For me it was one simple reason - I did not like the way camry handles at all. I rented a 2005 Camry SE (not hybrid) earlier this year and I had no road feel while driving it. When taking curves at even posted suggested speeds, I could not get a feel for how well the tires were holding. Car felt floaty at all times. As I understand handling has improved in 2006 but it would have to improve by a huge margin to come close to where I would start feeling it may be tolerable. I did not even test drive a TCH before buying HAH.

I have been driving HAH for barely a month now. I am getting around 23mpg with mostly city driving and very cold temperatures. Under the same conditions, my 2006 accord EX-v6 6MT has been giving around 18.5 mpg. So I am seeing some benfit from hybrid. I have also noticed that I get better fuel efficiency when I accelerate a little harder as opposed to driving like grandma. When accelerating gently, I hardly got any motor assist. Now that I am accelerating harder (hard enough to leave all other cars way behind from a red light), I am seeing lot more sustained assist and mpg has gone up. So I think I CAN use the power and still get decent fuel efficiency. I will draw more firm conclusions after I have a few thousand miles on the car.

Silver Frost Metallic Hybrid


Sapphire Blue Pearl EX-V6 6MT