My weekend with a Cammmrr... zzzzzz

[222Max]

Oh, huh? Must have dozed off there for a minute.

Just spent a wonderful week in Vancouver, Canada. You folks who live there, I envy you. You have a fantastic city. But I digress. While there my wife and I rented a 2007 Toyota Camry. The kind you can see everywhere coming and going in white-bread America. After 3 days with the best selling car in the U.S. I am not just less than impressed. I'm thoroughly underwhelmed and am wondering why they sell so many of these things.

The best I can come up with is that the car, like the 4-cylinder model I had, is so transparent that it almost seems to disappear from under and around you and anesthetizes you into forgeting you're operating a machine of any sort. In a word the Camry is the "un-car".

I could go into detail about how numb and light the steering felt or about how utterly confused the transmission seemed most of the time. You just get in and go down the street. But hey, who am I to judge? That's what most of America is doing anyway, right.

It was comfy alright, with all the benign friendliness of the late Mister Rogers (But lacking even his character. Even ole Fred Rogers had the quality of "creepy" going for him). It was a thoroughly unexciting... let be back up a bit... make that uninteresting ride. How I wish I could have had an Altima or a Mazda 6 or even a Chevy Cobalt. Just something more than this total snooze mobile.

Even more puzzling for me was the sloppy construction of this example. I figure that, if for no other reason, people buy Camrys for thier rock-solid construction and durability. But the interior of this car revealed some shocking inattention to fit and finish with numerous panel gaps, surprisingly hard, cheap-feeling surfaces and flimsy storage lids. Wait. this is the venerable Toyota Camry? The quality benchmark in the segment? Something seemed amiss here. Maybe other Camrys are much better made than this one was.

I was grateful to the car for taking us every where we wanted to go and, I must admit, the fuel gauge hardly moved at all during the hundreds of miles we logged on it. The car was great on the gas.

I'm glad I got the chance to actually live with a Camry for some real street time. It helped me to realize that I could never even consider owning such a car. I had not one regret about handing the keys back to the rental agency once we were done with it.

But America loves it, and apparently so does Canada. Thousands of happy, sleepy drivers glide along in the Camry every day. I still can't understand why, but more power to em. I just wonder how they all stay awake long enough not to crash into to anything during the rush hour commute...

[RonSteinbach]

Oh, huh? Must have dozed off there for a minute.

I just wonder how they all stay awake long enough not to crash into to anything during the rush hour commute...
If you bought the thing, your anger driving it each day would keep you wide awake. Go to: http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0c6927/3983

There are over 400 pages of complaints on that board, most of them over the transmission and engine RPM surges.:mad:

[NSE70]

It appears the majority of people dislike feeling jittering bumps on their commute.
More companies are moving toward the Camry's soft suspension.

I rather like a bumpy ride. I just get a little worried when I'm carrying electronic cargo in the car... hopefully the shakes won't destroy my stuff.

I suspect the Camry's high mechanical reliability also comes from the soft suspension cushioning the components from strong jolting forces so well.

[M_TYPE_X]

The Camry gained its reputation on price and being better than Ford and GM.

[miata007]

M type X
You are trying to say Camry are cheap ($$) compare Accord and others?
I have to disagree if that is the case.

On the latest generation, the interior of the cars definately have cost cutting in them.

007

[07G35S]

No.. he's right, they built a reputation making sound, reliable, well-priced automobiles, but now they're just slacking off and selling cars that people ASSUME are still reliable, not to mention the price of the Camry has gone up in price considerably.

[M_TYPE_X]

Camrys may not always have been cheap, but the customer pays nothing extra for body cladding options or other BS of little to no value. If you spend money, you get upgraded interior or performance, not merely different colored plastic.

[RetAF]

I wish Infiniti would learn their fuel economy secret.

[M_TYPE_X]

Toyota's fuel economy and reliability secret is easy: don't overtune the engines. Honda tunes their engines, but you get revs, not output. :p

[badhobz]

Glad to see that you enjoyed Vancouver. It is a very beautiful city but its very very expensive to live in. Most middle class income families are being forced into langely or surrey areas as the prices for an average home in vancouver is close to 1 million.

Yes there are tons of camrys in vancouver too. most of them driven by asian soccer moms hahah.

[M_TYPE_X]

Vancouver's suburbs aren't terribly interesting, but it's not a large metro like Chicago or Detroit.


Yes there are tons of camrys in vancouver too. most of them driven by asian soccer moms hahah.

You just described any suburban road in Canader.

[222Max]

Vancouver's suburbs aren't terribly interesting, but it's not a large metro like Chicago or Detroit.

I would disagree. I lived in Chicago (I think you still do M_T_X) and still get back there quite often. Vancouver seemed bigger than Detroit (population 2.5 million or so and growing), It was closer to Chicago in dimenson.

The striking thing about Vancouver is the immense building boom that is now happening. There are nearly as many cranes dotting the skyline as finished highrises... and I mean there are a LOT of highrises. I've never seen such a concentration of highrise residential development. Of course they are preping for the 2010 Winter Games so that is added to the development.

