing machines. Another great loss was the beautiful Acura Legend coupe. I find it very sad they all abandoned what appeared to be a successful formula.

The Acura Legend coupe GS was great I would still buy one if I found one in decent condition Same with the last Prelude Type SH
The Avalon is greatly needed in Toyota and I do think the SC should be less expensive and lighter Both cars are great and shouldn’t be on the chopping block

Toyota should keep Avalon: bad drivers need cars too.

If the Camry derived, long-wheel base Avalon replacement will be what I think it is… get ready for the Toyota Auiron, which is on sale here in Australia and in Japan. The vehicle is intended to compete with the Holden Commodore SS, aka the Pontiac GT-whatever, w/a “Big Aussie V6 250kw engine,” as t/ads say here. For you non-kilowatt users, that is just over 330hp. The car looks good, but, it has the exact same interior as the Camry.. seams like a GM move on Toyota’s part.

I agree with Kaizen on the SC. A coupe, convertible, or coupe-cabrio version of the IS will more than make up for the absence of this model.

As for the Avalon, I think Toyota is making a huge mistake. I don’t think potential Avalon buyers will automatically accept a stretched Camry as a replacement product. I think Avalon buyers appreciate Toyota’s “assumed” reliability, but want something a little more exclusive and upscale than the mundane and mainstream Camry. The direction I think Toyota should explore is offering a more fuel efficient base engine in this car (isn’t Ford planning to offer an EcoBoost 4 cylinder in the redesigned Taurus next year?). The availability of a more fuel efficient engine might appeal to those buyers (and I’m sure there are some out there somewhere) who want the roominess and upscale perception of the Avalon combined with a more fuel efficient engine option (I’m sure most buyers of this car aren’t attempting to win any on-road drag strip races anyway). While Toyota will save development and marketing costs with the stretched Camry idea (which is what the Avalon essentially is), I think they will end up losing buyers by not offering a separate large sedan model.

“assumed” reliability lol More like PROVEN reliability which is something GM Ford and Chrysler dont have

The original SC was awesome.

We all know Toyota can not get their mind around 2 door car. And what was so awsome about the original SC? Was it the completely non-replaceable radio? or was it the ugly front end?

They should have considered the M-B SL/BMW 6 as the competition and not the ford thunderbird. Even though i like the thunderbird more than the sc.

I’ve actually always liked the way the Lexus SC looked. Relaxed, posed, sort of bubbly looking like the original Skylark, only more sleek and modern. Sometimes I don’t want to look at a car that’s aggressive, with a bunch of colliding lines.

But I think the biggest downfall was it’s price. I think it starts around 60k, which is a lot for a car that doesn’t have much performance. Sure, it’s done alright in racing, but it’s not nearly the same car. Top Gear did a test drive, Lexus SC-Hyundai Coupe comparo. The Hyundai was *none* of the things the Hyundai Coupe was. That scares me.

As for the Avalon, it’s in a market that’s dominated by large American cars. It’s not a bad car, but it could do with a few modest trims and “special” features, as well as some advertising. If there has been any ad campaign for it, I haven’t seen a single result.

jayjc08: that, and the fact that they are still using old tech. See how quick Mercedes was to utilize the 5.4L in the SL and changed it from SL500 to SL550? SC430 is still SC430. The only update they did was go from 5-speed to 6-speed transmission. It should be packing 380HP 8-Speed from the LS460. It is almost like they have given up on it.

I had heard rumors at work that the SC was going away. I hadn’t heard anything about the Avalon. It’d be interesting to see Toyota try to move the Camry upmarket and turn it into a poorman’s Lexus LS by offering two wheelbases. It would ensure Toyota maintains their sales leadership with the Solara going away. I’m also interested in seeing the next Camry since this one was such a dramatic change from past styling.

Well it’s about time. I’m surprised they even sold over 1,000 of them. I never had a problem with the Lexus SC, but Toyota/Lexus has been using the same platform for like what over 10 years??? It needed a replacement way before now, which probably led to it’s demise. It’s sad that there won’t be another one like this in Lexus, but then again isn’t there going to be a IS hard top convertible? Prob why they don’t need two in their line up.

Surprised the Avalon is going

SC is too short. They need it longer and wider like 6-series or SL.

oh good, this is the same SC that Top Gear rated lower than a Hyundai Tiburon. look it up on Youtube. The SC prob would make more sense if it were either bigger or smaller. bigger meaning more like a CLK and have a usable back seat, smaller meaning it could just be a 2 seater & compete with a BMW Z4, etc. THAT makes more sense. But no bother seeing as how we’re apparently getting an IS convertible— which is much nicer looking car IMO.

