That’s why the sedan Toyota Camry so highly appreciated throughout the world
The 2018 Toyota Camry review: the American way
Toyota Camry is a car legend. Sedan, which has become the benchmark of reliability, practicality and availability to the General mass of motorists around the globe. It combines almost incongruous settings.
Simple, sometimes even archaic design and extremely high reliability. Spacious interior, definitely provides high comfort to the passengers inside the sedan, which combined the features of a business class cheaper car details: plastic trim elements in wood, painted in colour of aluminium, plastic and not of the highest quality plastic, scattered here and there on the interior (a fault for it, imputing to him an excessive desire for cheaper due to cheap materials).
Nevertheless, Toyota continues to be the most desirable and respected car, for which people are willing to part with significant sums of money. What makes it so great? Let’s see, ride on the roads of North America in the company of a few friendly guys who will talk about Toyota Camry 2018 model year everything you wanted to learn about it.
Last weekend I was with my friend took rolling in a new Toyota Camry in 2018. Had a long trip-long 1.700 miles (2.700 km) from Michigan to North Carolina. Of course the purpose was a visit, as strange as it sounds and surprisingly was not – dump SUVs. Why, you might ask. For the “need” we reply. Great logic you’re looking for. And despite the fact that most of the “road trip” was a complete disaster and may indeed pointless, the main thing I learned we do finally learn why the Camry is still the King of sedans. This is an extremely versatile car that everything else is able to just work.
The trip to the 2018 Toyota Camry
The primary reason for the trip. Since then, I learned the true beauty of my Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle 1979 release from Christmas, I tried to pamper your beloved SUV only the new parts. But every year to get them harder, so from time to time it is necessary to resort to alternative options. Not more than a month ago, in the attempts to find the bumper and radiator for the SUV, I noticed an ad on the Internet that in North Carolina there is a landfill where an abundance of SUVs of the American production of different generations, completeness and configurations. It was decided to move! What? Of course on the big brown sedan with a large inscription made in capital letters – “CAMRY”:
Beginning of the journey
In a way, we went from Detroit (approx. Detroit is the largest city of the state) about five o’clock on Friday. Left, I must say, too late, given our destination — Durban, North Carolina — it’s 13.5 hours of driving. But what to do. We prepared for a heavy night on the road, sitting in comfortable leather seats, the Camry, and immediately felt the full potential of the sedan, the ride quality is constantly maintained with its front MacPherson struts and rear multi-link independent suspension, perfectly smoothed the bumps not the best hyvaa of America – trails to Michigan.
The first hour of a road trip has shown that built in Kentucky, the sedan cost $37.808 car is not emotional. Everything seemed to be fine, but bright emotions you just will not feel. Excellent ride, beautiful, quiet interior, seats – comfortable and highly ergonomic – these do go on long journeys a pleasure, and the audio system differed rich bass and high high frequencies, giving the opportunity to listen to like rock and melodic singing of the local “pop”. All the joys of the modern car on the face, without any admixture of danger and drive. For many it is an obvious plus for elected – boring swamp from which you want to get out.
It is worth saying a few words about the interior. It was a good place where you can spend a lot of time. The user interface of the infotainment system was quite intuitive. Switching between functions can not exceeds three clicks, and the smoothness of the graphics rendering can be the envy of more famous competitors in business class.
Visibility of what is happening on the road is simply gorgeous. Dimensions felt great. The front pillars do not block the view, and well-read head-up display allows you not to look away from the road in those moments when you need to see current information: speed, speed, speed limits on the area exposed speed cruise control, and a selected distance from a moving car with the active cruise control, everything is perfectly readable on the screen on top of the windshield.
Speaking of adaptive “cruise”, we note that it worked extremely effectively, maintaining the necessary distance from a moving car in a large speed range. In traffic he was capable of true miracles. Sedan obediently stopped and started without the driver following the traffic flow. Technology keep the vehicle in the specified lane “Lane keep assist” is also done their job flawlessly, pouring the steering wheel “weight” when an unauthorized vehicle attempts to go beyond it.
The route from the suburbs of Michigan led us through the beautiful city of Toledo, sending us East on interstate 80 through the small towns and villages of Ohio. After a stop at Burger’s “Oh Boy”, we went diagonally to the South-East of the country, through Pennsylvania, through the tourist Mecca of Bressoud (Maryland), and finally on the homestretch, passing through Virginia.
By the time my friend Brandon got to the town of Fredricksburg, Virginia, the fatigue of night travel had taken its toll. More than nine hours on the road after a busy day – this is not a joke!
In the United States along the road there are many motels but we felt that a full test drive could do without spending the night in the tested sedan. A quiet place helped to find Google maps, a 3.5-liter V6 engine has been muted, and we settled down for the night.
Morning after sleeping in the sedan Toyota Camry
As for bathrooms, this sedan is really little competition. Maybe to match him can only Cadillac ATS-V, which also managed a good night’s sleep. It turns out that the seats in the Camry are not only comfortable in their position, but also as a hammock. Yes, there is custom support for the lower back or shoulders, as it was in the Cadillac, but the design was so ergonomic that questions it did not have any.
The leather seats recline at a large angle and offer sufficient width for a person of average build.
Early the next morning, after three hours of sleep, we washed in a public restroom which gave us shelter in Northern Virginia camping and went to the end point of the route –Pinton, North Carolina, where we were greeted by a majestic dump SUVs:
Dismantle 1979 Jeep J10 Golden Eagle
At the dump, “Watson and Sons’ Jeep Salvage” was Packed to the number of SUVs. Indeed, for every taste and color!
