From one Toyota to another: Camry Hybrid ownership review after 4500 km

We would have bought a Corolla Altis again if it hasn't been discontinued from the Indian market. It would have been a perfect car.

BHPian tanmay1904 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Earlier, I had shared a small summary of likes and dislikes of the car. As I spend more time with it, I have revised it as follows.

Prologue:

We had a Toyota Corolla Altis 1.8 G bought new in 2010. Just like the Camry with us currently, the Altis was given as a perquisite by the office to my father. It was a lovely car, comfortable, smooth, good ride quality in the city and more importantly, very reliable. This was a car that I sort of learnt driving in and had clocked around 1,74,XXX kms when we exchanged it with the Camry.

Honestly, there was no real reason to upgrade, but the Altis had started giving us some troubles, like the suspension requiring work and the car revving unnecessarily, both of which were expensive to repair but were sorted out. My father decided to get a new car upon my persuasion and took approval from the company's management. The requirements were (not in any order):

• Car should be reliable with low maintenance costs.
• Should be comfortable and spacious.
• Should have no badge value and should look understated.
• No SUVs
• Bells and Whistles not a priority
• Should have all the possible safety features

To be honest we would have bought a Corolla Altis again as it would have been a perfect car had the model not been discontinued from the Indian market. However, I suggested the Camry to my father as I feel the car retains the strengths of the Altis and amplifies it even more.

Alternatives considered

Skoda Superb

This is a car which I have always loved. Be it the classy styling, the 2.0 turbo petrol engine, the space, and the kit on offer. The reviews written by GTO and GForceEnjoyer made me fall in love with the Superb even more. We booked a test drive of the car and reached Akoya Skoda at Bavdhan sometime in November 2022. The SA whom we were in touch with simply handed us over to his colleague to take us for a test drive. Now, that person was not at all interested in showing us the car, he simply sat in the front seat and let us have a very short test drive of the car, which left us with a sour taste in our mouths. Also, the Skoda after-sales horror stories scared my father. To be honest, we liked the car, the dealer even had a White car in stock which he said he could deliver before the end of November 2022, but we refused.

Coming to the Camry, there are 3 dealers in Pune, namely Sonak (from where we got the car), Shaw and Sharayu Toyota. All the dealers claimed that there was a nearly 5-month waiting period and Shaw and Sharayu claimed that they will take a 5 lakh deposit as a booking amount as well as no car available for a test drive.

However, Sonak Toyota told my father that they will take only 1 lakh as the booking amount and to my father they sounded more professional and said that they will try to arrange for a test drive ASAP.

On 15th November, the corporate sales head at Sonak called my father and informed him that they have received a new Platinum White Pearl (the colour I wanted) car, available for delivery and have displayed it in the showroom and we can come and have a look at it. He sent some photos, of which I have attached one below.

The car on display in the showroom.

Me and my Father went to the showroom and were pleasantly surprised by the behaviour of the sales head named Abhishek Shinde. He explained every feature of the car with patience and even managed to arrange for a test drive of a pre-facelift 2021 car used by their higher management. The TD went well, my father liked the reclining rear seats, but did not like the feel of the throttle. After the TD, I realized that the car was left in sport mode and was causing this issue.

Now, I really do not know how the dealer managed to get hold of a new unit. The story given to us was that a customer had booked a silver one and the dealership got a white example which the customer refused to take. However, I like to think there was a cancellation when Toyota had raised the car's prices significantly in October 2022 and/ or the car was forced upon the dealer by Toyota. Nevertheless, we made payment for the car in the coming few days and a day later I did a PDI with helpful inputs from BHPian Happysmiles. The PDI went well, and the sticker on the windshield showed that the car was manufactured in October 2022 and dispatched from the factory on 2nd November 2022 which was reassuring of the fact that this particular example was not used by anyone before.

