A dusty Toyota Avalon sedan, seen on a cold but sunny winter’s day in December 2017 in the Chinese capital Beijing. The big Toyota was in a reasonable shape, with some paint damage and a few scratches here and there.
The first generation XX10 Toyota Avalon was made from 1994 until 1999 in the United States. In 2000 production was moved to Australia where it continued until 2005. This black example is an original US-made car.
The Avalon was based on a stretched variant of the platform that also underpinned the XV10 Toyota Camry. There was only one engine available; a 3.0 V6 with 192hp and 285nm, mated to a four-speed automatic, sending horses to the front wheels. The Avalon was never officially sold in China, so seeing one on the road is a rare pleasure.
These are the original factory wheels, 7-spokes with a Toyota badge in the middle. The alloys certainly looked like had been to places.
The interior looked fine for its age. Leather seats are very worn but not broken. Lots of beige all over the place, with an after-market radio and steering wheel cover.
The Avalon was a large car, measuring 4831 mm in length with a 2720 wheelbase, resulting in lots of space for the legs in the rear cabin.
License plate area is far too small for Chinese license plate, a clear indicator of an unofficially imported car. Yours truly can be seen in the lower-left corner of the photo.
The winter’s sun on the N of Avalon.
The black 京A license plate is very cool and very old. Black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the early 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally, and they were also allowed to import their own cars. The lower the number the older the plate. The numbering started at 京A·00001, so our Avalon was the 19634’th black-plate car in the Beijing area.
In all my 16 long years in China I have only seen a handful of first generation Toyota Avalons, and this was the only one with a black license plate. May she still be alive!
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