2004 Toyota Avalon Xl 47k Miles Florida Title Leather Clean One Owner Car on 2040-cars

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A few pre-race notes and a lot of photos from the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 82nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is on.
Audi has won 12 of the last 15 events, the scion of Auto Union is trying to make it 13 this year. To do so, it will have to overcome a situation faced only three other times during its dominance of La Sarthe: underdog status. Toyota has won the first two races of the year and claimed pole for this race, the rumor being that this year it's Toyota's race to lose.
And then there's Porsche. It's been 16 years since the Stuttgart brand raced on the top rung at Le Mans, three years years since it announced its return, just a year since it acquired Mark Webber in a signing that wasn't subtle and a few months since we got eyes on the 919 Hybrid.

2014 Toyota Highlander to start at $30,075*

We now have pricing for Toyota's redesigned 2014 Highlander, which is seeing moderate price hikes across the board. Prices for the popular crossover have been bumped from less than 1 percent to less than 3 percent on lower-end models (anywhere from $125 to $890, depending on trim). Toyota has increased prices on higher-end XLE and Limited models more substantially - between 4.1 and 4.5 percent ($1,480 to $1,700). The Highlander Hybrid sees its price increase 2 percent ($930). The new model will be available in four different trims and with either front or all-wheel drive.
The absolute cheapest member of the Highlander range, the base LE, with a four-cylinder and front-wheel drive starts at $30,075, an increase of just $195. The LE is also available with a V6 and all-wheel drive, with the bigger engine upping the price to $31,380. All-wheel drive models start at $32,840. A slightly pricier LE Plus starts at $33,600 for a V6 FWD model and $35,060 if you add all-wheel drive.
Next up, we have the XLE, which starts at $36,900 for FWD models and moves up to $38,360 for AWD. The top-tier Limited model starts at $40,500 in FWD spec, grips-at-all-fours versions will retail for $41,960. For those that want the very top of the Highlander range, there's the Platinum Pack, which adds the Driver's Tech Pack (adaptive cruise control, pre-collision warning, lane departure warning and automatic high beams), a panoramic moonroof, heated steering wheel and heated second-row seats to the already well-equipped Limited model. Highlander Platinums start at $42,990 and $44,450, depending on how many tires are doing the work. (Note: All prices include an $860 destination and handling charge.)

2014 Toyota Corolla

Reprising The Recipe For A Perfect Slice Of Toast
My toaster broke the other week. Halfway through the process of cooking my gourmet Pop-Tart breakfast, the thing crapped out with a small bang, leaving my delicious morning treats trapped inside. To rectify the situation, I ventured out to a big box store, located the toaster aisle, and ran a couple of questions through my mind. Do I need two slots or four? Do I need to spend more than 20 bucks on this thing? Should I just buy a toaster oven to give me a wider range of bachelor-pad cooking functionality? After no more than two minutes of contemplation, I grabbed the cheapest one on the shelf, paid and left the store. The new toaster works just fine.
This sort of unemotional shopping experience is how I suspect people decide to purchase the Toyota Corolla. It's a perfectly fine appliance, and to a good number of people in the world, the bond between a car and a driver is no more important than the connection I feel to my toaster. Does it seat four people relatively comfortably? Does it get decent fuel economy? Is it easy to drive? Reliable? Safe? The Corolla checks all of these boxes, and because of that, Toyota managed to move just under 300,000 examples of the tenth-generation car in 2012 (though that number does include sales of the Corolla-based, now-deceased Matrix) - a vehicle that, at the time, was already six years old.