Driving the Toyota Camry
On our Inland Northwest trip last weekend our rental car was a Toyota Camry. Before several years ago you would pretty much never see a Camry in a rental fleet. Now they're common enough, at least with certain agencies, that I've gotten a Camry on multiple trips. This trip I drove the car more than 750 miles. Between that and multiple samples I've driven in the past I've had plenty of experience to review the model.
A Boring Car that Does Little Wrong
The Camry is in its 8th generation in the US, so it's familiar to anyone who pays any attention at cars. For years my gut reaction to the Camry has been, Ugh, what a dull car. It's for people who don't enjoy driving but merely want a transportation appliance. That's still true, but in its latest incarnation I will argue that while it's boring, that's mostly a good thing. It gets you from Point A to Point B with a minimum of fuss and few surprises or idiosyncrasies along the way.
The Camry is a car that does nothing wrong- almost. Understand, "Does nothing wrong" is actually a good thing. Plenty of cars out there have unacceptably weird or weak points: thrashy, underpowered engines; overly bouncy suspensions; frustrating controls, etc. "Does nothing wrong" is like a B grade. That plus something genuinely fun or inspiring gets a car to an A, but plenty struggle to score even a B.
You might be wondering what our car looked like, as the pic I included above is a professional stock image. Well, ours was the same attractive red, though after even half of the 760 miles we drove it, it was no longer so pristine....
It's one thing to read reviews about cars; it's another to actually drive it. Driving the car 760 miles gave me a good sense of its ins and outs in the real world. I'll note that most of the user reviews posted online are from folks with way fewer miles on their new cars. Here are more of my findings after 760 miles.
Decent Powertrain and Suspension
The Camry is powered by a base 4-cylinder, 2.5 liter engine that makes 203 horsepower. Together with an 8-speed automatic transmission it delivers all around adequate acceleration. You're not going to win many stoplight drag races with this powertrain but it also does not leave you chanting, "I think I can, I think I can," to coax it up to speed on highway entrance ramps and long hills.
Similarly, the car's suspension gets the job done with no surprises. The SE trim we drove has a sport suspension, different from the base suspension in the lowest-trim LE, but it certainly didn't feel... sporty. It just felt normal (to me) and competent for a mass market car.
Comfortable and Spacious
Once upon a time the Camry was widely considered a family size car. Now with families growing, in size if not in actual number, people with kids are all buying minivans and three-row SUVs, leaving the Camry somewhat overlooked. That's a mistake because it's actually a reasonably comfortable and spacious car. The front seats had all the room Hawk and I could want, and it looked like there was still plenty of room in the second row even with our seats adjusted for comfort. The trunk, as well, was capacious. It swallowed 3 suitcases and a few small bags with room to spare.
Excessive Nannies
Notice I said the Camry does almost nothing wrong. The one place where it's irritating is in the nanny features. The car comes standard, even at the base LE trim level, with nanny systems that do things like alarm when the driver veers out of lane on the road. These alarms are intrusive when turned on (by default) but at least they can be disabled. Even with them turned off, though, it bothers me that there is no way not to pay for the expensive cameras, image processing computers, etc., that power these features. These entail most cost upfront, possibly over $1,000. They're also more expensive things to fix when they break.
At the same time that the Camry comes standard with these expensive electronic nannies a few creature comforts that are only options could have made it more inspiring. In particular, the front passenger seat gets manual controls while the driver's seat has power adjustments. Why not have dual power seats up front? And heated seats are option. Our car didn't have them. If these features were standard instead of the gee-whiz nannies, the car would have felt much more like an entry luxury vehicle.
Fuel Economy
The Camry makes great fuel economy. It carries an EPA rating of 32 mpg combined (28 city/39 highway). I achieved 34 mpg overall with about an 80/20 split between open roads and city or mountain driving. On stretches of open road I was able to hit 40mpg. This is great for a family car that doesn't make you feel like you're driving around in a penalty box.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/98367.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
A Boring Car that Does Little Wrong
The Camry is in its 8th generation in the US, so it's familiar to anyone who pays any attention at cars. For years my gut reaction to the Camry has been, Ugh, what a dull car. It's for people who don't enjoy driving but merely want a transportation appliance. That's still true, but in its latest incarnation I will argue that while it's boring, that's mostly a good thing. It gets you from Point A to Point B with a minimum of fuss and few surprises or idiosyncrasies along the way.
The Camry is a car that does nothing wrong- almost. Understand, "Does nothing wrong" is actually a good thing. Plenty of cars out there have unacceptably weird or weak points: thrashy, underpowered engines; overly bouncy suspensions; frustrating controls, etc. "Does nothing wrong" is like a B grade. That plus something genuinely fun or inspiring gets a car to an A, but plenty struggle to score even a B.
You might be wondering what our car looked like, as the pic I included above is a professional stock image. Well, ours was the same attractive red, though after even half of the 760 miles we drove it, it was no longer so pristine....
It's one thing to read reviews about cars; it's another to actually drive it. Driving the car 760 miles gave me a good sense of its ins and outs in the real world. I'll note that most of the user reviews posted online are from folks with way fewer miles on their new cars. Here are more of my findings after 760 miles.
Decent Powertrain and Suspension
The Camry is powered by a base 4-cylinder, 2.5 liter engine that makes 203 horsepower. Together with an 8-speed automatic transmission it delivers all around adequate acceleration. You're not going to win many stoplight drag races with this powertrain but it also does not leave you chanting, "I think I can, I think I can," to coax it up to speed on highway entrance ramps and long hills.
Similarly, the car's suspension gets the job done with no surprises. The SE trim we drove has a sport suspension, different from the base suspension in the lowest-trim LE, but it certainly didn't feel... sporty. It just felt normal (to me) and competent for a mass market car.
Comfortable and Spacious
Once upon a time the Camry was widely considered a family size car. Now with families growing, in size if not in actual number, people with kids are all buying minivans and three-row SUVs, leaving the Camry somewhat overlooked. That's a mistake because it's actually a reasonably comfortable and spacious car. The front seats had all the room Hawk and I could want, and it looked like there was still plenty of room in the second row even with our seats adjusted for comfort. The trunk, as well, was capacious. It swallowed 3 suitcases and a few small bags with room to spare.
Excessive Nannies
Notice I said the Camry does almost nothing wrong. The one place where it's irritating is in the nanny features. The car comes standard, even at the base LE trim level, with nanny systems that do things like alarm when the driver veers out of lane on the road. These alarms are intrusive when turned on (by default) but at least they can be disabled. Even with them turned off, though, it bothers me that there is no way not to pay for the expensive cameras, image processing computers, etc., that power these features. These entail most cost upfront, possibly over $1,000. They're also more expensive things to fix when they break.
At the same time that the Camry comes standard with these expensive electronic nannies a few creature comforts that are only options could have made it more inspiring. In particular, the front passenger seat gets manual controls while the driver's seat has power adjustments. Why not have dual power seats up front? And heated seats are option. Our car didn't have them. If these features were standard instead of the gee-whiz nannies, the car would have felt much more like an entry luxury vehicle.
Fuel Economy
The Camry makes great fuel economy. It carries an EPA rating of 32 mpg combined (28 city/39 highway). I achieved 34 mpg overall with about an 80/20 split between open roads and city or mountain driving. On stretches of open road I was able to hit 40mpg. This is great for a family car that doesn't make you feel like you're driving around in a penalty box.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/98367.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]