Toyota Camry

The Toyota Camry is a strong-hybrid petrol luxury sedan, known for its reliability and comfort. In a day and age where SUVs are being favored heavily, the Camry stays true to the traits of a premium sedan, especially in this ninth generational avatar. 

With sharper looks, more features and a better focus on comfort and efficiency, the Camry is priced to take on entry-level luxury sedans such as the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe. It also undercuts sedans such as the Mercedes C-Class, BMW 3 Series, and Audi A4 while promising a proper luxury car experience both in size and tech.  

What are the tools at its disposal, and how well does it fare against the luxury nameplates? Let’s find out:

Design & Quality

Replace the Toyota badge with a Lexus badge and it won’t look out of place, and rather, suit the car a whole lot better. The Camry has never in all its generations ever looked as sharp and sporty as it does now. The razor sharp nose shouts Lexus. Everything is sharp, right from the creases on the hood to the LED headlight unit with the sleek LED DRLs to the contours of the air dam, which combine together to give it a rather sporty look.

That sporty feel is amplified in profile with the low slung stance of the Camry and its stylish 18-inch alloys. The way that the sloping roofline merges down into the tailgate and all the body lines point in word direction has this sense of elegance to it that is very attractive.

The rear profile isn't anywhere near as sharp as the front, and rather looks more sophisticated than in-your-face. It still looks premium though with the sharp C-shaped tail lights and light creases on the sides of the bumper. The Camry badge sits between the panel connecting the tail lights and there’s also a ‘eHEV’ badge on the right on the trunk, denoting the vehicle’s hybrid nature

.While the Camry might look sharper and sportier than it ever did, Toyota has still tried to up the ante by offering a India-specific ‘Sprint Edition’, that adds a touch of go-fast feel in the styling with the blacked out roof, alloys, front lip insert and spoiler. 

The Toyota Camry is available in six monotone shades: Cement Grey, Attitude Black, Dark Blue, Emotional Red, Platinum White Pearl, and Precious Metal.

Honesty, Toyota’s engineers have done such a brilliant job that all the shades look nice on the new Camry. But the Attitude Black shade’s slightly narcissistic name aside, it does actually carry a mafia-like attitude, especially if you dechrome all its inserts.

Design & Quality

The cabin of the Camry looks and feels properly luxurious and premium. The dual tone black and brown theme is rich to look at and the contrasting piano black panels and silver inserts have been executed tastefully. 

The large 12.3-inch infotainment system takes up most of the visual real estate. But you still get physical buttons for all major controls like recirculation, fan and temperature control, and ventilated seats just below the touchscreen.

Everything feels solid from a quality standpoint, as you’d expect from a Toyota, but there’s an added degree of plushness here. The generous use of soft touch material, the soft and smooth finish of the plastics, and the damping of the buttons/toggles, everything feels premium. 

Front Seats

Getting in and out of the new Camry does take more than the usual duck of the head because of its low roofline.

With powered tilt and telescopic adjustment of the steering wheel, coupled with the 10-way adjustable seats, a comfortable driving position is easy to attain for all. The seats feel super comfortable, offer good support, and feel comfortable over long journeys.

Rear Seats

Most people buying the Toyota Camry will be spending their time in the rear seats, and Toyota has made sure to offer them a business class experience. The space on offer is generous even before you make use of the powered controls to move the front seat ahead. 

Despite the sloping roofline, headroom isn’t too compromised and is acceptable even for people around the 6ft mark. There’s only a small room for improvement in underthigh support, which despite being adequate, could’ve been better to make the whole experience nearly flawless.

Beyond the space, it is the amount of amenities that you have available at the touch of your fingertips is what elevates the entire experience. Drop the central armrest down and you’ll have the option of electrically reclining your seats, along with options to control the media, rear sunblind and temperature settings, all through the screen itself. 

However, one downside to the central armrest is that when you don’t want to use it, it doesn’t fit flush with the backrest, which hinders the comfort of the third passenger, who already has less footroom to deal with. In any case, the Camry’s rear seats aren't made for three. They are designed to maximise comfort for two, and that they do a stellar job at.

Storage and Practicality

All four doors have bottle holders and the central console has ample space with two cupholders, an open tray and a wireless charging pad. The storage underneath the front central armrest is generous, but the glovebox size is adequate at best.

Rear occupants get a seat back pocket along with cupholders in the central armrest.

Charging Options

There’s plenty of charging options in the Camry. It gets three type-C charging ports at the front and two at the rear. There’s also a 12V socket at the front.

