Utah is a cool place + Toyota Avalon Hybrid Review

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678) 01/16/2018 at 14:30 • Filed to: None

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Of course I get California plates on my rental.

For this past weekend, I flew out to Salt Lake City on Saturday evening and returned Tuesday morning. A short trip for two days of skiing at Snowbasin. While there wasn’t a TON of snow on the mountain, the terrain was great and I was able to find good snow in plenty of places. For my rental car, I went to Fox which was a terrible ordeal. But since it worked out and I was upgraded to a “luxury” car I guess I cannot complain too much. I wont ever rent from them again though since a reservation does not mean you are guaranteed a car!!

Anyways, the Toyota Avalon Hybrid was a comfortable highway cruiser and I really had no complaints about it. It accelerated when I told it to, it turned acceptably, and contained all of my gear without issue. Now I saw “without issue” only because I had no passengers. Thanks to the hybrid crap, there is no foldown or pass through rear seat. So my skis took up the passenger side of the car with the seat leaned back. While you could still easily fit another person behind the driver with ease, this was not convenient for how big the car is. The rest of my crap easily fit in the cavernous trunk.

Infotainment worked flawlessly. I just had my phone connected via bluetooth and had no troubles. The buttons seemed intuitive and my favorite part was the giant volume knob. Climate controls also worked easily and did their job. The only electronic thing that annoyed me was the traction control button was all but useless. As soon as the tires spun, the traction control would turn back on and ruin the fun. What is the point of the button if you cant actually use it?? It also could only be disabled when not in motion. While nobody in their right mind is going to hoon an Avalon, I find defeating the traction control important for dealing with winter weather.

Overall, the car performed better than I expected. Yes it is a boat, but it did just fine going ~65 through all of the 40mph turns without feeling scary. And it accelerated quicker than some of the shitbox entry level rentals I usually get. The EV mode turned on/off VERY abruptly which was unsettling but otherwise the hybrid crap coexisted peacefully in the background to save me some gas money. No idea the mileage it got but I only needed to put in $15 for the trip so it was decent. It got some lovely 85 octane gas due to the elevation so hopefully that car isnt going downhill too much. Surprisingly though, the car had more than 75k miles on it which is ANCIENT for a rental car. It didnt show any major signs of mechanical abuse though. But the bodywork definitely told the life of a 75k mile rental car:

And aside from the car, Utah seems to be a pretty cool place. I did not get to see much of Salt Lake City since I arrived and left in the dark in a hurry. But the mountain was beautiful and the snow quality was pretty good, even though they have been lacking decent snowfall this year. It was better than an average day in Vermont so I was happy as can be.

Bluebird skies both days, highs reached nearly 40F!

Some decent stuff up top. Views were spectacular and in the right sunlight, the snow was very good despite the thin cover.

THE Salt Lake in the background. Nearly no snow down in the valley to the West

HammerheadFistpunch > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 01/16/2018 at 15:02

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man alive you weren’t anybody if you were in the mountains this weekend. Can’t blame em though, it was an beautiful weekend.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > HammerheadFistpunch 01/16/2018 at 15:09

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At least Snowbasin was EMPTY. I never waited on a line to get on a lift either day. Sure the gondola at the base had a bit of a crowd but I just avoided that one and just got run after run in. The main groomers became ice rinks by midday due to the traffic there but I found plenty of fun stuff by exploring a bit. I also found some TERRIBLE stuff but such is the case with ALWAYS exploring past the signs that say “no avalanche control or ski patrol past this point”.

I rode that trail and thoroughly regretted it. Think of an ice skating rink but on a hill and all sorts of bumpy. It is a north facing slope with barely any snow on it. It was fun in a masochist kind of way since I like a challenge. But I found way better stuff elsewhere on the mountain lol.

The Snowman > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 01/16/2018 at 23:48

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I got married in the needles lodge on top of snowbasin and skied down in a tux. The resort is pretty cool. Only gets 3 of 5 stars though since it doesn’t have a bar.(by Utah law not the rest of the country)

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > The Snowman 01/17/2018 at 10:54

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Those lodges did seem pretty elegant! It was interesting to see carpeted bathrooms and the intricate chandeliers. Although I only stopped in for the bathroom since they had those dumb “seating is for dining customers only, no outside food”. I always bring my own lunch so I had to go sit outside on a bench. Skiing in a tux sounds kind of fun though. Really, theres no bars anywhere? I hadnt really looked but yeah thats surprising to me. But I guess thats just a Utah thing.