Courtesy of Autoweek
Yet the cynic in us would bet that if you asked any 10 Camry owners about their engine's displacement, eight of them would be hard-pressed to come up with the answer. And that's sort of the point, isn't it? Toyota Camry owners buy their cars because they do everything they need them to do without requiring thought, engagement or fuss. Think of it as the antithesis of British car ownership, whose love is engendered partly because of the fuss.
But what, exactly, does the Camry need to do? It must be superbly family-friendly. In fact, it should make being a parent easier, literally and emotionally.
To that end, we found the rear seats perfectly suited to accommodating both an extra-large, forward-facing baby seat and a child's booster, with nice, flat seat bottoms that allowed both to sit snugly. Cars with bigger bolsters may feel “sportier” to rear-seat passengers, but they make baby-seat installation a more difficult endeavor.
The trunk can swallow 15.4 cubic feet of stuff, although if more space is needed, the rear seats fold down to allow for spillover into the passenger cabin. By comparison, the Ford Fusion offers more trunk volume, at 16.5 cubic feet. The Honda Accord sedan trails with its 14.7-cubic-foot cargo hold.
Safety is of utmost importance to the Camry buyer, so Toyota makes sure to load up its best seller with as many standard features as will fit into its $22,715 base price. That includes an entire electronic-systems glossary's worth of acronyms (VSC, TRAC, ABS, EBD, BA, etc.), 10 airbags and front whiplash-minimizing seats.
By the same token, Camry owners don't worry too much about performance track numbers. Fuel economy, sure: In our Camry SE V6 test car ($27,400 base price, $31,135 as tested), we averaged 24.7 mpg. That compares favorably with its combined EPA estimate of 25 mpg.
That said, we care about how vehicles perform at the track, so we shuttled our test car to California's Pomona Raceway to record the best numbers this best-selling Camry could throw down. The SE V6 is the raciest model in the Camry lineup, with a 3.5-liter engine turning out a family-sedan-impressive 268 hp and 248 lb-ft of torque. On the drag strip, getting to 60 mph took a quick and uneventful 6.2 seconds, and the quarter-mile came up in 14.7 seconds at a top speed of 96.4 mph. If Toyota allowed for traction control to be shut off entirely, both numbers would improve. But Toyota likely assumes that any Camry buyer getting too much wheelspin needs to be rescued—and frankly, Toyota is probably right.
Braking was perfectly acceptable, stopping from 60 mph in 124.7 feet.
Overall, we found the Camry to be comfortable, easy to live with and chock-full of the stuff most families will find important in a midsize sedan.
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