trinacriabob

I was upgraded in a rental contract and, while going up by one category is not a big deal, getting to try out the new hybrid Camry was somewhat of a big deal. The latest and current Camry only features hybrid powertrains. The base 2.5 liter 4-cylinder engine, which was previously naturally aspirated, continues forward, but is assisted by an electric motor. To make the powering on and off work, a CVT is now the standard transmission, when Camry had an excellent 8-speed automatic transmission for many years. This vehicle had front wheel drive, but AWD is also available. The V6 engine and ICEs are no longer available. Getting used to this car doesn’t take much time. Having already driven another rented hybrid – a Honda Accord – all I needed to know is that turning the key does not fire up an engine, but makes the car ready to move in EV mode, at least initially. With 2.5 liters, the Camry pulls away nimbly and with agility, even with a minimally feathered pedal. It doesn’t take much. It’s fun to watch the centered power display setting move between eco and power modes. If stomped on, the engine responds very quickly. Surprisingly, stomping on it produces a more notable than expected engine hum. The cabin remains mostly quiet and handling is predictable, neither firm nor vague, with some rougher pavement making it less quiet. The transmission feels very much like a CVT, but a well behaved one. Still, drivers with old school tastes can lament the absence of the very last slick shifting 8-speed automatic that came standard in the Camry. I know I do. However, the current CVT behaves well because it doesn’t have that “stuck” feeling when pushed, but the spool is more of an exhaust node than the winding out and high rpm droning caused by the variable gearing. The Camry’s exterior was freshened up and they worked off the last model. It’s a compendium of small changes that, together, amount to a lot. The front lights are narrower and cleaner. The “appliance” grille is more understated than it once was. (Sadly, it’s the more expensive versions where the grille is more flared, and even overworked.) The rear lights are thinned out, complete with a boomerang effect, as they wrap around the rear fender edge and add to the horizontal look of the rear lip and the monolithic bumper panel. Also, the almost retro, and not too effective, sweep of the rear pillar (think ‘72 Caprice coupe) is gone and the side profile of the windows is cleaner, perhaps a larger rendition of what was done with the Corolla. Most of the vantage points look better than those of the previous Camry. Inside, the Camry is also much improved. The dashboard is organized in cleaner volumes. The dash has a simple main instrument pod. In its center is a round dial, whereby the upper part displays the speed and eco/power, and the lower part, through toggling, provides other information – direction, tire pressure, trip information and mileage, or even graphics of the flow of energy involving the engine and the battery. There is no dedicated tachometer; however, the temperature and fuel gauges remain. Around the main circle are small digital readouts for the exterior temperature, the time, the odometer, and the remaining range. Filling up this hybrid showed close to 500 miles of range. Not only that, the fuel cap is on the driver’s side and, like the trunk, they can be remotely opened by buttons in the interior. That said, there is none of that capless fuel filler stuff! Being a Camry LE meant the lower grade fixtures inside. Sadly, this meant a urethane steering wheel. Sometimes, a mere leather steering wheel imparts the feeling of better handling and a smoother ride. It’s that equipment choices and groupings seem to work together to give a vehicle its feel. The LE seats are nicely upholstered in a tougher, durable fabric with slightly contrasting parts. The front headrests can scoot all the way down and they actually point forward so the driver and passenger can use them without having to lean their heads all the way back. Headrests for rear seat passengers are integrated into the seating and do not have features to adjust them. The infotainment system is on its screen which is engaged to the dash, but moved slightly forward, and creates a cleaner look because it does not go up over the top of the cowl. Fortunately, it remains a touch screen. The functions are easy to work with, but I had a little bit of finicky interactions with Bluetooth and Android Auto. Climate control has toggles instead of dials and they are easy to work with. I will only say that the center vents of the climate control system do not work that quickly and powerfully. Beneath this small panel are the cubby, a charging pod for a phone, and the flat console surface for the shift lever. I found the console a little high for my taste. Possibly to accommodate the new mechanical set-up, there is no storage cubby underneath the console as one sees on larger GM products, for example – both SUVs and even the last-gen Buick LaCrosse. However, the console box is amply sized. In addition to being able to look over the hood, visibility is commendable all the way around. Except for being a little shoehorned into the Camry’s cockpit, the front of the cabin feels spacious and the legroom is also good. (I had to push the lever to get the seats to move upward, which provided a view over the top of the hood, as evidenced by seeing the paint color, and which I prefer.) They have retained good cabin space in the rear of the cabin. Also, the trunk has a decent amount of usable capacity for this genre and for having kept this sweeping roofline. I again want to state how pleasing it was to control the trunk, in addition to the fuel door, from a bar of buttons on a panel at the lower left part of the dashboard rather than on the floor near the door. There are 5 functions and they were thoughtful about putting the (auto) lights control onto this bar, and all the way to the left, such that it can easily be noticed from behind the steering wheel. The new Camry shows a lot of thought as to how the driver connects to the car through its controls and functions, and this is one of the areas where this Camry shines. While I didn’t calculate fuel mileage, I know that I added only 3.5 gallons of regular unleaded fuel to cover one jaunt of about 160 miles of mixed driving. This seems close to the EPA estimate. The little green EV icon shone quite a bit. I imagine that this is a very easy car to live with over the long haul. For Camry, this powertrain is obviously a new combination, but it’s technology that Toyota and other Asian marques have worked with for quite a while. I mostly took note that, apart from the major powertrain change, there is the evident synergy of the many small changes that make this a more nicely packaged vehicle than the last Camry. - - - - - MORE PHOTOS FORTHCOMING