Before we get to the bad news, here’s what’s good. The Avenger’s interior is (mostly) roomy front and rear, and it has a long, easily filled boot that can be extended by folding the 60/40 split rear seat. For very long loads you can fold the front passenger seat backrest forward, too.
In-cabin storage is excellent. Some (minor) highlights: you get two gloveboxes, the upper one moulded to hold four drinks cans that can be chilled by the air conditioner, and the front cup-holder warms and cools, too.
The front seats are fairly comfortable despite their cheap fabric, the driver’s mount adjusting for height.
But the driver’s footwell is cramped in the clutch area, and the cheap plastic steering wheel signals the depressingly low standards of finish that characterise much of the rest of the Avenger’s interior. Its half-hearted chrome highlights do nothing to distract you from the fact that this car is dismally finished. All the plastics in the cabin, bar that found on the wheel, are hard-feel, brittle to touch, hollow-sounding and, in the case of the instrument surround, downright flimsy. It looks what it is: built down to a price far below what is being asked for it.
More positively, the Avenger feels robustly all-of-a-piece, but there’s little detail to delight beyond the stereo, the chill box and some slightly unusual, translucent instrument lighting.
The Avenger is cheaper than most rivals, but that doesn’t make it good value. Most cars at this price have more equipment and vastly better cabins. Worse still, the £1500 sat-nav and the £750 premium stereo are available only on the higher-spec SXT models, pushing the Avenger’s price over £20k.
Servicing is fairly frequent at 9000-mile intervals, but there’s the promise of at least 40mpg. The insurance group is on a par with the Passat, if higher than a Mondeo’s, but its higher-than-average CO2 emissions land it with a hefty company car tax liability of 21 per cent.
