 The car absorbs big bumps pretty well, but the ride is always a bit unsettled and jiggly whereas I find the ride of the Hyundai Sonata and Genesis and Kia Optima more solid, settled and premium feeling.  The front seat bottoms of the Avalon are small and thinly padded as one would expect of an economy car.  I've noticed Toyota's little Corolla S with sport seats actually has larger, more thickly padded seat bottoms hence are more comfortable on longer drives than the front seats in the Avalon.  The air conditioner fan is weak - on hot days I have to keep it on high speed which makes for a noisy, economy car like driving experience.  The roof of the Avalon XLE is very thinly padded - has almost no padding or insulation so on hot days you really feel the heat of the sun radiating through - which once again detracts from a premium comfort experience a car in Avalon's size and price class should deliver.  The 4 cylinder engine / continuously variable transmission combination are powerful enough, but quite noisy during acceleration - which once again contributes to an economy car like driving experience.   About the only time the car felt premium was while driving around town at low speeds when the ride was quiet due to the acoustic windshield and side glass.  At higher speeds road and tire noise are fairly high - about the same as a Camry .