A recent night of excitement: driving the Camry XLE to the Super Wal-Mart. So lame, but that's not the car's fault. Like Wal-Mart, the Camry has been excoriated as a work of Satan, antithetical to all that is American, never mind where it's built. Despite the gleeful way everyone always lobs shots at Toyota's midsizer, there's a lot of virtue here. After all, there has to be some kind of hook to this car attaining such vaunted status, besides the bounce-lending automotive cult of personality. Since nobody actually reviews the Camry – we just complain about it as it outsells everything else – we rustled up an XLE powered by Toyota's 2.4-liter four cylinder and tried it out.
Did Toyota get some silver? Did it get a little gold? What did it get, to keep the Camry Solara Convertible from the Gallows Pole*? According to Steve St. Angelo, president of Toyota's Kentucky operations and of no relation to Robert Plant, Toyota got a lot of grief from customers and dealers who didn't want to see the drop-top swinging from the Gallow's Pole. The Hangman was supposed to come for the Solara 'Vert this month, but production has now been extended for two full years. Automotive News reports that Toyota only sold 28,479 units of the Solara Coupe and Convertible in all of 2007, and while the majority were likely 'verts, the number still seems too low to argue that demand was high enough to give it two years' worth of extra production. St. Angelo also didn't clarify if the Solara Coupe would enjoy the convertible's amnesty or not. Regardless, the Hangman's wrong on this one and the Solara should be swinging.
Taste: some have it, some don't. Case in point this Toyota Camry spotted in Dubai where the burgeoning middle class apparently wants to roll just like their oil-funded upper class but lack the money to secure a Rolls-Royce or Bentley. While we've reluctantly grown accustomed to customers opting for the gold-tone bright-wear instead of the standard chrome detailing – especially on cars like the Camry – this owner actually had the badges, grilles, side mirrors and wheels plated in 24k gold. Seriously.
If this somehow strikes you as a good idea, it can be yours for only 135,000 Dollars. Thankfully those are Arab Emirate Dollars, worth about $37 grand in American greenbacks. But please, if you're even thinking about it, contact us first and let us convince you of all the better ways you could spend $37k on a new car that won't instantly lose half its value the minute you take a wrong turn into a bad neighborhood.
Corporate clients have long grown accustomed to being shuttled around in the back seats of Panther-platform Fords. The throwback Town Car that most car services run doesn't exactly sip fuel, so T.J. Donaghy of Orlando, Florida decided a Toyota Camry Hybrid would be a good addition to his fleet at Aristocrat Transportation. City officials have denied Donaghy's attempt at greening his livery fleet, reasoning that the Camry doesn't fit any of the five classes of vehicles for hire that the City of Orlando regulates. The city contends that the type of service offered by Donaghy can only use luxury cars. Adding to the confusion, the city has no exact language defining exactly what comprises a luxury vehicle, but like Potter Stewart, they know it when they see it, and it's not the Camry.
There is a real concern that opening things up for the Camry could have Kia Rios running around as "limousines" if some line in the sand is not drawn, but the high price of fuel along with ongoing greening efforts may make the path easier for the Camry. Other communities in Florida already allow Camry hybrids, also setting some precedent. It seems that the crux of the dustup is the idea of what exactly a "luxury" working car is, and how to fit the Camry Hybrid in somewhere without stretching the definition so much that King Midgets could get a free pass. All of this could have been avoided if Donaghy had just coughed up the loot for an LS600hL, though the Hybrid Synergy Drive system in that vehicle is used to bolster performance instead of fuel economy.
Automotive times are a-changin, as fuel-efficient cars are now outselling trucks by a wide margin. Toyota's flexible manufacturing capabilities allow it to adjust to these crazy times, and the Japanese automaker is discussing a plan to build still more Camrys at its Indiana truck plant. The Princeton plant is only running two shifts right now, and its trucks and SUVs are suffering just as much as similar offerings coming out of Detroit. That makes the plant a great fit for the Camry, which sold an astonishing 51,291 units last month. Honda has already decided to increase production of the Civic, which was the top-selling vehicle in the US last month with over 53,000 units leaving the showroom floor.
One these occurrences took place yesterday at the Texas Motor Speedway during qualifying for tomorrow's Samsung 500 Sprint Cup race. Michael McDowell was piloting his #00 Aaron's Toyota Camry when the rear end got loose coming out of a turn. Things then got very bad, very quickly, and McDowell went into the wall at around 180 miles per hour. The engine bay burst into flames and the car went into a slide on its roof that led to several barrel rolls before it finally came to rest. Track officials helped McDowell out of the burning car and with a wave to the fans, he walked away.
It's got a silly name, it's not much to look at, and it further homogenizes the field, but the NASCAR Car of Tomorrow seems able to take some very serious punishment while keeping its driver safe. Ultimately, that trumps everything else. We're glad to see that McDowell's okay. Bummer about your car, though, dude.
The 2008 Chevy Malibu has snatched up awards and media accolades, and JD Power data shows that customers are paying Chevy dealers handsomely to own one. The average transaction price of a Chevy Malibu is $22,358 -- $5,000 higher than the inherently uncool last-gen 'Bu. Twenty-one percent of buyers are also opting for the top-of-the-line LTZ vs. only 5% for the outgoing model.
The news isn't all rosy, however, as most of these customers are trading in other GM products to get themselves into the North American Car of the Year. Only 1.4% of buyers traded in a Toyota Camry, 1.3% swapped a Nissan Altima, and less than 1% turned in a Honda Accord. Those aren't exactly the kind of numbers GM will want to brag about, but at least the General is pulling in the equivalent of two Tata Nanos more per car than the last generation model did.
The new 2009 Hyundai Sonata gets a bump in interior refinement and available power, and the South Korean automaker would like to be paid for all its troubles. The 2009 Sonata Limited saw the largest jump in price, with the new model going for $24,645, up $1,650 from the 2008 model. At the bottom of the Sonata lineup, Hyundai increased the sticker on the entry GLS by a more reasonable $700 to $18,795, or $19,995 with the upgraded five-speed automatic transmission. Oddly enough, however, the base Sonata is now $75 more than a base 2009 Camry, which is an interesting decision on Hyundai's part. The Chevy Malibu now undercuts the automatic GLS in price by a more substantial $700 as well, and it won North American Car of the Year.
With prices going up by up by seven-percent on certain models, Hyundai has lost much of its price advantage on the competition. With better quality and improved refinement, it's clear to us that the South Korean automaker is banking on Americans picking the Sonata based on criteria other than price.