Boot Space

The Toyota Camry has an on-paper boot space of 587-litres. In real life, it is enough to store a full suitcase set, including one large, medium, and small suitcase and then some. The boot is really wide, so you can carry two large suitcases as well.

It also gets a hatch that opens into the rear seats, and can be useful for storing long items like a golf bag, or in case you just want to access the boot from the rear seat itself.

Features

The Toyota Camry is loaded with features. 

Let’s start with the biggest one. The 12.3-inch infotainment system has nice and crisp graphics, and a lag-free response experience. However, it does not get a dedicated home screen. Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are easy to connect. 

The 12.3-inch digital driver’s display offers immense customisation settings along with multiple view modes. It can be a little confusing to operate at first, but is easy to customize once you’ve figured it out.

There’s also a head-up display which functions as intended and relays important information in your line of sight. For entertainment, the Camry packs a 9-speaker JBL sound system that offers really premium audio quality that feels really crisp even at higher volumes. You will enjoy blasting music on this sound system.

It also gets a 360-degree camera for easier parking. It has acceptable camera quality and works without any frame drops.

Safety features in the Toyota Camry include 9 airbags, ISOFIX mounts, electronic parking brake with auto hold, vehicle stability and traction control, hill start assist, tyre pressure monitoring system and level-2 autonomous driving assistance features (ADAS). The ADAS suite includes features like adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, auto high beam assist, and autonomous emergency braking.

Engine And Performance

The Toyota Camry is powered by a strong-hybrid powertrain, comprising a 2.5-litre NA petrol engine with a small Lithium-Ion battery and electric motor. The e-CVT gearbox sends power to the front wheels only.

With this powertrain, the Camry is the most fuel efficient sedan around the Rs 50 lakh price point by a margin. It isn’t sporty or exciting, but refined and smooth with adequate performance for all drives.

City Performance

The Camry feels super refined and effortless in the city. It crawls from a standstill in EV mode and picks up speed smoothly. Thanks to the changes made to its hybrid powertrain, the Camry can now drive in EV-only mode for longer than before and the engine kicks in seamlessly when it senses the need for more power.

With the instant boost from the electric motor, all city overtakes feel quick and effortless. The Camry’s hybrid powertrain actually proves to be more efficient in the city’s stop and go traffic, and you can expect an efficiency of around (or above!) 15kmpl! 

Highway Performance

The Toyota Camry isn’t exciting, but it is quick enough to never make you want more power or performance. It cruises comfortably at triple digit speeds, occasionally switching to pure-EV cruising under low load, and overtakes over those speeds are also possible. 

It‘s just that the experience isn’t very refined when you ask the engine to work really hard. Being a CVT, the revs shoot up all the way to the redline, making the engine sound loud. But it does settle back into the smooth and refined cruiser once you’re done with the overtake. 

There’s even a dedicated button for sports mode, which sharpens the throttle response and helps with the quick overtakes.

You can expect a fuel efficiency of around 18-20kmpl on the highway.

Ride Quality

The Toyota Camry offers a good ride quality with a stiff suspension setup that keeps the movement inside the cabin controlled. It irons out regular potholes and speedbreakers smoothly and maintains comfort over the rougher patches as well.

It impressed me with its highway stability. Expansion joints and highway undulations are soaked up well and you can carry speed with confidence. The ground clearance, while low by SUV standards, is acceptable and manageable. We didn’t scrape the underbody even with three people onboard, but you will have to look out for those humongous potholes or speed breakers.

But the way the Camry handles impresses more than it rides. The car can go around a corner at speeds faster than you’d expect, and it does so while remaining calm and composed. You can really hustle this car if you’d want to, and it will happily oblige.

The Toyota Camry is available in a single Elegant variant in India.

Spending half a crore will get you many options in the market. Supercar-fast electric sedans, fancy luxury badges on entry-level sedans and SUVs, and even rather premium family MPVs. But what you will get with this Camry is this sense of understated luxury, that offers you one of the best rear seat and chauffeur driven experiences at this price. The Toyota Camry has a lot to offer, especially in the peace of mind that you get with Toyota’s reliability, easy maintenance and great resale value.

Other Cars To Consider Instead Of Toyota Camry

BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe

Reasons to consider

• BMW badge carries more appeal

• Cabin feels more sporty

Reasons to ignore

• Rear seat experience isn’t nearly as premium 

• 3-cylinder petrol engine isn’t as refined or fuel efficient

Mercedes-Benz A-Class Limousine

Reasons to consider

• Options of a diesel engine

• Turbo-petrol engine feels more fun to drive

Reasons to ignore

• Rear seat experience isn’t nearly as premium 

• Underbody tends to scrape easily