I found a huge amount of oil in the driveway after traveling approximately 60 miles to take my 5 year old daughter to school. The oil stick read empty. I immediately added oil so I could take it to the dealership. I made several calls before taking it to the dealership because I had recently had my car serviced at another Toyota dealership. When describing the problem the maintenance assistant instantly diagnosed the problem without looking at the Avalon. I called two other dealerships and they had the same response. When I got to the dealership they confirmed the problem and at that time told me that the "pipe assembly" part is on national backorder and that they weren't expecting the part until February 16, the date the vehicle was taken in was January 15th. Toyota is taking little to no responsibility for their defective part that is causing undo hardship on Toyota's owners. After talking to various Avalon dealers, I found that some owners had to have their engines replaced because of the defective part that Toyota is aware of that have not informed the public of. Apparently, Toyota has been quietly fixing the problem while the vehicles are under warranty and has failed to let the consumers aware of this ongoing deficiency. Now that the part is on national backorder the severity of this problem is being address daily. I am hoping other measures will be taken to fix this problem now that the public is aware of the backorder. I am just glad that I identified the problem before it got worse. This problem could have lead to my daughter and I stranded on hwy 495 in Washington DC traffic, on the cold highway waiting for the tow truck to pick us up because the engine locked up. The reason why I'm submitting this complaint is because I spoke, to three dealership, in three different states and each identified this as a problem. Each dealership knew of this defective part and problem.

- Gainsville, VA, USA

Car has been fine up until this point. But when starting the car one morning, oil began streaming onto the ground. I filled the car with oil, drove the 2 miles to the repair shop and just under 2 quarts leaked out after that short drive. After they removed the inspection plate, they found no evidence of chaffing but a simply small hole that had developed in the middle section of the vvti oil supply line. They replaced the oil supply line and now the car engine has a lot of clatter at low rpms. I have the old part available for inspection. Car has 63,000 miles on it.

- Middleburg, FL, USA

The contact owns a 2006 Toyota Avalon. When depressing the accelerator pedal from a dead stop, the engine idles and the vehicle does not respond. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer and was informed that the failure was possibly due to the emission control. When the contact took the vehicle to a different Toyota dealer, they stated that the failure may be due to the transmission. The failure does not occur when traveling uphill. The current and failure mileages were 23,000. Updated 03-25-08 the consumer stated at low speeds the engine revs and after informing the dealer he was informing NHTSA the dealer found a fix for the defect. The consumer stated still shifts unevenly. Updated 03/25/08

- Omaha, NE, USA

When entering traffic from the on ramp and with plenty of time under normal conditions my Toyota Avalon, upon acceleration the engine actually cut out I mean with a serious hesitation that I could not respond to in time. The auto quickly approaching my rear veered into the next lane causing the third car to run off on the shoulder of the road. This is indeed a highly safety problem. I escaped without a scratch to myself or car. This has happened many times before but not to this extent. I took my car back to thompsons Toyota in placerville ca 3 times for the same problem and each time they tell me they can't find anything wrong with the acceleration. I have about 10,000 miles on the car now but the problem surfaced less than a week after I bought it. What are my options I need the car and I must drive this safety affected product. The car is ok after you get to 60 mph. On acceleration from a stop position a 4 cyl. Corolla and Honda can perform better, in fact I have a Tacoma Toyota 4 cyl 1999 with 100,000 mile that also accelerates better than my Avalon.

- Cameron Park, CA, USA

On three different occasions, while driving my 2006 Toyota Avalon XLS, I pressed down on the gas pedal to pass another vehicle and the gas pedal continued to depress on its own after I took my foot off of it. I stood on the gas pedal and it took about 5 seconds for the pedal to disengage after accelerating very rapidly. The third time, I had to shut off the ignition. I am afraid to press hard on the gas pedal at this point as it is a very frightening situation. A less experienced driver would get injured. I will not let anybody else drive my car because of this. The dealer had no explanation which I find very disturbing. Help!!

- Dedham, MA, USA

I have a 2006 Toyota Avalon with ~15,000 miles on it. Intermittently, the car will hesitate on acceleration. This is extremely dangerous as I have almost been rear-ended several times and have had to slam on the brakes, at times, to avoid a side-swipe collision. The delay in input to the accelerator pedal to actual acceleration is 2-4 seconds at times. This is a problem known to Toyota. The service department is aware of the problem but describes it as a "characteristic" of the drive by wire throttle system. This is a very dangerous "characteristic" and I'm certain will result in accidents. There are many examples on the "forum" on edmunds.com where owners have expressed the same problem/concern.

- Parker, CO, USA