DRIVER’S JOURNAL
Day 1: Noted the aggressive exterior styling with very well appointed interior. Impressive technology and amenities which I thought would be more expected in a “premium” touring sedan — the Camry has gone upscale! Car was extremely surefooted on the road, with tight and responsive steering. Found there was comfortable and roomy seating, but because I’m quite tall I found some controls were hard to see, for example the driver’s heated seat controls were obscured by console, labels on controls for sunroof were not visible and the instrument panel dimmer was hidden behind the turn signal lever and it took a while for me to find it.
Day 2: Tried ‘Sport’ mode. Power and acceleration were impressive. Never would have expected a sedan such as this to perform so well. Back in the day we would have referred to it as a “sleeper.” Not your grandma’s Camry to be sure; it actually felt like a bit of a hot rod with a throaty exhaust note when you put your foot into it. Lane assist was quite helpful for alerting you to lane departure with a warning tone but was surprised when the car tried to gently steer itself back into the lane.
Day 3: Drove a combination of city and highway miles under dry road conditions. Road handling and acceleration were quite impressive. Adaptive cruise control used in moderate to heavy traffic. It performed above my expectations, responding rapidly to changing traffic and to other vehicles changing into my lane with less than appropriate distance ahead of me. Took the time to sync my cellphone to the vehicle. Process was straightforward and intuitive and did not require reference to the owner’s manual. Interface allowed texts and emails to be read aloud through the vehicle speaker system. Quite impressive!
Day 4: First time using the trunk of the car. I was impressed by the amount of usable room. Discovered the feature of split fold-down rear seats that extend the cargo area into the passenger compartment. Parking against a curb, the side mirrors do not automatically tilt down when in reverse to allow for a good view of your proximity to the curb. This would be a great additional feature to the car to prevent the very stylish alloy wheels from experiencing curb rash.
Day 5: City driving. Put the car into ‘Eco’ mode and experienced a definite reduction in the responsiveness to the throttle, however it provided 10 to 11 L/100 km fuel economy in stop-and-go city driving. Pretty impressive for a large sedan. Also noted that one must be very cautious on driveways and entryways that have abrupt slope changes, as the front spoiler/air dam is very low slung. If you are not careful or aware, you could easily ground out the spoiler.
Day 6: Short trips to grocery stores and around town driving. No new features to add based upon today’s excursions.
Day 7: Trip to a downtown parkade and then returned the car. The proximity sensors were very handy in the confined space and tight parking stalls of a downtown underground parkade. The rear cross-traffic feature also provided a sense of security in backing out from a parking spot with large vans parked on either side of the Camry, effectively making it impossible to see traffic. Overall, this is a much more sporty and responsive sedan than I would have expected in a Camry but I’m sure there are many features that I did not get a chance to experience or review in a one-week period.