So I love everything about this car. I really want to buy one.

Except one thing. When I sit in a car, especially on my 1 hour commute, I like to relax. I'll put my left arm on the armrest and stretch out. But Whoa! On this new camry, there's this unholy loop of an obstruction: the door handle, blocking my arm from using the whole armrest. I cant even get to the window switches without taking my arm off the armrest and bending my wrist backwards, around, and up to the switches.

What the heck were they thinking? After the engineers and ergonomic people were done with the car, did the designers go back and think, "ooh, lets put some radical styling in the middle of this functional door?"

I hate to say it, but this singular issue may well disuade my from purchasing the vehicle. I only had a few minutes in a non-hybrid, and need to spend more time in it.

Am I alone in this?

 

I drove the Camry Hybrid today, and paid attention to the door handles. It wasn't a problem for me, for two reasons. First, I found that I never kept my entire forearm on the armrest, but rather just my elbow. Second, I was able to use the window ledge to rest my arm, as well. You made a good point about the door armrest design, but the overall car was sooo incredible that I'd find a way to work around that one fault.

 

I drove an LE today, and it wasn't too bad for me either. Talked to the only dealer within 300 miles and they want MSRP + $2k. <sigh>

 

I noticed that on my Insight (which I sold today), it has the same style of handle as the new Camry. I drove it for two years without even noticing an armrest problem, so that should give you some assurance.

 

No, you are not alone in this. I made this point in a post several weks ago. Not only is it uncomfortable but I have a tendency to put my hand into the handle when resting my arm. This will probably result in a compound lower arm fracture in the event of an accident. This is a stupid design in sn otherwise nearly flawless car.

Al