2015 Camry Hybrid SE comments after renting

I picked up this 2015 Camry Hybrid SE rental in white and black interior from Piercey Toyota in Milpitas, CA. It only took a day and a half for the car to become available. $106 for two days with tax. The car is pretty well loaded up with sunroof, naviagation, even Qi wireless charging for cell phone. It sure has a lot more power than a Prius, 200 HP to be exact. It's a sharp looking car. This year it gained the big open mouth grill, but it is bold looking. Those daytime running lights add to the bold look. It somehow reminds me of a sinister looking sea creature in the front. It's not boring looking up there that's for sure. Overall it looks much better than the three previous years which really were a bit bland and slab-sided looking.

It has a much more taut, grounded feel than my base model Prius. When taking off from a stop, the engine comes on quickly whereas my Prius likes to hang on some EV for a couple seconds before the engine kicks on. When you whack the throttle on the HyCam on freeway, it gets up and goes. Sometimes the Prius feels like it gets up and goes. Othertimes the engine makes a bunch noise and the acceleration is pretty lackluster.

With the power driver's seat, I could get a nice upright driving position. This is not possible in my base Prius seat: No matter what, I'm always canted back and away from the steering wheel and that will never change (can you say no tilt adjust on the seat bottom? Argh!)
Lo
ts of legroom for driver and front passenger (fyi did you know the current Accord lost about 3 inches legroom for front passenger from previous generation? It's noticeable)

HyCam Front passenger seat is set a little bit high. Upside is it makes entry and exit a bit easier. Downside is headroom a bit scant for tall passenger (like that brother in law of mine). Headroom is pretty good on driver's side even with sunroof.

Sometimes when I power off the HyCam, I forget to put the gated shifter into park, but the car let me know by making a noise. This SE's interior is pretty snazzy: red stitching in the dash, steering wheel, even the shifter boot. Nice Silver accents with the black panels. If I had one wish for the interior, it would be either a longer driver's seat bottom cushion or one that would adjust longer and shorter (like Avalon Limited).

The car drives very nicely. It's pretty quiet even on rough freeway, not luxury car quiet but good. I remember a comment from Consumer Reports where they said Camry Hybrid is like the straight A student in class. I sort of see what they are saying. It does everything very well. It doesn't have any 'bad boy' or sporty traits even though it is an SE trim. For example, when you step hard on the gas, it does not give off any throaty type of exhaust sound. Engine sounds fairly tame. But, it is any easy to use and drive, comfortable car with good gas mileage ....

It returned the car after 112 miles (gauge reset before trip) and it was reading over 44 MPG on dash (this is in mixed driving 60 something F dry weather.

So there you have it.

Rewrote post above. Wrote original post on cell phone which not such a good idea.

 

Couple weeks ago I built my 'legrest box' to fit 2015 Camrys and place in front of seat bottom edge. So, I grabbed the Camry Hybrid SE '15 for one more day today. Ohhh darn, the ship is sunk on this one. No go, no purchase.
I will give a tryout to the legrest box in the XLE trim, but it's not looking good at this point.

Hey, at least I have phoned comments into Toyota corporate in hopes next gen or so Camry will float my boat. That's all i can do. I won't give them my money