I was very impressed but I also got the sense that it is a city where only high-rollers could live well. We actually rented a condo in one of these swank towers for the week. If it was indicative of most of downtown you get a nicely furnished but tiny (750-800 sq. ft.) condo or apartment for big dollar.

I must also add that the homeless quotient appeared quite high there as well. An unfortunate side effect of the kind of income disparity you get in such a place (We saw this in Seattle as well).

But we enjoyed the heck out of the place. In 5 years I can only imagine how much more the city will have grown.

[NSE70]

Canadian white people are hillbilly farmers?
Canadian cities are run by asians?
Wow. I didn't know Canada was completely run by yellow people.

And I didn't even know asians can play soccer. So many stereotypes blown!

[M_TYPE_X]

Recalling the record ... I'm from metro Detroit, lived and loved (and still love) Ann Arbor, was in Akron/Cleveland burbs for one year, and am now living indefinitely in mid-state Illinois. I don't get up to Chicagoland as much as I would like, but when I do, I usually rock the highway.

Downtown Detroit is a pit. Cleveland and Vancouver both resemble Chicago more in that respect that they do Detroit. Suburban Vancouver does sprawl to the southeast. I felt completely safe in Abbotsford, although that's kinda far out in the boonies, a satellite of sorts. I don't know Montreal-Laval so well, so I won't comment on that, but otherwise Toronto is the only Canadian city with real American-style suburbs. Markham, etc

Seattle and Vancouver resemble each other culturally and economically, although I vastly prefer Seattle, especially if I am gonna be paying to live. Vancouver is probably closer to better ski areas; I don't get the idea that the passes east of Seattle are as nice as the mountains immediately north of Vancouver.

If you like the name 'Vancouver,' there is always Vancouver, Washington. The bad part about it is that it's near to Portland, Oregon and is the more boring side of metro PDX. The good part is that you don't have to live under Oregon laws and rules, which are just plain weird.

Then again, the plains, mountains, and Pacific NW are just weird. I'll take Illinois' pseudo-Ohioness anyday. (Who am I kidding?! When is Seattle gonna hire me?!)

If Canada wasn't so Canadian, I could live in Thunder Bay or Toronto or Vancouver. Sudbury sucks. Are Calgary or Edmonton anything like Sudbury? I've been to Banff and that other park, but not the cities.

[WhereHaveYouBeen]

Whenever I'm in Canada I feel like I'm in middle-earth.


Detroit's population is somewhere around 800K and shrinking everyday. Blame the people in charge of Detoilet and Michicrap.

[Nismo]

It appears the majority of people dislike feeling jittering bumps on their commute.
More companies are moving toward the Camry's soft suspension.

I rather like a bumpy ride. I just get a little worried when I'm carrying electronic cargo in the car... hopefully the shakes won't destroy my stuff.

I suspect the Camry's high mechanical reliability also comes from the soft suspension cushioning the components from strong jolting forces so well. Good observation.

Years ago, I worked as an aircraft tech. Some of the aircraft I worked on were equipped with turbofan engines (most laypeople would call these "jet engines"), while others had turboprops (also jet engines, but many people might call them "props"). Both aircraft were about the same age, measured in flight hours & years, but the turboprops consistently had more problems. Many of the problems with the turboprop aircraft were directly related to vibration (loose bolts, rubbing parts, chafed wires, etc.) while other problems could not directly be related to vibration but probably were (bad relays, loose connection problems, early structural fatigue, and so on).

In my own car, I installed a remote-mount radar detector receiver unit in the front bumper area. It worked fine while the car was stock. But then, after installing much harder shocks & springs, the unit failed after 3-6 months. A replacement unit also failed in 3-6 months. Meanwhile, I installed an identical unit in a different car with a much softer suspension; it's been five years now and that unit still works great.

[kyo7878]

If you bought the thing, your anger driving it each day would keep you wide awake.
I couldn't stop laughing :D

[SHIFT_6speeds]

Got my Canadian Cities mixed up..so deleted my post..LOL

Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto..seen one, you've seen em all right? LOL

[M_TYPE_X]

Why are we talking aboot Canader? Nummer one US car is Camary! by TOYOTA :p

[222Max]

Why are we talking aboot Canader? Nummer one US car is Camary! by TOYOTA :p

Yea. What a boring piece of... nice car.

[joeB]

The only thing I liked about the Camry I drove was the power the V-6 had.
I don't know how Motor Trend gave it car of the year though. The interior
looks good until you start to touch things. Id say the interior of my 03
Altima was better than the Camry I drove. Toyota's interiors are really
getting cheap, the Rav4 has some really hard cheap feeling materials,
especially on the dash. :)

[Jesda]

The Camry gained its reputation on price and being better than Ford and GM.

That wasnt much of a challenge in the 80s, 90s, and some of the 2000s.

[Nismo]

Toyota's interiors are really getting cheap... Yes they are. I don't understand why the automotive media doesn't pickup up on this more. :confused:

[SouthStar019]

i wounder what kinda sound the camry makes when you close the door on it. metal to plastic? sometimes the sound of the door closes can make you seem cool een if your not. i think.