What is it?
This is the European version of what you get if you order an online cab from Los Angeles airport. The Toyota Camry is the most successful big saloon car in the world, and it was a nameplate you could get in the UK until 2004, when it was canned because the European big saloon market was going big on diesel and the Camry didn’t offer one.
Now? The big saloon market is going nowhere particularly fast, and it's particularly ordinary for the Avensis. So, the Avensis is being dropped and the Camry, available in Europe only with a hybrid powertrain, is being reintroduced.
The internal combustion component of its powertrain is a 2.5-litre four-cylinder unit with some fancy straight inlet ports (making the fuel swirl and therefore burn more efficiently) and both port and direct injection – each has different advantages at different revs and throttle openings. The overall thermal efficiency is 41%, says Toyota, which is rubbish compared to an electric motor’s 90-odd per cent but good for a petrol unit.
It drives the front wheels through Toyota’s hybrid system, which uses the drive engine, a starter motor and a drive motor (motor generators 1 and 2 in Toyota speak) with a planetary gearset linking them. This allows the drive motor and engine to run at any speed, regardless of the wheel speed, because the starter-generator will be there to make up the difference.
Join the debate
artill
I approve of a car not
I approve of a car not designed to be sporty. Comfort is a priority, but decent enough to drive. It sounds like it hit the spot. But i am not so sure about the gearbox. By all means offer the hybrid, its just a pitty the other versions wont make it over here
Jimbbobw1977
The Camry gets very good
The Camry gets very good reviews in the US and Australia. Won’t sell well here because people won’t look past the generic German badged cars
aatbloke
Jimbbobw1977 wrote:
Not to mention the fact that in the UK, large Japanese saloons have an emphatic reputation for depreciating faster than Turkish Lira.
LP in Brighton
Taxi, taxi!
I'm sure that the taxicab operators will love it. They want value, comfort, reliability and low running costs more than a prestige nameplate and a soft-touch interior.
And what better than a modern hybrid that's proven to work?
FMS
LP in Brighton wrote:
All fair points, but with an Octavia starting from £17K petrol and £20K diesel, both less significant discounts, will have it's work cut out, on this point to start with. So many on taxi duty, must prove owner/operators choice is correct.
Rollocks
Super
esreveRnIefiL
Best thing of all...
No touch screen plonked on top of the dash, looking like an afterthought.
Neat, innofensive looking car (even with a Bangle Boot). Never mind the Avensis, this could be the car that replaces Oliver - my trusty, ever so dependable LS430
Take no notice... I'm only here for the biscuits
Rich boy spanners
Always liked the Camry
Done a lot of miles in Camry's in the US, they are comfortable, competent and get the job done. I'd have one in the UK. This might miss the mark though, it's in fleet car territory with emissions that are too high. 100+ Co2 is a deal breaker, needs to be a plug in and down in the 30's.
aatbloke
Rich boy spanners wrote:
Interior materials quality is abysmal however, and even the latest iteration falls short compared to the smaller Corolla.
lambo1
Don't know how you got that
Don't know how you got that impression about the interior materials
My wife drives one in the USA as a fleet car, utterly dependable quality car with a hard wearing interior that lasts and lasts.
The Germans we have over there have all kinds of niggly problems too long to list here,
There is a reason it's the top selling large sedan in the world.
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