Coming to the price, the Car costed my father's company Rs. 57,4X,XXX including extended warranty and the premium for the Pearl white colour before exchange of our Altis. The dealer did not give us a cash discount but gave us 30K worth of free accessories and some underbody and exterior coating for free. We did buy some accessories on top of that. Personally, I do not think the car is worth that kind of money, but we had no proper options in the Sedan space. The Superb would have costed us ~9 lakhs cheaper but was not worth it according to me given that it would have considerably more running costs.

No of kms at time of writing the review: ~4500 km.

Usage pattern

Mainly city usage in Pune and mainly chauffeur driven from Baner to my father's office in Thergaon. Occasionally, 3-4 times in a year will be driven down to Mumbai via the expressway. I estimate the car will do ~10000 kms in a year.

Exterior Styling:

Looks good, front grill is not to everyone's taste, but looks much better in this facelift avatar of this car. However, the chrome elements surrounding the front grill are an eyesore to me. Also, the rear windscreen glass sort of wraps around the rear quarter pillar near the roof and makes the car look weird in light colours when viewed from the rear 3/4. Personally, I do not think this kind of styling suits the Camry in India, it looks sporty, unlike the royal and sophisticated look of the previous XV50 generation Camry.

The chrome surround mentioned above.

The rear windscreen protruding inside the C-pillar

Front view

Side View

Rear View

Exterior build quality, fit and finish, etc.:

Build is good and as mentioned in the official review, the doors are heavy. The paint feels good, but not to the extent as how the Germans finish the car. There are some uneven panel gaps near the headlights and some places in the interior. As mentioned before our car is optioned with the Platinum White Pearl colour, which costs an extra Rs.15000 ex-showroom. This colour is more whitish than the pearl white offered on the Fortuner/ Innova Crysta which looks slightly off-white. The pearlescent effect only shows when there is direct light on the car.

Wheels and tires:

The car rides on 18inch wheels shod with 235/45 R18 tires. The tires are made by Bridgestone. One complaint I have is that these tires make excessive road noise.

The rims look much better than that of the pre-facelift, but will make a heavy dent on the pocket when it comes to replacing them. I think the size of 18 inches and above are overkill for Indian road conditions. Have opted for Alloy and Tire protect in the insurance just in case they get damaged.

Good and Bad about the features:

The car is loaded with equipment but misses out on some essential features. For example, the car does not have 360-degree camera, front parking sensors (front side sensors are provided though) and panoramic sunroof. Now, the car we get in India is similar to the Thai spec Camry and I think the CKD kits are imported from Thailand itself. But the Thai spec Camry gets the 360 degree camera and additional sensors, while markets like Pakistan, Japan and American Countries get a Panoramic Sunroof. I expect some of these features to be added in 2024 at least.

The attention to detail is again a hit or miss. For example, the car asks you if you wish to roll up the windows when travelling at highway speeds, when switching off the car after a drive the car reminds you to check the rear seat, if you have left any stuff on the rear seat in case the rear door was opened before setting off, but at the same time misses out on backlighting for the memory seat buttons and there is no 'off' button for the Auto headlights which itself are a touch too sensitive. Also, the car does not have any switchable colour options for the ambient lighting.

The car gets some cool features though, like the electrically reclining rear seats, 4 way electrically adjustable steering wheel, electric folding rear sunshade, ventilated front seats, boss button to recline & move the front passenger seat back & forth. The memory function button not just controls the front driver seat, but also adjust the ORVMs and the steering wheel according to the settings. My only gripe is that there are only 2 presets for this unlike the 3 offered in the Superb.

One party trick is that the steering wheel automatically recedes and goes up vertically to aid in ingress & egress when the car is turned off and reverts to the original position when the car is switched on again.

Safety:

The car comes with 9 Airbags (including the driver's knee airbag) ABS, traction control system, ESP, etc. Except for the Kodiaq, I think no car at this price point offers these many airbags. However, The Indian version misses out on the passenger knee airbag offered in some countries and skips out on ADAS which, however, is not something I would miss. The brakes though have a different feel and I felt they are a bit grabby but okay in terms of bite. Overall, the safety features make the passengers in the car feel very safe.

Continue reading tanmay1904's ownership review for BHPian comments, insights and more information.