re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry Hybrid (2013) Dear BHPians, writing this for the benefit of those who may be interested in some more inputs on the Camry Hybrid. Commenting on only those topics that were of interest to me. TD conditions: I test drove the Hybrid Camry for a second time today for 70 minutes or so in both W.W. and WO.W modes ie With Wife and With Out Wife modes. Drove about 32 kms through city traffic and highway traffic, through smooth roads and 5 kms of broken roads and on an unpaved village road. The hybrid piece: The battery of the hybrid stores enough range for about 2 kms of driving on battery alone before the petrol engine kicks in to top up the charge. The battery acts strictly as a complimentary power source only for the conditions of slow speed, constant high torque, continuously varying low speed conditions. So the segments in our driving cycle where the petrol engine burns a disproportionate amount of fuel it gets replaced largely in whole or sometimes in part by the electric motor. So typically in slow city traffic, stop start at the traffic signal, moving from your parking lot etc are the modes of electric-only with the petrol engine clutching in only when you accelerate beyond 40 kmph or when climbing uphill or when the battery charge falls below a certain level. Silence levels are very good. Indirectly the quietness adds to the comfort factor on long journeys in the city especially. Braking: I was concerned about the braking which is a combination of traditional friction brakes and regenerative brakes. As this was my 2nd test drive I was fully familiar with the feel. So while the feel is different from a conventional car most of us will need only one drive to get used to it. Ride Comfort: The ride quality as mentioned in my previous post is E-class good. This time I sat in all 3 positions to check ride quality - driver, front passenger, & rear. In my opinion, and no offense to any owners on this forum, the ride quality especially for the rear seat is much better than the BMW 5 Series, as good to a little better than the Audi A6 and fully comparable to the E-class. A fly in the ointment -- the rear seat is too far back inclined in my opinion even when the variable recline is kept in the most straight position. I am sure Toyota did their ergonomic research on this but this aspect kept bothering me through my 10 minutes in the rear seat. If wife decides against this car the rear seat is likely to be the reason. The arm rest does not fold back into its cavity perfectly. This makes life difficult for the occasional 5th passenger. This could be a cause of concern for some depending on usage patterns. This is not a concern for us as we rarely ever will have a 5th passenger till our grand kids come along 8 to 9 years on! But for a Camry to have an ill fitting arm rest seems very odd. Acceleration:For the highway section drove on both the NH8 and the Gurgaon-Faridabad road. For those of us who value comfort and practical acceleration over sheer driving oomph the overtaking energy delivered by the Camry Hybrid is very comfortable even when driving in 'ECO' mode. On the highway sector of the TD I overtook trucks and other slower traffic while accelerating from around 80-85 kmph to 105-110 kmph in ECO mode without a challenge on several occasions. Even on good highways I rarely go beyond 100 kmph and hence didn't try and find out what the car will be like at say 140 kmph. Will leave that to be tested by other peppier drivers. Gear change: The automatic gear change is very smooth much smoother than say the A3 I test drove about 2 weeks ago. My educated guess is that the torque of the electric motor in some way smoothens over the change by providing some 'fill in' torque for a fraction of a second. Experts can comment and educate us on this. Air-conditioning: Strong and happy. Full 3 zone with the rear passengers being able to set their temperature separately (my home minister loves this feature). She feels warm at 18 degrees and I feel cold at 25 so clearly some moments of discord could lie ahead. Quality of Interiors: This is the piece that remains a question mark in my mind. The quality and finish of the interiors is no doubt good but it is not better than our Skoda Superb. So we are not going to get the enjoyment of feeling that we are in a more luxurious car and feed the illusion that we are moving up in life. The Volvo S.80 which I am also looking at to replace my Skoda Laura (2006 model) has interiors that gave us the 'wow this is mouth watering' factor. The S.80 interiors, in my opinion, had seats, leather and central console which were superior to the E class.
Some members may question the wisdom of looking at 2 cars in two different price ranges for the same purchase. In my head I don't divide cars into segments the way automobile companies do. Instead I determine the need & usage of my joint family that I am trying to fulfill with a floor set by a minimum standard of interiors (for that use) and a ceiling set invariably by the upper end of the budget. In this case we are looking for a high comfort - high leg space car that will do 22,000 kms per year, mostly carrying around family passengers at the back all of whom are in the 40s to 80s age group with the minimum quality of interiors at the Superb/Camry/new Octavia standard and the budget up to Rs 70L.
2 weeks from now I plan to test drive the Volvo S.80 & V.40. Will share my experiences on this marvelous forum. |