update 6/11/8:32 am: Reader j.pickens questions the true benefits of a hybrid. Read my response here.
update 6/10/06 2:22 pm: Welcome Instapundit readers! (and others)
update 6/10/06 2:20 pm: I made another roadtrip, this time to Chicago, that revealed some additional insights : In the Chicago freeway system, the DVD navigation does use exit numbers in the audio guidance, but in my local Cedar Rapids area, I just get “stay right“ or “exit right” even though the exit number is displayed on the screen. I do not know why it isn't the same in both cases. Also, Chicago had an additional level of detail in the map, where I could zoom down and see a street level view. This is more than just the 150 foot view that shows street names, it was almost like playing an old atari video game, it was trying to draw the streets from above, including buildings. I do not have this option in Cedar Rapids. Also, regarding the power of the hybrid engine - While I still say I feel the engine ealier I may have over emphasized this effect in my description below; further, the amount of “drag“ seems to be related to the current battery level. With a full battery, I do not feel the drag at all, but when it is low it is more noticable, because all the power needs to come from the combustion engine. Also, some of the difference is due to expectations from years of driving a normal car. I was driving through town yesterday in electric mode, with cruise control set at 40 mph. The car seems slower than it is, because you don't hear any sound, don't have any engine vibration, etc. This leads to a feeling of slowness, which is entirely subjective, since you are actually moving along at 40mph.
update : Made several corrections and clarifications based on feedback.
I picked up my new hybrid Camry on July 2nd, and have driven in for my work commute several times, plus a trip from Iowa City, to Madison, Wisconsin and back (~173 miles each way)
I am going to keep this review pretty empty of quantitative numbers like horsepower, and volts, etc. These numbers are available all over the web, and I won’t provide any value by repeating them here. This review focuses on my experience and thoughts while driving the Toyota Camry Hybrid.
Just to let you know where I am coming from, I upgraded from a 2002 Volkswagen Passat V6 GLX. The Passat is big, nicely appointed, and has lots of power, so I was a bit worried about the transition to the hybrid Camry. Also, I am an aggressive driver, I tend to drive ~80MPH on the freeway, and 40’s on the streets. I notice that I am being less aggressive in the Camry, which might have two reasons. 1) I’m trying to maximize my fuel efficiency, since its very easy to notice in the car, and its one of the reasons for buying the Hybrid Camry, and 2) the Camry does have less power than the Passat, and I am feeling my “push” more. As I said I averaged around 80MPH in the Passat, but would often find my self daydreaming along in the 90s. I doubt that will happen in the Toyota Camry, because I definitely feel the engine earlier.
I had been looking at the hybrids for a while, in particular the Prius, but I needed more size and more luxury than the Prius provided. I put down my deposit for the Camry as soon as they were announced, and have been waiting (not so patiently) ever since.
After several delays (including repairing some cosmetic damage to the car while it was shipped from Japan :( ), I got my car on the 2nd. The hybrid Camry comes with quite a bit standard, that is optional on the non-hybrid Camry, plus quite a few options. However, in reality, there are only two hybrid builds available: the base model, and the loaded model. There are in between models out there, but they are much more rare. This can also vary by region, but if you want something other than base or loaded, be prepared to wait. The loaded model comes with leather, DVD navigation, and a sun/moon roof. I got the loaded model, in Barcelona Red, with tan leather interior.
Hybrid
Most of the features in the Toyota Camry Hybrid are available in some form in the other models of Camry, or in other non-Toyota cars, so quite a bit of this post applies to every new Camry, or even every new Toyota. But the hybrid drive is what makes this car special.
When you start the car (again, by pushing a button, not by turning a key) some lights turn on, but the car remains totally silent. Depending on the engine temperature (which is based on your climate, or how recently you drove the car) the engine may stay off completely; but usually the engine turns on automatically to start warming up the engine when you need its power later. If the engine stays off, you can drive around in electric only (EV-Only) mode, until you run out of battery power, get up to 40MPH, or need additional power. The “power” requirement is pretty low. For the way I drive, the engine turns on pulling out of any stop light, or parking lot, and even going up a modest incline. However, once you get up to speed (while staying below 40) you can engage EV mode by lifting your foot off the gas for a second. Also, going into cruise control will often put the car into EV.
Toyota’s marketing, and the general scuttlebutt claim that the Hybrid Camry (and the Prius and Highlander) are CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission). This is not actually true. In a true CVT, you have an effectively infinite number of gears, and you run at whichever one will give you maximum efficiency. For the Hybrid Synergy Drive that the Camry, Prius, and Highlander use, there is actually only one gear, regardless of your speed. For details of how the HSD works, I recommend reading these articles : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Synergy_Drive and http://www.ecrostech.com/prius/original/Understanding/ContinuouslyVariableTransmission.htm
The effect of this engine design is that the engine is always at the same gear, regardless of your speed, but that power can be directed to the battery or the wheels is different ratios depending on current needs. The Hybrid Camry drives like a CVT, in that there are no gear shifts as you apply power.
