Overview:
I’ve owned 10 cars thus far in my life. This Toyota Hybrid ranks second best on the list. It’s loaded with technology that gives a good mix of performance, safety, and economy. It’s a comfortable car, roomy, and very pleasant to drive. It is also very quiet even with the gasoline engine running. On electric, it is so quiet that pedestrians don’t hear you coming in parking lots. Be careful not to run them over :-) Now for the details. This is a long review, so if you are pressed for time, you might want to just review the bolded topics of interest. In my spirit that a review needs to give information but also have a little fun, forgive my attempts at sarcastic humor.

Models:
This hybrid comes in two flavors; plain vanilla and tangy. In order words, there is the basic model with MSRP at $26,200 (at time of this writing), or with the option package that includes navigation system, leather seats, 4-CD music changer, and some other goodies. This option cost about $3,200 more, so the MSRP of the fully loaded Camry hybrid is a little over $30,000 with tax and license, before beating the salesperson into submission for a discount. This fully loaded model is the one I bought. I purchased it through an auto-broker because I hate wasting time haggling with car sales people. I ordered the car and it was delivered in 48 hours and I still got it for almost $3,000 off MSRP. If you are in California or Florida, email me and I will give you the details.

Gas Mileage:
I list this first since most people are probably buying this car because of the mileage it gets. Toyota rates it close to 40/40 (city and highway). This is about as close as you are going to get to Fred Flintstone’s gas mileage without having to put your feet through the floor to pedal the car along. Quite to my surprise, this is the first car I ever bought where I’ve gotten more than the rate mileage! Thus far, I have driven about 1,300 miles and only filled it up twice with gasoline. I use it to commute to work 25 miles each way, mostly highway, but includes some city driving as well. Then on the weekends, I make the usual trips around town. I’ve been averaging about 42 miles per gallon. On one 30 mile trip, I managed to get 49 mpg. Mileage is better for me on the highway, yet even in city driving, I have been getting 38 MPG. That combination has been giving me close to 600 miles range with one tank of gas. It uses the cheaper lower octane just fine. The sister Toyota car (the Prius), is quoted at up to 60 mpg, yet everyone that has the car will say it never gets even close to that mileage. A neighbor quotes her Prius will get 50 mpg on a good day, but never 60. When I compare notes with my Camry to the her Prius, there seems to be only about a 7 mpg difference.

I’ve noticed a definite “sweet spot speed range” where I get the best mileage. Going between 50 mph and 65 mph seems to get best mileage on the highway. At speeds above 40 mph, the gasoline engine stays running regardless of whether or not you go up hill or down or have a foot on the gas pedal. However, the engine is smart enough to go to a very low idle when not needed at those speeds. In the city, the engine does not need to run much when going at a constant speed or accelerating slowing while driving under 40 mph.

Space:
The car is quite roomy internally. For a tall 6’ 2” guy like me, there is still plenty of head room and leg space. The back set is equally spacious and can comfortably carry 3 adults in the back seat for short trips without them needing to be on a Jenny Craig diet.

Trunk space… not much room for dead bodies, so if you are an axe murder, get a bigger car ;-) Some of the space is taken by the electric batteries hidden behind a partition. It’s just enough space to carry typical items, groceries, etc. Ok, so maybe I could stuff a mother-in-law in there if I put some effort into it.

Car Handling:
It sure is not a sports car! Handling is a little above average by my standards. My prior bigger, heavier Acura RL was far more responsive to maneuvers, especially sudden ones. It’s not fair to compare the Toyota to my prior car that is almost 50% more expensive, so it is only a reference for me. Curbing at medium speed is a little soft, but ok. Overall, it is a nice handling car, and the weight seems to be evenly distributed.

Car Performance:
This was better than expected. With a 4-cylinder engine in a hybrid configuration, I wasn’t expecting much. The car has more acceleration than other 4-cylinder cars I have tried, but this might be due to the electric drive also kicking in at low speeds (and from full stop), which gives more power assist to the car. Thus, you have the gasoline engine and the electric drive working together when you put the “pedal to the metal”. I was quite surprised that even at higher speeds of 80 mph out on those lone interstate highways, the performance is smooth and still gets gas mileage of at least 35mpg. One noticeable yet acceptable observation is the short hesitation and slight “shutter” of the engine as it starts up when accelerating from a full stop. Keep in mind that the engine is usually off at those low speeds, so when you put a foot on the gas pedal while stopped, the gasoline engine engages. You can feel that slight hesitation and shutter. As I said, it is not a problem for me. I easily got accustomed to it and now I don’t even notice. It’s like a grandfather clock when you first buy it. That chime noise every hour of the night is waking you up for a month until your mind gets used to it and then you never ever hear it again at night.

Safety:
Well I haven’t crashed it…. Yet. So there isn’t much I can say that the independent reports don’t already mention. It is highly rated for safety. Seven airbags are in it… front, side, curtain, and knee/leg protection for the driver. The only thing it doesn’t protect is my butt; however, I have enough cellulose padding in there already.

