We ask Toyota chief engineer about reasoning behind 2013 Avalon

One of the comments we keep hearing from the general public is how the Toyota Avalon should now be redundant, considering there is the Toyota Aurion on one end and the Lexus ES on the other end. We, for one, believe that it does have a spot in Toyota’s line-up, and that is to fit exactly between those two aforementioned cars, both in terms of price and size. It’s not rocket science to figure that out. Incidentally, Toyota shipped in their chief engineer for the Toyota Avalon to Dubai straight from the United States to talk to the press about the car.

Randall Stephens used to work at Mazda before switching over to Toyota in 1992 as a chassis design engineer. Over the years, he’s had his hand in the making of certain previous generations of the Toyota Camry and the Avalon. More recently, he was the top man responsible for overseeing the creation of the latest Avalon, a car that is important in the American market.

While we like the styling of the current model, we feel it necessarily does not look as “elegant” as the previous version. Randall says the complete makeover was intentionally done to move away from the Avalon’s “conservative” image to give it a more dynamic and youthful look. The Avalon has traditionally been favoured by buyers approaching retirement age, and Toyota wants to rope in younger buyers who may want to move up from the Camry but not jump up to a large Lexus.

We asked if there are any real mechanical changes, since the specs seem to suggest a “carryover” platform and engine. He says the chassis has been made lighter and redesigned for better tuning flexibility rather than an all-out replacement. The handling is now tighter, while the steering has been sharpened up. Under the bonnet, the automatic transmission has been tweaked for better fuel economy, one of the changes being a transmission-fluid warmer to keep performance consistent.

The transition to sporty isn’t without its drawbacks however. When we drove the car, we noticed that rear space is very slightly less than what it used to be. Randall agrees that accommodating the swoopier roofline means making concessions on interior room, but that they’ve “tested” it with consumers to see if they notice, and the public seems fine with it, and it still remains a very spacious car.

The touch-sensitive “buttons” on the centre console are also a nod in the direction of younger gadget-savvy consumers, which is probably why we were handed a Samsung Galaxy S4 at the end of the interview, as a not-so-subtle hint that the Avalon is more modern than what it used to be.

At an earlier chat with Noboyuki Negishi, the Toyota chief for the Middle East, he mentioned that the carmaker now has an astounding 39.6% market share in the Gulf, selling 158,000 cars here in just the first 3 months of 2013, and growing despite the troubles of the past year. With dominance like that, they must be doing something right, even while some of us may never set foot in a Toyota showroom. Majority rules.

Read our first drive of the Toyota Avalon.