Camry Hybrid

This is TOYOTA's specification page:


The OWNER's Manual:


Somewhere I read that if you can't buy 95 or 98, you can put 91 as a stop-gap until you next fill.

 

You do understand that this confuses the CRAP out of owners in the US......right ??

 

It may not be on the table, but in the text of most car manuals I've seen with a premium fuel label state that the fuel is recommended, and also mention premium is required for full performance.

I guess Toyota Australia doesn't want to sell the Camry hybrid. There is no technical reason why the cars they get need premium. The turbo mill in my Sonic was designed for premium, and GM labeled it regular for sales. No issue beyond lower fuel economy and performance when I used regular.

 

What's crazy is that the RAV4 allows regular Unleaded 91RON/E10 - and supposedly has the same engine.

I've just written to TOYOTA again, suggesting they look into it. I mentioned that USA only specifies 91RON, and asked if we get a different engine from USA.

 

The mislabeled Tundra window stickers got fixed so well, that I've doubted actually seeing them.

 

The touchscreen is something you have to get used to. And you can't get used to it in a test drive. But after a few days or a week you discover that it is just as natural as all the other ways of putting various displays and controls. Now when I have to drive our Prius it seems very strange. I'm not making this up...I drove 4 different Prius models going back to 2000.
For example...the screen is so tiny, how did I ever use it.
So many things to do to go. In the Model 3 you sit down, put foot on the brake and put it in drive and go.
In the Prius you sit down, push the power button, release the parking brake, put foot on the brake, shift to drive and go.

I know this is silly, but your muscle memory does all these things quickly without really thinking. So when you switch cars you forget what you are doing sometimes. This is why first impressions in a test drive aren't always reliable, IMO.

As for the financial troubles...Tesla is selling as many cars in a quarter as ANY EV car model has sold in total, except maybe the Leaf.
The worst case for Tesla would be that they get acquired.

As for the plug. I don't get your complaint. You get a J1772 adapter with the car. That means it can use more chargers than any car. This includes the Superchargers which are faster, cheaper and more available than what any other EV can use. You get the destination chargers and you get all the L2 chargers that everyone gets.

Mike

 

yeah, when i have to take the key out of my pocket after forgetting to when i climb in my dakota, it's a real bummer

 

Yep I got one of those ... irrelevant replies - just not saying anything. And they couldn't explain the lack of logic of it. I'd mentioned that the Govt Site. the Green Vehicle Guide lists both Camry and RAV4 Hybrids as EURO 5 standards:


As for them not being able to comment on the information in the Green Vehicle Guide (GVG) - they gave it to the GVT!!!!

 

I always thought Tesla had the best implementation when it came to the charger. The portable EVSE that comes with the car is already a Level 2 one. Just needed to get the right adapter for the outlet from Tesla, and they provide the the one for RV outlets at campgrounds.

 

Precisely. If marketing would talk to engineering (which they have in Australia) and sort out this obvious error, they could likely sell more cars - but 13% extra for Premium Fuel added to the fuel price counters a lot of the savings with a hybrid.

 

Specially if the use of premium does nothing for the fuel economy.

 

With some of my previous cars, it did make a measurable improvement - but not for what it cost. I just looked for some figures and can't find them, but one I did find was a KIA in ~2008 - improvement of about 5%, extra cost about 12%.

My PRIUS is the only car which I couldn't measure an improvement - in fact E10 gave similar figures to Standard Unleaded. That could have a bit to do with Samantha in EV Mode for about 35+% of the time - which couldn't care whether it's E10 or 98.

 

I'm not under the impression that higher octane fuels do anything to increase MPGs. Higher octane fuels are needed for higher compression engines. I think the rule of thumb is to use the lowest octane fuel your car can safely run on. Buying premium if you don't need it is just a waste of money, prove me wrong...

 

Premium vs. Regular | Car Talk

Busted: 7 Things That Won’t Improve Your Gas Mileage

Premium vs. Regular Gas Explained - TrueCar Blog

 

Not necessarily. Old engines, yes probably, but newer cars with knock sensors can advance ignition, and even play tricks with CVVT etc to produce either greater performance or economy from newer engines. But at 12% more for 95RON (xtra here today) or 17% more for 98RON is much more than any benefits I've measured, which are more like 3-6%.

 

High compression engines are high expansion engines. That means they can convert more of the fuel's energy into mechanical energy. Atkinson engines in hybrids are high compression engines that use valve timing to reduce the effective compression ratio.

Using higher octane than what the engine was designed for has no benefit, but the octane listed in the owner's manual isn't necessarily the octane the engine was designed for. For most models, premium fuel on the window sticker will hurt sales. So if the engine happens to be designed for premium, the car sticker may say regular. That was the case with the 1.4L turbo in my Sonic. The engine was designed for premium, and when ever I tried higher octane fuel, I always got better fuel economy for the tank. The improvement was just not enough to cover the higher price.