Toyota of Carlsbad (CA) has a demo Magnetic Gray Camry Hybrid, Package #2 (leather & moonroof), which I was able to drive around today. I was extremely impressed, more so than I expected to be, actually. I am definitely buying one.

Thoughts:

Mileage was excellent! Staying at a steady 70 mph on the highway, I was getting at least 60 mpg, surprisingly. 60 is actually the maximum number the gauge can display besides EV mode, so it was probably more than this. At 75 mph, I was getting exactly 50 mpg. At 80 mph, I got around 40-45 mpg. This was on a level stretch of highway, and the results were the same in both directions. Of course it was much worse going uphill, as you'd expect, especially given the car's weight. But on the level stretches the car consistently maintained the excellent mileage over several miles before I left the highway.

Before I got in the car, it was showing 321 miles traveled on the tank, with a tank average of 29.1 mpg. Of course this is from countless drivers flooring it, and the car wasn't broken in -- the mileage is actually good when you consider that. When I was done with it, after perhaps 10 miles of driving, it got up to 29.2 but ultimately went back to 29.1. Of course I floored it to 80 mph from 5 mph multiple times, and cruised for only a few miles.

By the way, the analog MPG gauge is of course very precise since it has increments of 10 mpg with a wide margin in-between.

Electric mode was great for cruising. I didn't experiment much but it seemed way too slow for driving completely in EV mode, at least when there was traffic behind me... the Prius seems faster in this regard. But after using the engine to accelerate to 35 mph, it was very easy to let it turn off and cruise in EV mode for a while. I didn't try it at 40 mph but it definitely worked well at 35.

Fast! The car is really fast when you floor it onto the highway, even when the entrance ramp is uphill. My HCH is so pathetic in those situations. In one case I braked to 70, then floored it again to 80, and it seemed to take less than a second. Er, did I mention I wasn't driving for mileage?

Smooth. I could not feel the regenerative braking and the engine turning on and off was extremely smooth and seamless. The car rode smoothly, but you knew that -- it's a Camry. It wasn't especially silent on the highway due to wind noise, but it wasn't bad. It's very quiet at low speeds.

Front windshield was narrow. I knew this already, having test-driven a 2007 Camry LE, but yeah, the windshield is small. It seems fine directly in front of me, in fact about the same as my 2006 HCH, but when looking at the area that's in front of the passenger (from the driver's seat), the view is extremely narrow. It won't stop me from buying one but I do hate the ever-shrinking front windshields in so many cars.

Possibly limited FE information in the non-navigation model. Admittedly I didn't familiarize myself with everything, but while there were two tripmeters, they were only odometers; they didn't have MPG information. There was a tank MPG readout, and a distance-to-empty, but I didn't notice a trip MPG that you can reset arbitrarily. However there might still have been one.

 

Excellent review ... I'm looking forward to see how mileage is in real life compared to the other hybrids. It does sound as if it is going to be comfortable and thrifty. (a nice combination) Great write up.

 

Just for the record, I drove it first! (Kidding, hehehe. But true.)

 

Yes but the history books shall remember me since I was the one that wrote about it!

Of course I wouldn't have known about the demo if it weren't for you.

 

I drove an LE today and wasn't pleased with the amount of road noise. Mostly tires, though I didn't get to go above 55 to see how wind factors in. I get two hours on the highway every day, so these things have become important to me.

Maybe I should get a Caddy?

 

I assume the hybrid is equally as noisy or quiet as the LE, since they have the same bodies, wheels, insulation, etc. Personally I don't notice tire noise, but the wind noise was noticeable. I don't really care since I always have the radio on, but it's not silent like a luxury car would be.

 

60 mpg at 70 mph?!

 

wow. we could have something to drive the HAH under even faster than I thought.

thanks for the brief, C.

 

That would be some nice gearing. I'm sceptical, but since I haven't heard otherwise I'll accept that number for now.

 

60 MPG AT 70? If that is true and many people here consistently get that I can see a lot of HCHII's ending up on used car lots. I would be one of them.