[chinmoysc]

Yes I did consider Toyota Prius, Nissan Teana, Skoda Superb and Passat. The reasons for eliminating them are as follows.

1) Prius : Harsh Ride. I felt it too light, though the car is really wonderful.Toyotas were also offering discounts of 2 to 3 lacs on the same. Ride was a very big let down.

2) Teana : I was offered a mouthwatering discount of Rs. 3 lacs on the top version. Very well equipped. I have driven the Infinati Range before. I found the so called V6 engine very dull and ordinary. Ride quality is inconsistent.What I did not like was the dynamics of the car. It is like a ship. A little towards softer side. I do not know about their after sales service in India. But Nissan being driver-centric cars, I was disappointed with this car.

3) Superb : 8 of my close friends have Superb in diesel and petrol. 5 of my family members have this car. None of them are happy as there are some or the other quality niggles about this car. One of my friend was stranded on GT road and the car simply stopped moving . the engine died suddenly.
Some have complaints of AC not working in Delhi summers and 3 of my friends had DSG clutch failure. I have driven the petrol and the car is good. The basic factor which went against the car is reliability and air conditioning. One does not have any time if the car breaks down to go to workshop and pester the people or the company. BHP forum is also full of such people. As compare to that there are less happy people with skodas. This is the reason why I did not consider this car.

4) Passat : A wonderful wonderful car. Two big problems. No petrol. I was waiting very anxiously for the launch of petrol. Basic problem is very very weak air-conditioning. It just does not work in Delhi. Then I heard a horror story. My neighbor has Passat. One day it suddenly vanished. I saw it after 2 months. when I met him, I asked him as to what had happened ? He narrated as to how his fuel injectors failed and how he incurred expenditure of around Rs.2 Lacs . It seems that Volkswagen is also suffering from some quality glitches and niggles. So I dropped Passat from consideration.

5) Sonata : Pl do not take it as an offensive comment but I do not think that Hyundai make good cars. Howsoever the cars may be feature rich or have a stunning style, it is my personal opinion that they lack finesse and refinement. Dynamics are always suspect. Sonata petrol engine is listless. I felt that the interiors are cheap. Out of all the Hyundai vehicles I have driven the only vechicle I found promising (though far away from part of the leaders ) is Santa Fe.

These were the reasons for not considering the aforesaid cars. On the other hand, I liked the way the Camry drives and handles and of course the ride along with my past experience with Toyota sealed the issue.

[navin]

Originally Posted by chinmoysc

I read somewhere on this forum that your cars have the best of ICE. Have you done any change in Camry ?

I agree. The Camry's stock ICE is pretty ordinary. In fact as far as stock ICE systems go it may well be the worst stock ICE I have heard in the past 15 years. To put it in perspective the 1996 Opel Astra's (which employed pretty ordinary components from Philips) stock ICE was nice, the 2003 Opel Sail (OEM Blaupunkt) was good too, the 2004 Skoda Octavia vRS (Alpine) and the 2010 Honda City were all listenable. The Camry is the worst fo this lot.

Yes I do have a plan to change some of the components. The challenge with the Camry is that the stock locations for the front speaker is on the dash and door. Getting a competent car audio 3" fulrange in the dash is (a) difficult and (b) expensive. OVRM tweeter pods would have made it so much simpler. Toyota has thrown me a curve ball, I have to figure out how to fix it.

I too considered some of the same cars (along with some used German marques) you did and arrived at very similar conclusions.

[chinmoysc]

1st Servicing.

The Car was due for the first servicing at 1000 kms or one month which is earlier. Toyota had offered me a package that called Toyota Smile. You pay Rs.10,873/ (in my case- may be vehicle specific) and for next 3 years or 60,000/ kms, they take care of the entire servicing including the consumables and labour cost. I took the car to the service station. They checked it thoroughly. I had no issues with the car. However there is one baffling thing which I am not able to decipher. Perhaps Navin can through some light over the same. ICE is six CD changer or a single CD changer. I could not get any feedback from Toyota as they did not know. Overall it was satisfactory. The car has now opened up. The most amazing thing is that I am getting FE of 12 to 14 continuously in the city. I am still amazed as to how did Toyota make such engine deliver such kind of FE. I had couple of occasions to drive in bumper to bumper traffic. The worst FE was 8.9.
[FONT=&quot]
I plan to take out the car on highway to Ahmadabad next week. I have driven almost all my cars on 9 to 10 occasions from Delhi to Pune for last 10 years. I will post a detailed report of the highway drive once I am back along with interior pictures[/FONT]

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by chinmoysc

However there is one baffling thing which I am not able to decipher.... ICE is six CD changer or a single CD changer.

It is a single DVD system and not a 6 CD changer. It will play CD's too. However you can also carry all your music on a single DVD which in effect will be equivalent to more than 6 cd's (1 DVD single side = 4.7 GB; 1CD = 700Mb approx.)

[9thsphinx]

I find it a little hard to believe that you considered cars from 20L to 1Cr and you could not find a single car in the 50L plus range that would suit your requirements. However, I am also glad that you chose the Camry. This car is and has been the most popular car by Toyota all over the world - and that has to account for something! I have a friend who has the previous gen Camry amongst a list of other high end cars including a Q7 and a Cayman S, but still thinks that his Camry is a gem of a car from it's own standpoint.

Congratulations on your purchase and drive safe.

[abs182]

Originally Posted by chinmoysc

1st Servicing.

The Car was due for the first servicing at 1000 kms or one month which is earlier. Toyota had offered me a package that called Toyota Smile. You pay Rs.10,873/ (in my case- may be vehicle specific) and for next 3 years or 60,000/ kms, they take care of the entire servicing including the consumables and labour cost. I took the car to the service station. They checked it thoroughly. I had no issues with the car. However there is one baffling thing which I am not able to decipher. Perhaps Navin can through some light over the same. ICE is six CD changer or a single CD changer. I could not get any feedback from Toyota as they did not know. Overall it was satisfactory. The car has now opened up. The most amazing thing is that I am getting FE of 12 to 14 continuously in the city. I am still amazed as to how did Toyota make such engine deliver such kind of FE. I had couple of occasions to drive in bumper to bumper traffic. The worst FE was 8.9.
[FONT=&quot]
I plan to take out the car on highway to Ahmadabad next week. I have driven almost all my cars on 9 to 10 occasions from Delhi to Pune for last 10 years. I will post a detailed report of the highway drive once I am back along with interior pictures[/FONT]

Will await your detailed report on the Highway run as that would be most useful to a prospective buyer like me. However you confirm along with other Camry users that the FE is consistently around 11-12 mark.

It's something that is very pleasing. I'm sure on your Highway runs it will be couple kmpls up. Enjoy your Camry till than!