According to the quantitative reviews, the Hybrid Camry accelerates almost as quickly as the V6 Camry, and faster than the 4 cylinder model. It accelerates fine for my purposes, especially merging into traffic from a parking lot, or getting up to highway speeds, but I do notice some sluggishness accelerating from 40 to 60 MPG. While I don’t feel that I am over-taxing the engine, I can definitely feel the push and hear the engine when getting up to 60-70MPH, but this may also be due to my aggressive driving habits.
Once up to speed, especially when using cruise control, the engine works much less to maintain speed. When accelerating, my fuel efficiency gauge often shows between 10-20 MPG, but then once I am at speed in the 60 MPH, the fuel efficiency will sit at 60MPG. The FE gauge only goes up to 60MPG, so it is possible that my actual efficiency is even higher. I wish it had a digital gauge, or went up to 100 or something so you could have more information. When going up a hill, the Camry will drop down to around 30MPG, but then quickly climb up to 60 when flat or downhill.
In my Passat, my fuel efficiency was consistently around 22-24MPG for my commute (90% highway, at 80MPH). With the Camry I seem to be driving slightly slower (70-75) and my efficiency is 38. According to the efficiency database at http://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/toyota-camryhybrid.html some people are consistently getting 40+ MPG, but they may have better driving habits than I. The average is right around 38/39, which matches right up with the EPA estimates. This is unusual, as the EPA usually overestimates mileage by quite a bit.
(update copied from above)
While I still say I feel the engine ealier I may have over emphasized this effect in my description; further, the amount of “drag“ seems to be related to the current battery level. With a full battery, I do not feel the drag at all, but when it is low it is more noticable, because all the power needs to come from the combustion engine. Also, some of the difference is due to expectations from years of driving a normal car. I was driving through town yesterday in electric mode, with cruise control set at 40 mph. The car seems slower than it is, because you don't hear any sound, don't have any engine vibration, etc. This leads to a feeling of slowness, which is entirely subjective, since you are actually moving along at 40mph.
Gadget Factor
The gadget factor of this car is through the roof. Everything starts with the smart key system. You walk out of your house's front door, and put the keys into your pocket. Without unlocking the car (either with a key, or with a remote) just walk up to the car and pull on the door handle. If the key fob is close enough to the car (real close, within a few feet) the door unlocks. By default, this only unlocks the drivers door (or the passenger's door if you are on that side, the key distance is really accurate!) but you can reprogram the car to unlock both sides, or all four doors as well (I have not done this personally, but its what I've read elsewhere) You get into the car, and leave the keys in your pocket. Hit the “start“ button, and the car turns on. At this point, the car is ready to drive, even though the engine may not be on! The dash is very modern, with nice LED backlit readouts and displays. In the location where the tachometer would normally be, there is a Fuel Efficiency gauge that goes from 0 to 60MPG, plus an additional area for electric-only.
I mentioned the key fob, my hybrid Toyota Camry came with two fobs, and no keys! The fob looks just like a normal remote control you might get with any car. There is a very small, hidden key inside the fob, that you can extract. But there are no keyholes on the car doors, or inside the car by the ignition, so I have no idea what they are for. It took about a week to get into the habit of not getting my keys out as I approach my Camry, only to put them back in my pocket when I remembered I don’t need them to start the car. The downside of this feature is that its easy to walk out of the car while leaving it running, since there are no keys to remove, and the engine is often totally silent (off) when you are not in motion. I have been told that there are keyholes in the car in the drivers door, for the trunk, and for the glove box, but I haven't seen them yet.
If you have the navigation option, the multi function display shows lots of information about fuel efficiency, and how the battery, electric motor, engine, and wheels are interacting. Non-navigation models do not have this display. Either way, there is a small LCD screen on the dash that shows some of this information, as well as the odometer, outside temperature, trip computer, etc.
DVD Navigation
The gadget factor continues with the center console of the car, which contains the DVD navigation system, the stereo and CD system, and the climate control area. My previous car did not have built in navigation, but I did have the Garmin Streetpilot III, which at the time of purchase was the top of the line stand alone navigation system. This was the first navigation system widely available that included voice guidance, and turn by turn directions. The Toyota system (actually made by Denso, using NavTech maps) is significantly better than my older Garmin system. The DVD claims total coverage of the continental US, and Canada, with detailed coverage around most population centers. So far, I have not found any areas that did not provide street level coverage, including some very small towns (~5k population) in rural Wisconsin. The maps seem to be fairly up to date, so far I have only come across two roads which were not on the system, both of which are very recent (within the last year) highways which were moved over about 1/2 mile from their original location. On the other hand, my friend just moved into a new subdivision, where his is the only house on the block, and his next door neighbor is a cornfield, and his streets were there. (I kid you not, he lives on the corner of Abbey Road and Penny Lane!). The system is very good at finding routes, it even picked my families secret, shortcut route to our lake house, that we have been passing down from generation to generation, using all back roads - over the very easy 3 turn all highway route that takes quite a bit longer.