SC is a piece of trash
i dont even feel sorry for the 1200 pieces of braindead trash that bought one of these this year, idiots
the ford mustang convertible gets more power out of its V8 for over half the price, hell an eos 3.6 comes close enough to the SC.

A4: I agree with you on SC not being a good buy, but you must be pretty f.ucked up in the brain to be comparing it against a Ford Mustang. I mean, never mind the luxury appoints, right? That is all free? Never mind the hardtop convertible too. That **** only cost $2 to make I heard. F.uckin goof.

There is very little market for coupes anymore.

Please don’t compare the Rustang to a luxury coupe. At least use something more in its price range. I do, however, completely agree that the current SC isn’t so great.

So you want a high end V8 sports coupe, lets see… Lexus SC or Corvette Convertible? You really don’t have to think long before heading to the Chevy dealer.

Avalon is dead because its customer base is. The average buyer of an Avalon is OLDER than a Buick Lucerne customer, and that’s a car specifically targeted at grey hairs.

@crackerhemi,
Luxury coupe? The SC is a Toyota Soarer which IS their “mustang” in Japan. The comparison to the faster Ford is relevant. Just because the SC is $30k overpriced and sold with the wrong badge doesn’t mean its a luxury coupe not worthy of comparison with “cheaper” cars.

hence why i mentioned the Eos 3.6

luxury, technology, and a hardtop for again around the same price as the very relevant mustang, and good point about the corvette, certainly another much better buy

@A4, Exactly! No need to choose, why not get an Eos 3.6 and a Mustang GT vert for the price of one Lexus Soarer?

@LS7,
Hardtops aren’t that expensive. The Pontiac G6 is a hardtop vert for less than $30k.

Considering its price point Corvette is an apt comparison, but considering what it offers, the VW or Mustang are better choices.

The 1st gen SC was a beautiful car, not a sports car but a good GT. The 2nd gen is just hideous. Why any seeing person would buy it over an SL or 6 series is beyond me?

This a great move on Toyota part. The SC will be replaced by IS coupe/ Convertible. And the Camry replacing the Avalon would be fine as the Camry will no longer share the ES350 platform.

Quote by VictorRaikkonen
If the Camry derived, long-wheel base Avalon replacement will be what I think it is… get ready for the Toyota Auiron, which is on sale here in Australia and in Japan. The vehicle is intended to compete with the Holden Commodore SS, aka the Pontiac GT-whatever, w/a “Big Aussie V6 250kw engine,” as t/ads say here. For you non-kilowatt users, that is just over 330hp. The car looks good, but, it has the exact same interior as the Camry.. seams like a GM move on Toyota’s part.

While I like the looks of the Aurion, esp. the Sportivo and TRD versions… I hardly believe it to be an “Avalon replacement”. As currently sold in Australia, it’s just a rebodied Camry with more power, some different interior treatments, and different tuning to appeal to the Aussie’s who are more nationalistic and staunch in wanting a Falcon/Commodore-like driving experience (more engaging, most of our U.S. models have been less engaging than both for quite some time, sadly). Considering we get the V6 Camry here (Australia’s Camry is only powered by the 4-cylinder, Aurion’s get the V6’s) and have SE versions of the 4 and 6 cylinder models, there’s really only the gain of having the different nose and tail treatments. That alone could be given to us as an updated Camry which should be due soon anyhow. That said, base Aurion’s are no more exciting styling-wise than the U.S. Camry really. It’s only when you get to the Sportivo and TRD models that the styling finally gets more exciting looking (I like ‘em better than the U.S. SE, which isn’t a terrible looking car but isn’t exactly earth-shattering either).

That said… if Toyota were to do anything, I think they should keep the Camry range and position the Avalon-replacement *away* from the Camry more. As it is, right now the only things the Avalon offers over the Camry is a tiny bit more room (at considerable expense over a V6 Camry) and some additional convenience features that could be added to the Camry next gen. anyhow. That increased differentiation could be achieved by a longer-wheelbase IS platform offering the 3.5 Liter V6 and even a Hybrid driveline. If Toyota aims to make the FT-HS; I would think pairing it up with the IS would be a good plan… and those 2 could also share mechanicals with a mid-size and a larger full-size RWD sedan for the U.S., Japan, and Australia. If they need 2 different names, they could call it an Aussie Camry/Aurion (i.e. do away with the FWD variant or even rebadge it as something else) or a U.S. Aurion/Avalon or Crown/Aurion (or whatever you want to call them) to go alongside the FWD Camry.

