Toyota camry has been the best selling car in the United States and Africa for the last 12 years, practically selling itself despite the market tilt toward sport utility and crossover utility vehicles.
Our Verdict
Lets for a moment keep the Infotainment and driver assist technologies aside, the Toyota Camry is a fine car. It’s not necessarily the prettiest or most dynamic, but you can’t really go wrong with it, if you want the on-the-whole definition of a car.
FOR
- Comfortable seats
- Sharp blind-spot monitor
- Easily accessible driver assist controls
- Smooth powertrain
AGAINST
- Poor adaptive cruise control
- Stunted infotainment system
- Unnecessarily stiff suspension
Toyota’s current-generation Camry which was initially launched with 2012 being the model year (MY) vehicle, but it received an aggressive exterior makeover during its mid-cycle refresh for MY2015 to make the car more visually appealing. I personally like the styling much. The Camry has an aggressive stance, especially in SE or XSE trims, which are the sportier-looking models, but Toyota left the window layout of the car alone.
If you place the current generation and the last two generations of Camry’s side by side, the green house looks virtually the same. It may be nitpicking, but the aggressive styling from below the side windows doesn’t really match with everything above, and that’s irksome.
When you each for the door handle, a sensor placed on the back unlocks the car. A press of the capacitive touch button will lock the car. The unlock sensor and lock button are not available on the rear doors, which is understandable for this segment. I’ve only seen rear door handles with locking and unlocking features in really luxury cars, like the Mercedes E-class.
Interior
Step inside, and you’re treated to an all-black interior with its red stitching. The interior materials are mostly high-quality and come in soft-touch finish. The hard plastic parts have a smooth matte coating that looks sharp, but doesn’t feel slippery nor does it attract oily fingerprints.
I find the partial leather and ultrasuede seats provide plenty of side bolster and back support for my 5-foot-8-inch and 194 pound frame. The heaters for the seat get toasty quickly, too.
Look forward, and the Camry has standard analog (yes, not digital) gauges with an LCD sandwiched in between. The engine coolant temp gauge is also a nice addition, so you can quickly tell if the engine is at operational temperature, which is a feature some new cars are removing. The LCD display provides a visual representation of the driver assists, turn-by-turn directions, music information, and trip meter.
I don’t have any issues with the Camry’s interior layout. Toyota did a great job of keeping traditional buttons and knobs – just how I like an interior.
While I am nitpicking, I don’t like the big font used on all the lettering. The font is easy to see and read, which is beneficial to some typical Camry driver, but I feel like an old man when driving it.
Infotainment system
The infotainment system is powered by the 7-inch Toyota Entune system with an HD Radio, SiriusXM, USB and bluetooth connectivity. Toyota states the 7-inch touch screen display is high-resolution, which translates to 800 x 480. The display looks really sharp and vibrant from the driver’s seat, possibly because the screen is driven by a digital interface instead of analog.
The home screen is quite bare but displays the usually accessible information, including weather and a mini map and music information.
Listening to SiriusXM and HD Radio is straightforward without much surprises. You can mix HD Radio stations and SiriusXM in a shared list of presets. Playing files from a flash drive, however, is a terrible experience.
Toyota excluded a simple feature, a very important one I might add – browsing your music by folder. I’m not sure why this slipped by, but you can’t navigate a USB drive by your own folder and file structure, which is ridiculous. It makes more sense to search your music by track info from an iPhone, but I prefer to organize my flash drives the way I want it, with mix folders, not playlists.
Navigation functions are just like other cars in the mid-size segment. The mapping software and maps look similar to the Kia Optima. There are no much surprises here; the maps are flat but still it works. The navigator lock outs when the car is moving are in place, so you can’t enter a new destination when the car is moving. Voice commands are available, but they’re frustratingly terrible as they are in most other infotainment system.
Phone connectivity via Bluetooth works with both android and iphone. Text messaging is also supported, but you’re limited to basic replies. You’re better off using Siri or google now anyways. Speaking of Siri, Eyes-free is supported with iPhones when you hold down the voice recognition button.
There’s app support for iHeart Radio, OpenTable, MovieTickets.com, Pandora and Facebook Places. Toyota requires you to download its Entune application and install on your phone with a login. Your Entune login allows you to connect Entune to the supported applications.
The Entune app uses your internet connectivity to stream audio via bluetooth resulting in some loss of quality.
Aside from iHeartRadio and pandora, why would you bother with any of the other apps? The interface is clunkier and slower than using your phone.
Rounding out the infotainment system is the integrated Qi wireless charger, installed in the cubby below the climate controls. A button with light turns the charger on or off. Unfortunately, my Motorola Nexus 6 was too big for the charger, so I was unable to test it out. However, it’s a Qi charger, so if your phone fits, it should charge.