One criticism I had of my older navigation system, was the way that it dealt with highway exists. Most often, highway exists are on the right side of the road, even if you eventually end up going to the left (via an under/overpass). My old system would say turn left (the direction of the highway), even when you actually had to turn right (the direction of the exit). The Toyota Camry system handles this correctly , but it still uses “turn right“ or “keep right“ for the exits, when I would prefer (“exit 242 to Highway 380 East“) , which is completely unambiguous, and matches up with the signs that you would be looking at. I would even settle for “exit right“, which makes sense, but “keep right“ is confusing a bit; especially when there is a clear exit, vs. just a lane split.
The voice guidance is very clear, in a nice natural sounding female voice. You can also have the voice guidance in French or Spanish as well. (The French actually sounds more natural than the English to me, but that may be due to my recognizing subtleties of English better). All the menus for the entire car get translated as well.
In addition to voice guidance, the Camry supports voice activation. You push a button on the steering wheel, and then can give commands. Commands apply to all parts of the car (including navigation, phone, stereo, climate, etc). To use the navigation by voice you say “Address“. Then you say each part of the address, punctuated by additional pushes of the wheel button. So for example you do:
Button. “Address“, button, “Wisconsin“, button, “Madison“, button, “Main Street“, button, “one-two-one-two“
The system confirms and repeats each section of the address, and if you mess up a section, you can re-do it. This part of the system is a little flakey, and you have to speak very clearly. The system would continually give me “Sarona“ when I was saying “Verona“, and it took several attempts.
By default the system gives assistance, which makes the process much longer, and requires additional button pushes on the wheel. I turned this off as soon as I figured out how. (Its in the Info->Setup menu)
The navigation screen supports several display modes, including a very useful split screen mode, where each side of the split can display the local map, but at different zoom levels, so you can keep the 2 view on the left, and the 150 foot view on the right. You can do full screen map, as well as split screen with information on the right, such as upcoming exits (along with which restaurants and gas are at that exit). The navigation does not offer a 3d mode. I think the 3d mode is mainly a novelty, but if you like that type of display, you may miss it.
For safety, the system turns off quite a bit of the screen input when the car is in motion. This is true even if there is an additional passenger in the seat that could be doing the data entry. However, the voice activation remains available at all times.
There is an override back door to the system that allows data entry while in motion. I will tell this secret code here, but recommend it only be used by a passenger, and not by the driver. You use this code at your own risk, and neither I, Toyota, and probably not your insurance carrier will be responsible for any accidents you cause while not paying attention in this mode.
To Override : Push the menu button, push the volume icon in the middle the screen, push the volume icon in the top left corner of the screen, push the bottom left corner (with no icon), push the volume icon in the top left corner of the screen (again), push the botton left corner (with no icon) (again). At this point a new menu appears. Some cool stuff here like the GPS satellite data. I would not mess with stuff though, because you might screw up your car. One of the buttons says “override“ push and hold this button for 5 seconds, then release. The button will stay blue. Then push the back button.
At this point, you can use all input functions while in motion. This code can also be used while in motion. You must re-enter the code every time you turn your car on, but it can be done in 6-7 seconds.
Be careful, if you enter the hidden menu, and then something comes on the screen, you can get locked from the screen, have to pull over, and restart the car. This happened to me when I put the radio into “scan“ mode, then went into the menu and could not get out of the menu or stop scanning, until I restarted.
One thing I found that I did not like about the navigation, is that cities and points of interest are split into regions of the country, presumably to make searches go faster. You have to manually choose the region you are searching for (which gets saved) rather than using your current region by default. This is particularly lame if you live on the edge of a region like I do, where Iowa is in one region, but Wisconsin and Illinois are in the next one over, and I have to keep switching my region as I am looking for my destination.
(update copied from above)
In the Chicago freeway system, the DVD navigation does use exit numbers in the audio guidance, but in my local Cedar Rapids area, I just get “stay right“ or “exit right” even though the exit number is displayed on the screen. I do not know why it isn't the same in both cases. Also, Chicago had an additional level of detail in the map, where I could zoom down and see a street level view. This is more than just the 150 foot view that shows street names, it was almost like playing an old atari video game, it was trying to draw the streets from above, including buildings. I do not have this option in Cedar Rapids.
