Any veteran of the Detroit Auto Show knows that you can find some pretty impressive metal in hotels and parking lots around the auto show. Although a large percentage of the media is controlled to i ssue courtesy of GM, Ford, and some other manufacturers, another significant number of journos arrive loaners from 911 AWD Targas BMW X-somethings. Frankly, however, I could not even move me to be jealous of these parasites. After all, I had won the lottery car rental and got something that I even prefer the chrome responsible Winter whips release the most.
My penchant for Toyota semi-sporty take on the family car is well documented. After reading the experience of Tim Cain with a new generation V6 XSE I am very eager to get one of those on the track and see if it can match my V6 Accord. Of course, I am an Agreement-ian committed for a year now, enough that I am also eager to take a final spin in the old car to see if it matched my memory.
The 2014 model received a revised infotainment system, with more than last #PixelsAndStuff SE I drove. Apart from that, it was the same car, it was for a few years now. As with my previous car, the powertrain is the 2.5L I-4 to 178 horsepower through a six-speed automatic. Im curious how the Camry and begin running time well below zero surrounding the show; the first night I had the car, it was about four degrees zer o and when I spilled some soda on the doorsill of the Camry froze solid before I could wipe. I do not have worried. Only a gross changes in the first minutes have betrayed the temperature and the heating was actually worked in the four minutes of departure. I guess what happens when you have a bored-out block with extremely tight water jackets.
The 2013 revisions of the agreement put the Camry a little late in the surprise and joy-segment. The Honda LaneWatch in particular is just great and I prefer for the control you get with anything else (including Acura TLX). That said, Toyota is not without its charms. I prefer the wheel of the Honda Camry anything nowadays offer. The seats, too, are clearly more favorable and less fragile than what you get in Sport Accord. Moreover, Honda offers an appropriate climate control at the same price you get two waves buttons in the Camry, and the price you pay for two-screen center stack in the Toyota gets you three in the Agreement.
Not that you read this review for a comparison of fixed-price features Aspergers approved. You can get other places, or so I am always told by the internet. What you want to know how the Camry is comparable to the Accord four-cylinder dynamically, so you know which one to rent for your next trackday flyaway. Well, my friend, go ahead and ring the bell because its Camry by knockout in the middle of the first round.
Or the first corner of the third round, anyway, which is about all it takes to realize that Honda has no idea how the heat capacity of a sedan modern needs to slow down several times to speed. The Agreement is horribly underbraked and thats true no matter what you get because the alternative if you do not plump for the V-6 you get even small bin brakes the Flintstones-spec on my chopped off. In addition, the Camry is more tossable, gives you more feedback through the wheel and automatic transmission unscored-ness evidence for people who do not move th eir own sedans, which is roughly everybody.
Toyota had been kind enough to offer a six-speed in a Camry V-6-powered sedan, I would have taken that in a heartbeat if the same agreement in 2014 was obviously the song swan this Camry. Because they have not, the Agreement fired two efficient units moving in the retail race and now you will be subject to my review of the Agreement a year over the next weeks. Its a damn shame because Im not sure Toyota is not the best V-6. Im almost certain they have a little better four.
In a 470-mile journey across frozen wasteland of Michigan that included a good amount of time at a pawnshop in more dinners and customary holidays my Camry returned 31.3mpg. I will not spare any of the 178 horses. I fed this mixture of 87 octane winter. More than once I let it idle outside my hotel for ten minutes or more because Im lazy and I thought I combine the loading-up process with the warming process. Once in a weak access to age and lesion induced, I started immediately and revved five great for a whole minute for the heat might work.
You get the idea. I was strong enough on this Camry harder than perhaps I was entitled to be thirty-seven dollars a day or whateve r the rate was. Yet the fact is that Ive never rented a Camry that seemed terribly confused by the abuse that I and others piled on it. No, its not-but-name Lexus in everything the 92 Camry was, but it is also cheaper in real dollars and it does not seem to be much less reliable. All Camry is to be as good as competition in empirical terms, and near them on intangible assets and can win because he is a proven quantity.
However, the Camry has been winning lately, at least not with retail customers. Maybe it is the new car smell of the revised and upscale-looking agreement, perhaps it is the knowledge that there is a new Camry on the way, perhaps is the fact that Honda provides a stick-shift and cut and sometimes both together. Regardless, it is an interesting choice, both new and used.
In the rest of the segment, the superiority of the old Camry is clearer. Having recently rented a CVT Altima for a while on a Texas race track, I can attest that the Camry whips six w ays to Sunday: power, handling and braking efficiency. Malibu? Be serious. Fusion? This is a more expensive car for a different type of buyer. The Mazda6? You can get it with a stick, but it is actually not as well on a race track as a Camry. (Unfortunately, I drove the Mazda for another exit, so I can not give you all the details here, but suffice it to say that I would take the Camry.) The Sonata and Optima? Not everyone is ready to make the 100,000 mile bet on them even if the warranty is long.
With any luck, Ill be able to check 2015 in the near future. I promise to get one on the track as quickly as possible and take a few scalps with it. Meanwhile, the current car is more than adequate for the price, as a proposal for a rental, and a single property.