The new Camry is definitely a car that I was looking forward to driving and making a video on. I thought the 2017 Camry felt like a nice car to cruise around in, but it definitely felt older and behind the times compared to the newer family sedans on the market. With the new Camry being built on an entirely new platform designed for improved handling, rigidity, and comfort, this is a car that sets new benchmarks for the midsize sedan category.
First impressions: the interior. Aside from the Toyota badge on the steering wheel, you can’t even recognize that you’re in a Camry. Unlike the cold, utilitarian interiors on the previous generations, this new Camry feels more like an upmarket Mazda 6 or Ford Fusion. That plain old Toyota feel is long gone.
For the driving dynamics, I’ll start off by talking about the steering. Initially you notice that the steering is a little bit heavier than the previous Camry. It’s very linear and accurate as well, and it holds the vehicle’s position on the road with good stability and precision. The steering responds immediately off-center as well. No vagueness like the previous Camry, it just pitches itself around turns with very little steering input, and it does it with good precision and refinement. While the steering is definitely sharp and finely tuned, it doesn’t have an overly quick, jerky response like sportier handling car would have. The steering still just has a very balanced and sharpened feel, even though you wouldn’t confuse it for a sport sedan. When the steering is on center, the car points straight as an arrow. I also noticed that when coming to a stop, I could literally let go of the steering wheel well before the actual stop, and the car would just keep on pointing straight in the exact path that I intended for it to go. It’s all a very sharp and buttoned down steering feel. I’d also like to note that the steering has some very slight rawness in its feel, almost like an old Honda product. It is just a very slight twinge of rawness, as you can still tell this is an electric power steering setup, but it’s enough to feel the road a little better than the previous Camry.
The 4-cylinder is a good engine, but it is louder than I thought it would be. While it certainly sounds different from the old 4 cylinder, it feels similar in terms of refinement. The main changes with this engine is the use of a higher compression ratio, and the use of both a direct injection and port injection system. This engine has 203 horsepower, which is 25 more than the previous generation. The torque in this engine seems to kick in quicker compared to the old engine, and the power band feels more linear as well. It’s not an engine that will knock your socks off, but it can keep up with traffic and most people will think that the power is smooth and adequate. It overall feels like what you would expect from 203 horsepower.
The 8-speed automatic is good, although I was expecting better in some areas. When you’re just accelerating normally, the shift quality is very smooth, and it seems to give you the gears that you want, albeit feeling slightly more focused on fuel economy. I wasn’t a fan of how the transmission performed in stop-and-go traffic, however. The transmission seemed to get confused a little too easily, and it would sometimes hesitate between shifts. Whenever I was coasting between 1-5 mph and then hit the gas, it would take the transmission a second or two to think about what gear I needed, at which point it seemed to “clunk” into gear somewhat harshly. There were other instances where I felt that it was shifting too much. Other than that though, I would say that the shift quality is smooth and the gearbox delivers the correct gears. Downshifts happen fairly quick, and it seems to plan its shifts pretty intelligently in delivering satisfying amounts of power for most driving situations. It was just in stop-and-go traffic and a few other odd driving scenarios where the shifts felt a bit too hesitant and jerky. While the old 6-speed was getting somewhat dated, I think that transmission just felt slightly more natural and predicable in its response, however the 8-speed definitely has increased versatility and smoothness compared to the old 6-speed. The new gearbox allows you to plan how you want to accelerate with more precision, and it helps the engine power feel more tuned to what the driver wants out of it rather than what the transmission wants out of it.
The handling is very competitive thanks to the new platform. The 2018 Camry is very much a car that drives how it looks. Elegant, sharp, and precise. When going around corners, you don’t feel the body lean at all. The Camry doesn’t protest being driven at higher speeds either. It is still a Camry, in that the ride quality is really smooth and quite isolated from the road, so you can’t expect sport sedan levels of feedback and communication in corners. However, it is all very refined, linear, and predictable. On top of handling corners well, you don’t even feel them that much. You don’t slide around in your seat, the chassis remains flat, and the steering helps the Camry feel sharp throughout the duration of the corner. It doesn’t necessarily have that exited “egging you on” type of feel that you’d get from the Mazda 6, but it has more elegance and refinement than some of the renowned sportier handling entries. I imagine the SE or XSE models will have more of that excited, Mazda-like feel in the corners, on top of the refined precision that all the regular models have.
Ride quality is superb as well. The car just glides down the road and you barely feel the road imperfections. While the chassis is notably stiffer than the old model, I would say that the ride quality is also a vast improvement over the previous generation. Road and wind noise are also really well muted, it’s probably the quietest midsize sedan that I’ve ever driven.
The actual response of this car is different from the previous Camry’s. I was not expecting to find a floor-hinged accelerator in this car, as just about every Camry in history used a suspended accelerator design up until this one. The floor hinged accelerator is stiffer and requires more effort than the previous Camry’s with their lighter, looser feeling suspended accelerator pedals. I didn’t notice a dead-zone in the pedal travel like some other cars that use a floor-hinged design, but I would have liked the throttle response to feel just a little bit sharper. The brakes are also far more confidence inspiring compared to the old Camry. The car isn’t shaken by hard stops at all. The actual brake pedal response is just like the old Camry with a stiff feel and a good bite, however the brakes feel notably more powerful and refined. It feels easier to modulate how much stopping power and distance you need, and the car feels smooth and composed even under hard and aggressive stops.
The sight lines in this car are definitely a little different from the previous Camry and its fishbowl-like visibility. This 2018 Camry definitely has more aggressive styling and narrower belt lines, however I didn’t have any problems seeing out of it. The front hood does stick out a little further in your vision, and the rear window is on the narrower side, however you can still see everything just fine.
Overall, the new Camry is very capable. They did a good job at retaining a lot of the same attributes that Camry buyers want, while injecting in some sportiness and luxuriousness into this new generation. I enjoyed the sharp handling, the laser responsive steering, the hushed road noise, soft ride quality, and the powerful braking feel. I liked the intuition of the 8-speed, but I wasn’t a fan of the shift logic at times. The engine is about as good as you could ask for with a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder, but it is louder and a bit more harsher sounding than the old engine. I also think that a sharper, more aggressive accelerator response could really improve how the engine and transmission feel to the driver. All that said, the new Camry impresses me. If you are someone who usually avoids the Camry and goes for the sportier entries like the Accord, Fusion, or Mazda 6, definitely give this new Camry a try. I guarantee your perspective on the Camry will change. I would personally enjoy owning this car as a solid daily driver, and that is not something I could say about many of the cars I’ve driven in the past.