Phone
The Toyota Camry supports Bluetooth integration with your cell phone. I believe this is available even in the base model. I use a rather obscure phone, the HTC Universal (also known as iMate JasJar, or Dopod 9000). The Bluetooth integration works great. You just pair the phone, and then everything else is automatic. You can dial from the car 4 ways: voice dial via number (“eight zero zero, five five five one two one two”) voice dial via name “Mom”, phonebook on the navigation display, or via the keypad on the navigation display. The car supports phone book transfer via vCard, but only some phones support vCard sending, and mine is not one of them, so I can’t tell you how that works. You can also dial from your phone either manually or through a phonebook, and the car automatically picks up the call.
The phone goes through the Camry speaker system, and is very clear to hear, even at high speed. I have the Motorola Bluetooth speakerphone that I used in my Passat, and this is MUCH easier to hear. The microphone pickup seems very good, nobody has complained about me being on a speakerphone or carphone, and they used to do so regularly with the Motorola. I even asked a co-worker if they could tell I was in the car when they called me, and they said no, just sounded like a normal cell phone. I did open up the sunroof once while talking to my mom, and she said it sounded like I got into an accident, so closing windows, sunroof, and perhaps slowing down may be needed to maximize sound quality.
Stereo
The stereo is great, although I am not a huge audiophile, and I don’t have a tricked out audio system in any of my cars. All stereo adjustments are made via the computer display, including adjusting bass/mid/treble, and 4 way balance (left/right/front/back).
The tuner has a dedicated seek knob, dedicated power/volume, and a scan button on the dash, as well as power, volume and seek on the steering wheel. The steering wheel seek only goes between your programmed stations, I would have preferred an option to seek across all channels. The channel display appears in the multi function display (with the nav), and is hidden unless you are changing channels or volume. When displaying the channel, the radio will automatically pick up and display the station call sign, and genre, if the station is transmitting it. (In my area, about 25% of the stations are sending it) This also enables a “genre scan” from the display, which will do a normal station scan, but discard any stations that aren’t from your specified genre.
The Camry includes an in dash CD changer, as well as the DVD player for the Navigation. The Navigation model has a 4 disk changer, the non-nav model has a 6 disk changer. The disk slots are hidden behind the navigation display, which pops out when you press the load button. This is very “James Bond” and produces lots of “oohs and aahs”. You feed disks one at a time into the slot. You can take out and replace the navigation DVD, but if you put in a movie, it will not play. There are rumors of a backdoor that will enable DVD movie playback, but I do not know it, or know if it is real.
Body
The 2007 Camry looks very nice. It has a sportier, much more luxurious look than previous Camrys. Around here, it seems like ever 3rd car I pass is a Corolla or Camry, and the older models look very economy. The new one does not suffer from this at all. My only objection to the body styling is the nose. The nose is a bit blunt for my tastes, somewhat like a snub-nosed revolver, but it seems like this look is in vogue right now, and you may like it more than I do. Pictures are available throughout the web, so I won't post here, unless someone really wants to see my particular car.
Trunk
The other negative for the hybrid Camry body is the trunk. Both the regular car battery and the hybrid battery are in the trunk. This leads to significantly reduced trunk space. The official numbers are 10.6 cubic feet for the hybrid trunk, vs 15 cubic feet for the trunk of the standard Camry. For my trip to Wisconsin, I was able to fit one midsized roller bag, one large duffel, my large camera bag (gym bag sized), and a backpack. There was space for some smaller items (such as a purse or additional backpack) but no more luggage. The roller bag fit widthwise (with the long side of the bag aligned with the rear end (X axis)). It almost fit lengthwise (aligned with the side of the car (Z Axis)) and may have fit with some squishing, but I didn't want to risk messing up the car on the first week. Your bag may fit better, but for a full-sized roller bag, I think you will be stuck with the wide orientation or the back seat. I did notice the trunk is fairly deep (Y Axis) and you can stack more than item on top of each other. The trunk also has a pass-through into the rear seat, but this is largely blocked by the hybrid battery. The actual pass-through is quite small, and would only be useful for some skis or 2x4s or something. Another problem with the pass-through is that it is above the hybrid battery, which is in the lower rear of the trunk. I would be wary of putting any heavy items in that location. The Toyota Prius has the hybrid battery in a more form fitting shape, which does not have as a noticeable impact on carrying space. I hope this gets improved in future versions of the Camry. If your primary concern is carrying things, vs. carrying people, you may be better off with the Prius (or the Highlander, or Escape if you get into SUV territory) One reader said a good idea for cerrying luggage if you are only using the front seats, is to use the fold down seats. Even though you can't use the passthrough for luggage, you can save your cloth/leather by using the back of the seats.
Summary
I am very happy with the new car, but there are a few areas that need some improvement for future models. I hope this review helps you make a decision!
Print | posted on Thursday, July 06, 2006 1:06 PM