First Test Drive Of Hybrid Camry - LA Times

[hatrack]

By certain lights, the 2007 Camry Hybrid is not particularly revolutionary. Here we have a nicely equipped, 3,637-pound, five-passenger sedan with 192 horsepower, costing about $30,000 (final pricing has yet to be confirmed). Styling reminds me of the old Merle Travis song: So round, so firm, so fully packed. The ride and handling are straight-up Pink Floyd: comfortably numb.

But, ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is the Buick from another planet. Beneath the almost laughably stately sheetmetal is a still-slightly radical, state-of-the-art gas-electric powertrain allowing the sedan to post estimated EPA fuel economy numbers of 43 miles per gallon city, 37 mpg highway, and 40 mpg combined driving.

Of course, reasonable minds can and do disagree about the real-world cost advantages of hybrid technology, how it may stack up against advanced diesel systems or how perishable hybrid batteries might be. But the Camry Hybrid inarguably tosses this alien, Left Coast technology in the laps of Middle America. After all, this isn't some refugee from "Minority Report," like the Prius, or a $50,000 luxury SUV, like the Lexus RX 400h. This is the bestselling car in America, seven out of the last eight years, the heart of the market. And so the Camry Hybrid is deeply subversive, undercutting the automotive-identity politics that have separated hybrid technology from bien-pensant Americans who might otherwise think it's all a plot reeking of patchouli and macrobiotic ice cream.

EDIT

Which makes the fuel economy all the more remarkable. Compared to the fuel economy of the 2.4-liter, automatic-equipped LE model (24 mpg city, 33 highway) the Hybrid offers about 30% better fuel economy than the four-cylinder, even though it is heavier (by 352 pounds) and more powerful (by 34 horsepower).

EDIT

http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-hy-neil1feb01,0,5637572.story?coll=la-class-autos-highway1

[rfkrfk]

1. 30 K seems kinda steep

for a car with a four banger engine that needs
help from a string of flashlight batteries

[skids]

2. Always check the trim.

For some reason Toyota and Honda bundle huge numbers of options on all hybrids. You can't buy them without most of the gizmos. Most of that $30k goes for the luxuries like the in-dash mp3 player and such. I still
haven't been able to bang out the best way to figure the cost of the synergy -- probably it will be to take the LXE trim and remove some dollars from the price of that for any options it has that the Hybrid doesn't. Then there's the matter of how much the extra bit of horsepower over the normal 2.5l 4 cylinder is worth.

[phantom power]

3. That's interesting, about all the options, isn't it?

I always assumed the "fully loaded" strategy was some kind of marketing department over-compensation to address the old "golf-cart" stereo type of hi-mileage, environmentally aware cars. "See? See? It gets good mileage and it's a luxury car, dammit! A luxury car!"

They might sell even more of them, if they got back to the a la carte options model.

[skids]

4. The best thing Toyota could do environmentally at this point...

...would be to offer a hybrid corolla with lowball options. They aren't as bad as GM, but they suffer from the same mentality problems American car companies do. As it is, hybrids are restricted to those people who would normally opt for those options.

Though the camry is a step forward in that it's exterior is normal -- at least it cannot be accused of being a "statement" car and will thus appeal to a broader range of more conventionally minded buyers.

[phantom power]

5. I have a feeling it will happen by economic necessity, if nothing else.

Four words: "Employee pricing for everybody!" Fewer and fewer Americans can actually afford cars that expensive. We've been denying the inevitable with pyramid schemes of cheap credit, but the reality is gradually sinking in.

No Virginia, everybody can't afford a fully loaded Yukon, with 20 inch spinning rims.

[jpak]

6. How much are Hummers and Navigators going for these days?????

Gas guzzling things of beauty they be....

[rfkrfk]

7. does every car have to look like it it dying from steroid poisoning?

dishonorable mention, that mini school bus