Navigation System:
This navigation system is one of the best I have ever seen. This one is very well thought out. There is just about every feature you can image.

To mention a negative item first; I am very disappointed that Toyota chose to lock out a user from changing the destination while driving. That should be my choice, not Toyota trying to be my parent. I guess this is done for liability reasons, yet they also include the standard “nag reminder” every time the nav system to tell you about possible accidents when using the system while driving. My Acura never had this restriction. For people that spend most of their time on the road (sales reps), I say this is good enough reason NOT to buy the car. This will make you crazy by having to pull over the car and come to a complete stop before being able to change the destination. The stupid part about having this restriction is that the nav system still lets you change all sorts of other distracting selections such as selecting detours, audio controls, etc. You can get killed just as easily by playing with those features while driving, so Toyota, what were you thinking by restricting the ability to change the destination? Dumb… really dumb! Change it !

On the positive aspects of the nav system, it allows you to find destinations by name, address or intersection (typical of all navs), or use a listed telephone number, or search by a broad set of categories. It takes hours of use to learn all of the features. The user interface is not the best I have seen. Some functions are hard to find, and are not intuitive, so you have to remember how to access some features. Overall, the nav system is really good and has many capabilities.

Bluetooth Telephone Connection:
This feature is much more important than I thought it would be. Most newer cell phones have “Bluetooth” wireless capability. This is a short range (typically 30 feet) communication protocol with other Bluetooth capable devices such as laptops and those wireless earphones that lots of people like to use these days to look important. The Bluetooth connection in the Camry works very well. It takes a one-time 10 minute setup to enter the connection values into the nav display and the cell phone, then every time I get in the car, it recognizes the cell phone and connects to it automatically. If a call comes in to the cell phone, ringing is heard through the car speaker system and the phone number is displayed on the nav system. A call can be answered by simply pressing a button on the steering column. This mutes any radio or music you might be playing so you can talk and hear the person on the phone. A microphone near the rear view mirror picks up your speech. Once the call is complete, you push another button on steering column to disconnect the call. The car speakers revert back to whatever you were listening to at the time. A nice touch is that if you were listening to CD music, the song is paused while you are on the phone, then begins playing from the same spot when you disconnect the call. Likewise you can call others by using a touchpad on the nav system or by speaking the number into the voice recognition system.

Ergonomics:
I have never liked the Toyota and Lexus ergonomic designs. There are quirks that I had to get used to. I like the way Honda (and Acura), and other cars are designed internally. There are no big problems, just annoyances. Example, to dim or brighten the headlights, you push forward or pull back on the turn signal lever. It is too easy to accidentally change to bright headlights at night when you simply want to use the turn signal. This happened several times when I was at an intersection and caused me to put the bright lights on the car across from me at a traffic light. Of course, other drivers never assume you may have made a simple mistake. They think you are rude, so the response from them is the typical one finger salute! You know which finger I mean. Sorry, I digressed off topic to give you the visual cue. Most cars have a ratchet toggle action for changing the bright headlights (click pull to toggle). That is a much better design than what Toyota and Lexus use. There are 4 or 5 other minor examples of odd control usage that require getting accustomed to using them.

Push Button Start:
I enjoy this feature a lot more than I thought I would. There isn’t any key. There is only a remote control that you keep in your pocket or purse. Therefore, when you approach the car and grab the handle to open the door, the car automatically unlocks. The same goes for the trunk; just walk back to the trunk and open it. This system is cleverly designed to prevent theft, yet not let you lock yourself out of the car. To start the car, put your foot on the brake and push the power button. Of course it won’t allow just anyone to do that. The remote device needs to be detected by the car. When you reach the destination, just push the button to turn off the car, then exit and push the button on the outside of the door to lock it. All cars should work this way. It is very convenient. Thank God that Bill Gates didn’t design this feature with Windows Mobile. Otherwise you would be rebooting your car every 10 minutes as you roll along the highway.

Other Gimics:
Some things in this car have me saying to myself “Why bother.” There are gimics that I wonder if they are of any value. Some engineers, with too much time on their hands, had solutions where there don’t seem to be any problems. Example, the tires have sensors and transmitters in the value stem that sense the tire pressure and transmit that information to the car dashboard. Lights inform you that a tire is flat. So let me ask… How stupid does a person have to be to not hear the thump thump thump, loud noise, handling problems, and other cars honking at you when you get a flat tire? Do you really need a computer to tell you that? Toyota, my house needs a paint job. Can you send over a couple engineers? They have nothing better to do.

Displayed information:
There is far too much to talk about on this topic, and you are already getting bored, so let’s leave some mystery for you to discover on your own. I’ll just summarize this topic by saying that the display/nav system and dashboard give you lots of information about the car, how it is performing, what it is doing, sound system features, etc. It will sometime seem to train you to drive in a manner that is most efficient.

Amount Paid (US$): 28000
Condition: New
Model Year: 2007