I Heart Avalons

My hatred for the Toyota Avalon goes back so far I'm even sure my Learner’s Permit was something on the horizon. It all started the evening my family went to look at a new car for Dad. Going to the Toyota dealership was in general, pretty exciting. Then add in a young teenager and the access to sit in pretty much any car in the showroom and it equates to a really fun evening. After arriving, I gravitated over to the showroom’s brand new Avalon and slipped in the driver’s seat. I am sure I had these awesome visions of myself zooming down the road, picking up some friends, and just being generally cool. There were even some pretend revving of the engine sound effects manufactured by yours truly, and some pretend swerving and off roading. The fun and games ended when it was time to exit this wonderful sedan. For whatever reason, this Avalon had decided to automatically lock me in like there was some possibility that I would steal the keys, drive this car through the glass window and out of the showroom. While a somewhat epic scene mirroring Ferris Bueller’s Day Off did come to mind, there was no way someone under the age of sixteen would even come close to pulling this off. So, you could imagine my surprise when I was suddenly unable to get out of the car. I did the usual trouble shooting, tried the automatic lock button and finally resorted to manually unlocking my door. This seemed like the right move at the time. WRONG. Not three seconds after I had switched the lock, the whole showroom erupted in ear piercing siren noises. Keep in mind we are indoors. At night. With not too many other people trying to break into, or out of the display vehicles. At this time, my parents were trying to conduct some actual business and as I searched frantically for them, I glazed over a few annoyed and somewhat amused faces of the dealership employees. It took them what seemed like twenty minutes to locate the “special” key that stopped this alarm. Personally, I do not think enough haste was made in helping this embarrassed young girl flee the scene. While I eventually dated a guy in High School who drove an Avalon, and have a friend who used to own one, I still have a special and rather comical hatred in my heart for that vehicle. And to anyone out there going to test drive this car, I advise you to use caution- and the automatic locks at all times.