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Written by:
David Malsher
Editor, RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com
Editor, RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com
10/13/2008 - 12:36 PM
Irvine, Calif.
SE body kit lends more aggressive stance, although it swamps the standard-sized wheels in the process. (LAT photo) » More Photos
Toyota Camrys, through the generations, have been worthy and competent yet cursed with an image as sexy as roadkill. There is always a backlash against popularity as familiarity breeds contempt, and given that the Camry has been the most popular car sold in the U.S. for nine of the last 10 years, that’s a whole lot of familiarity.
In the Camry’s case, this has to be modified, because contempt isn’t the right word for the feelings it elicits. For one thing, it is a good car that earned its reputation for whipping the Big Three in terms of build quality and reliability. Secondly, Toyota’s mid-sizer simply can’t raise that amount of passionate feeling, either for or against. It’s your plain white t-shirt, your non-fat milk, your King of Queens, your post-’75 Elton John album – it’s there, it serves a purpose, but it’s highly unlikely to tweak your interest. And if it actually excites you… well, seek counseling.
But that also means it flies under the radar, and if, like me, you enjoy the idea of outperforming far more prestigious cars in your humble four-door sedan, then take a good hard look at the Camry V6. For $25k you’re getting a genuine five-seater with a 3.5-liter 268hp engine, that will hit 60mph from 0 in six seconds. It must be acknowledged here that the same kind of money will get you a Nissan Altima but its looks are more ambitious and therefore more divisive than the Camry’s.
Anonymity isn’t everyone’s bag of course, so it’s possible to personalize your Camry, and you’d be surprised at how easily a set of black’n’silver split rims can transform your ho-hum family sedan from flat to phat. If accessorizing an Accord, sexing up a Saturn and pimping a Previa are legit – and on the West Coast, it appears most car embellishments are acceptable – then there’s nothing embarrassing about cooling a Camry. (This doesn’t excuse a recent visitor to my neighborhood who had – no lie – given his sixth generation Camry a landau top. My eyeballs are still recovering from that vicious blast of automotive mace.)
Toyota’s own bodykit on the SE models,
3.5-liter V6 produces 268 useful horses. (LAT photo) » More Photos
The core product, though, is nothing to be ashamed of. From standstill, it will pass the quarter-mile mark in 14.5sec, and this is also when its six-speed gearbox is at its best, enthusiastic albeit deliberate upchanges reflecting well the driver’s intentions, as communicated from the throttle.
Kick-down, by contrast is disappointingly indecisive and tardy, with an agonizing wait reminiscent of the early days of turbo lag. A couple of times, pulling out to pass I unintentionally slowed down a following vehicle, because I had thrown the ’box into confusion by flooring the throttle. You can say I judged it wrong and I won’t argue, but most of the Camry V6’s rivals don’t have this problem, and it’s something that although you would adapt to it, would nonetheless bug you on a regular basis. If there is one thing a car should understand – to the extent that any inanimate object can “understand” – it’s the driver planting the right pedal. Switching to semi-auto mode didn’t help, either, until I planned an extra couple of seconds in advance and downchanged manually, which rather defeats the objective of an automatic gearbox.
It’s also fairly hard to understand, because the gearbox is quick to respond when, as you coast to a set of stoplights, they go green and you get back on the gas. So many cars give you a rude thump in the back or a momentarily screaming engine. The Camry V6 has it handled.
(Another thing, while we’re on the car’s weakest point. Manufacturers with semi-auto ’boxes need to have it arranged so downchanges are conducted by pushing the stick forward, upchanges by snicking it backward. It’s just logical, because when you’re hard on the brakes and the forces are dragging your whole body forward, you don’t want to be pulling on the stick against that. I won’t gripe too much here, though, as Toyota is not the only carmaker to get this wrong.)
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