no longer content resting on its laurels toyota has aggressively redesigned the
camry for 2015 to be honest it probably need to do too
much it's already the best-selling car out there but what they did they did a
lot it's new from the ground up with the chassis that's lower longer stronger and
wider camry hasn't been cars coms favorite vehicle in a midsize sedan
challenge it placed seventh out of ninth but a lot has changed for 2018 in
summary it's good why did the kamilly finished seventh internal s comparison
well a lot of it was it didn't drive particularly well and there are numerous
safety features advanced safety features like collision avoidance and blind spot
and lane departure assist that just weren't widely available on the more
popular trim levels and both have been addressed in big ways for 2018 the new
Camry drives so much better that new chassis has done wonders to the way the
car drives both in ride quality and handling now previously on some of the
sporty or Camry models the SC and the XS II they rode rough the suspension
crashed over bumps but there really wasn't much reward and handling that has
been completely flipped for 2018 the SE and the XS II handled really well and
ride quality is good which is kind of amazing to actually say that because
they're able to do it without any adaptive suspension or you know trick
shock absorbers the SE and the XS II use unique shock and spring Tooting now the
whole suspension has been redone there's different shock tuning up front from the
McPherson struts and then in back the double wishbone suspension is all-new
and what that means is this is the Camry that drives really well
it hugs the corner more so than you would expect for this kind of car the
new Camry has a very very refined ride so the Camry drives great in the SE and
xsv models but what about the base model you know the le the xle well those drive
well - all of that same suspension goodness and chassis strengthening works
really well on the base models - overall just a much more pleasant vehicle to
drive in any way you cut it highway in the corners now the big
difference comes in wheel size the XL e which is larger wheel has a little bit
more wheel motion we are going over bumps the ride is a little busier than
the Le which has a very small wheel and a tall side well tire that soaks up the
bumps a little better if you're looking for the most comfortable cami the Le are
the ones I've driven say on this introductory drive is the one that you
want so there are two new engines for 2018 the 4-cylinder is all new and the
v6 is kind of a worked over version of what's been available previously so four
cylinder is going to make up most of Camry sales
now the chassis is new the suspension is new but there's a 2.5 liter
four-cylinder that makes 203 or 206 horsepower depending if you buy the
sporty or trim levels it's pretty good engine a lot of automakers have switched
to turbochargers for their base engines small displacement turbocharged engines
but Toyota has stuck with a rather large displacement 2.5 liter and it works I
mean it has a lot of low-end grunt for being naturally aspirated and it pulls
the cam very well my one gripe with it though is
the noise it's a little grainy sounding engine and it doesn't sound very refined
even though power is great fuel economy is good to up to 41 miles per gallon on
the highway in some trim levels but it's not a completely refined sounding engine
now the other option which only 5% of people will buy according to Toyota is
the v6 now this is the engine that wants to fry the tires it's a lot of power and
the new 8-speed transmission that's on both the four-cylinder and six-cylinder
manages the power very well it has it's very refined growl
and a surprisingly quick for what it is that we fix engine in the sporty XSP
package it's a car very few people are going to buy but that is the most
exciting car in the Camry lineup and it's still kind of weird saying fun and
exciting when you're talking about a Toyota Camry but they did it with the
2018 there's a lot of new technology inside Camry and it all should sound
somewhat familiar if you're shopping for a midsize sedan but with Camry does is
combine it all in one package so on higher-end trim levels you have options
like an around view monitor a head-up display and 4G in-car wireless internet
but there haven't been a car in the segment to combine all of those until
now you have to pay for it because it's on the top-end trim levels but it
creates a very unique package and all the features on their own are done
pretty well the head-up display it's very detailed and it can give you a
tachometer as well as an economy gauge to show you how efficient you're driving
as well as the adaptive cruise control setting and lane departure warning the
4G Wireless is the fastest 4G enough for three be some Carter still
using and then there's the backup camera the around view monitor which is
honestly it's done that or in other places the screen here the resolution
isn't the greatest with the cameras and sometimes it's hard to see where the
curb is the interior size is pretty familiar there's a ton of leg room up
front there's a bunch of legroom out back and Headroom and that's good
because when we're reading the specs it says the seating position is lower to
create a sleeker roofline its vehicles overall lower so it was a little worried
that it would fit lower to the ground be harder to get in and out of but that's
not the case it's just like getting how does the old Camry but you get that
benefit of this very sleek look and a little lower center of gravity for
handling but there's a lot of room inside a Camry and in the trunk about
cargo room though the backseat on the base model doesn't
fold it's a fixed back seat you have to buy one of the upper trim levels on the
Le and above to get that folding backseat
now even then it's not a very large opening compared to stores competitors
the quality of the Camrys interior is a big step up compared with the old one on
this top xle trim level you're looking at soft touch surfaces all over the
place in the front and in the back on lower
end trim levels the back seat isn't as covered in nice materials as the top
trim levels the door panels are hard plastic instead of padded in this nice
material but up front it's relatively consistent between the trim levels with
a few pieces of interior trim that's difference between the models now as far
as safety features that's where we not be family before but as they come back
as standard forward collision warning with automatic braking and pedestrian
detection as well as a lane keep assist and an adaptive cruise control now the
base model and some of the lower end trim levels the adaptive cruise control
is high speed only which means once you get to around 25 miles an hour it B
activates but a higher trim levels it's a full speed adaptive cruise control
which who slows you down all the way to a shop the Camrys touchscreen is very
notable because it has all of the tactile interaction that we want there's
a volume knob there's a tuning knob all of the buttons have individual tactile
buttons instead of capacitive buttons as far as
the software and what's in it standard you have a seven-inch screen and in the
XLE here we are in the optional 8 inch screen there are numerous versions of
this engine system the base bill and in all four cylinders comes with the system
that has GPS calc which is an app that you can download and for the first three
years it's free before becomes a subscription-based service but that app
on your phone then talks with the car and displays navigation in the screen
now it's a lot like apple carplay and android auto except you have to download
an app and then after three years you have to pay for it that should give you
a clue that there's still no apple carplay or android auto in the camry or
any toyota for that matter right now they are sticking with their proprietary
engine system on this model you have into apps with apps like Pandora
iHeartRadio slacker Yelp and MVR the Camry does have Siri eyes free which
iphones can use you can talk to your phone and communicate commands from your
phone like text messages and calls through series i3 but again no car fly
no Android auto which is the downside here to an otherwise very well done
system the big question is with this Camry has finished hiring a midsize
sedan comparison whose Camry does not feel like an evolution of the previous
car it feels like a completely different vehicle and while I can't say for
certain it would have won the previous comparison it definitely would have been
contending for a podium finish you
you