“You can use my tools”, – I said to the owner with a heavy accent of a southerner, apologizing that he was too busy assisting another client. The operation to dismantle the front bumper J10 is fully rested on our shoulders. “No great loss”, we thought, and expanding the tools began to work. Thank God, we were not the first to hold the wrench.
The story of the bumblebee
Farewell to those who prefer to repair cars on the street. Never hear, never get angry Bumble bees! They can be very vindictive. While Brandon was lying under the hood of the truck trying to Unscrew the rusty bolts I broke into a sweat, was suddenly attacked by an aggressive Bumble bee. It looks like under the hood of the truck he had a nest, which we immediately noticed.
I asked Brandon to distract the insect, so I was able to remove the bumper, but after a few seconds my friend ran onto the field with such speed, as if it depended on his life. Bumblebee found his victim. In the end, pursuing the insect stung Brandon and then turned his evil gaze in my direction. Attempts to fend off the angry insect has not produced any results. Shaggy bumblebee easily overcame the defensive line and hurt stung me in the shoulder. Therefore, I repeat, be very careful when working with unknown old cars on the street, maybe they have become someone’s home.
The truck named “Camry”
With the Jeep we made a lot of small things. Into the trunk went the bumper, radiator, cooling tanks and a whole bunch of small plastic parts. But the main cargo was a huge 33-inch wheel, which we successfully placed in the cabin through the trunk, pre-folding the rear seats. All this valuable stuff with ease located in the bowels of the car.
The rear seats are folded using levers located at the top of the trunk easily accommodates three-dimensional parts. Even the free place left:
To live in the southern States in the summer, you need to be very resistant to heat. Well, that Camry has a powerful air conditioning system. Two-band climate-control set to the minimum value leaves the heat no chance. The main thing is not to overreact, and you can catch a cold.
The way back took a little longer than expected. On an empty stomach to go hard, so we visited a local BBQ eatery and went in the opposite way, along the way, drove to our friend, an avid motorist Jason.
The 2018 Toyota Camry under the hood
Japanese cars are renowned for their cramped quarters in the engine compartment. Whether Japanese engineers greatly save space, whether there are so many different systems, but the fact is, as stated on the face. Service without specialized tools on their own here is quite difficult:
3.5-liter V6 under the hood Toyota Camry
As an experiment, we decided to remove the heavy battery from the sedan and put under the hood of Dodge RV camper Jason. The idea was this – to try to launch a 7.2-litre engine battery from the V6 engine. I have to say – nothing came out.
Removing the battery was a no-brainer. Tool this requires two keys: on 10 and 13 millimeters. One – twist, others adhered.
Once I looked under the hood of a Camry, would be remiss to note that ongoing maintenance will not be difficult. The dipstick is at the front center, the air filter is held by two simple clips that are easy to open with hands, bottles of coolant and tube “mywiki”, here, on the right passenger side.
It’s a shame that to get to the rear spark plug seems to be not so simple. But while the car is under warranty you the little things will not care about.
Protective cover 3.5-liter V6 for the 2018 Toyota Camry is removed
The road home
Before my colleague started our journey back to Michigan, I calculated average fuel consumption. Turned out to 7.3 liters. When you consider that we drove mostly on the highway, the appetite can not be called small. Of course, you can save money by purchasing a less powerful variant in the configuration of an “L” four-cylinder engine. Under these conditions, it will “eat” about 5.7 liters. The question is: “is It you need?”
The road home ran through the beautiful mountains of southwest and West Virginia, where I was able to experience the handling of the sedan, weight 1.6 tons.
I did not put the car into the turns at breakneck speeds (which is a public road, after all), but holding the revs much above average. Camry once again showed their best side. Body roll was not serious, the car almost did not take away from the intended path and traffic safety remained at a high level, like driving on a straight highway.
Once again I stress the Camry family car, therefore to demand from him lightning-fast response to work with the gas pedal feel useless. Yes, when you open the throttle a little bit to wait. “Muse” is not treated even when the box in sport mode. It is an innate pattern of behavior.
But when the engine takes off – keep both hands on the wheel. 301 Japanese horse will drive the sedan with such speed that it can capture the spirit. Dangerous fallacy, which revealed at once. Officially, the sedan accelerates in six seconds to hundreds. It seems this is far from the truth.
That is the bottom line?
Most of my complaints were minor. Eight-speed transmission was generally excellent. But not enough of this “Sports mode” which really would change the algorithm of work of automatic transmission.
The front door seemed cheap tin cans. But what does this have value for the owner? It runs in the family. Plastic in the cabin remains as primitive as they were before. Moreover, between the roof and the sun shade was flimsy plastic cover that came loose during a test on our car. A gentle nudge brought her back to the place, but this should not be! Not very good from the point of view of quality. As before, Toyota used the cheapest plastic that can be in a modern car.
Anxious that navigation often do not agree with the choice of direction on Google Maps, which I believe is the gospel for two years. A rear camera scored low resolution displayed on the screen:
But the rest of the Camry surprised me with its overall competence. It is good for many tasks. It is comfortable enough to sleep, it is quite economical to make the journey with a length of almost 3,000 km is not too expensive. The sedan is roomy enough to fit bulky goods and quite quick to push you into the seatback. Soft suspension is not walking in the sharp turns, and most of the features are well thought out.
Enough to respect this new car.