When the original Avalon was built, it was designed to be a Japanese large sedan… a long wheelbase Camry with a hair different styling (not anything more dramatic and it isn’t really anymore dramatic today either), while cheaper to build since it’s essentially the same sheet metal, it probably won’t sell in significant volumes more than the Avalon itself, and in the end since the Avalon is Camry-based as it is, it’s not really a gain either way. At the time of the original Avalon, with the huge success of the old RWD Chevrolet Impala SS… there was initially some talks about a sportier U.S. Avalon that never materialized (and didn’t with the next gen version either). While many auto magazines have long since recognized the Avalon as “beating Buick at their own game”, considering Buick’s US sales and target audience… I don’t think it’s the market that Toyota needs to gun for to make the product have a long-term benefit to their lineup like the Camry and Corolla have.

I think that the Aurion/Avalon or whatever you want to call it should be aligned and an effort to further differentiate them from the Camry should be the order of the day. With the IS’s sporting pretensions (and even the interests of Aussie’s tending to prefer more sporting oriented cars… much as we in America do), a longer wheelbase car with the same sporting caliber would likely be VERY welcome in Australia, esp. if it showed up with the same Euro character that the former Ford execs that conceived the Aurion were brought in to imbue. Make it less of a Toyota Buick, and more of a Toyota version of an old sporting Impala or even the Aussie Falcon/Holden Commodore. Considering many Americans drool over the G8 and the Aussie Falcon, it’s a no brainer to look into offering a next gen. 6-cylinder and TRD supercharged/turbo 6 model with RWD to us.

That said… the Falcon/Commodore are more Camry-sized as it stands. The U.S. Avalon is bigger than both of them and the Aurion as well. If they need to compete with larger, then you’re more talking about a Holden Statesman (Ford has thus far not shown a long-wheelbase version of the Falcon/G6). In that event… a U.S. Avalon could essentially be an extended wheelbase RWD Aurion using the IS platform. That said, I still would love to see a more Falcon/Commodore-sized RWD Aurion as I think it’d sell well over here as well. In Australia, they could even look towards offering a Toyota Ute off of the platform as well.

I also think, as was said earlier, that an IS-based SC makes more sense. That said, even just an IS convertible is probably the way to go. It’d cost less and not be a “cream puff” like the current SC. I don’t so much hate the current SC’s styling in as much as it sort of feels like an orphan in the Lexus lineup considering it’s been on the market for awhile and is still a rather heavy and sluggish coupe. I think you could almost argue that the Solara is as sporting or more sporting and it’s equally as orphaned. You can’t put coupes on the market long-term and gleen sales from them long-term. Coupes are about immediate visual impact and once they’re there for a bit, their time is often up. Whether the market is dry on them, I’m not too sure… but I do believe that the costs of making them successful is a bit higher so return on investment (ROI) is not nearly as good. That said, if you opt to bring out a new coupe/sedan variation every 4-5 years, I think coupes can be successful. Sedans can last longer but their styling isn’t nearly as much about being dynamic, at least not unless you go the Chrysler way and appeal to a percentage of the market by going big, and then changing the design up often to appeal to others. That’s the part of the “going big or go home” aspect Chrysler is missing the boat on.

Avalon needed a V8
Only Soarer ever worth any attention was the JDM version of the mid-’90s

Well as one who has a 2003 Camry in the door yard, just traded a 2008 Camry for a 2008 Avalon – I hope they come out with a new styled Avalon.

I agree with those that have said – people who purchased an Avalon, won’t likely purchase a stretch Camry (unless it gets GREAT reviews). I don’t think that will work, as “it’s still a Camry” no matter what you call it. And those of us who care (or have some kind of ego) – just don’t want a Camry, which is why we purchased an Avalon.

Gas milage … well unless gas goes to 4, 5 or $6.00 a gallon, and they increase the MPG and the Camry to 50+, I’m not sure that’s a big deal.

I put on 30,000+ a year, and I’m much more concerned with comfort, then with gas mileage.

Now it would seem more like that Toyota would make a NEW entry model Lexus if anything.

Rumor had it, that the Avalon, DID dip into the sales for some of the Lexus models, and why not, at $10,000 less (or more) – it is a great car for the money.

I’m hoping (like many) that Toyota does in fact, come out with a new Avalon, and YES I’ll be first in line to try one.