I got my new car!!! Camry Hybrid gray/ash, fully loaded. I was on the waiting lists at several dealers, and got an unexpected call tonight with the news that a surgeon who had been waiting three months could not take delivery of his car, equipped exactly as I had ordered it. Just got it home, and I'm feeling stunned, since this was the last news I expected to get today.

So, the purchase experience was good, and I paid MSRP.

The car is amazing. It's eerily quiet and tight. You get a sense that it's a solid, well-built car when you drive it. I took it for a loop around four freeways, for a total of 18 miles, averaging about 65 miles per hour, with the AC running. It returned 40 to 55+ MPG at all times, except on one long, steep incline. Temperature was mid-60s, with no apparent wind. (My trip experiment took me in all four compass directions of nearly equal distance.) The PDI staff said the tires were set to 32 PSI. I'll go set them to 45 and retest after finishing this post.

I could see that the MPGs were highly suceptible to sensitive changes in gas pedal pressure, seemingly more so than in my Insight.

The moral? If you're on a waiting list, you may be surprised sooner than you think. And yes, by my first impressions, the Camry seems to meet and exceed the expectations we've been hoping for.

 

Congrats on your new TCH! What's the deal with the tire pressure? What should it be? Haven't checked mine.
Randy

 

Thank you! Just checked the pressures, and then I drove the same circuit at the same speed. Here are my first real-world test results:

The tire pressures were 37 all around when I brought the car home, and drove the 18-mile test loop described above. Average MPG was 39.5 at 65 MPH.

I raised the tire pressures to 46 front and 44 rear, then drove the same test loop at the same speed, just 45 minutes later, with same temperature and wind conditions.

My average MPG was 42.3 the second time, an increase of almost 3 MPG for the test.

I did not use any special driving techniques, such as "pulse and glide." Just moderate acceleration for both tests. By the way, I didn't notice that the ride or noise levels were adversely affected by the increased tire pressures.

Did I mention... I love this car!

Time to go sit in the garage, read the manual, and play with the settings/controls.

 

Congratulations!

I am about to put an order for a fully-loaded one too.

Tell me about performance driving (I've you tried it), namely:
-acceleration
-steering boost feel
-brake feel
-body roll

Obviously this is not a performance sedan, but I occasionally like to drive this way, and I'm curious how the CH feels. Have you driven the V6 Camry? If so, can you compare?

Also, does the Nav have points of interest?

Thanks, and ENJOY!

 

Pre-congrats to you on your new TCH, too. I'm a performance-oriented driver, as well, but it may be awhile before I venture there with the Hybrid. Maybe I'll go back to a dealer and drive a demo Camry to beat the @#$% out of THEIR car, not mine! LOLOL.

Yes, the NAV has points of interest.

 

Steve,
Thanks, I will be ordering tomorrow. I agree - drive slowly and break it in right.
When you have time, we would be very grateful to see pictures of your new beauty. I especially want to see the engine room, the back seats folded down (from both inside the car and the trunk), and pictures of all the various touchscreen display screens.

I plan to buy the manual online, and I can send you the PDFs if you'd like.

Thanks very much, SR.

 

(jealousy setting in rapidly)

 

I took a few pics today, and you can see how the TCH looks without its badges. Click on the link:

http://www.stevenvillatoro.com/page30/page30.html

 

nice car! thanks for the pix and the mpg updates!

 

Thanks for the pictures - can you take a few of the navigation system for me? I'm curious as to if it's the same as the Prius, or better. (I'm not a huge fan of the prius Nav setup).

Lucien