I just drove the Camry Hybrid

That is interesting. One of the factors that influenced me to choose the Prius over the Civic Hybrid is that the battery takes up much of the space in the trunk in the HCH (and the rear seats don't fold at all.) If they could make a flat trunk and fold-down seats work in the Prius, why not other cars?
Other than that, though, I think the new Camry is stuuning- haven't driven one yet.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(naterprius @ May 15 2006, 10:13 AM) [snapback]255759[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for sharing. This is only one of the things I like about the Prius; it was designed from the getgo to be a hybrid, and not a conversion. Form follows function.

 

I also got a Camry test-drive, in the one Gilles Labelle brought
out to Tour de Sol. I only managed 42 mpg on a shortish loop, but
I was checking out the various hybrid tricks to see if they still
work on this one -- warp-neutral, force-charging, etc. They do, in
fact, since it's still more or less the same HSD under there. Then
someone else took it out and "hypermiled" the thing at 72 mpg! Well,
I guess I just suck.
.
Anyway, after we were done I thought to check the tire pressure. The
tires [I forget exactly what make/model but it could likely be
looked up] are rated at *51* psi cold, and of course they were down
at Toyota's 33 or whatever. I told Gilles, "pump them suckers UP!"
and he would have except the next day was solid rain and nobody felt
like dealing.
.
The analog FE meter is sort of cute, but *very* slow in its response.
It goes from 60 mpg up to zero, with a little region below 60
marked "EV" or some such, i.e. "infinite". The screen "energy"
display has the expected components and shows "glide" mode with no
arrows, but not above 42 mph as with the prius. What I spent some
amount of time during our test run, most of which was at 45-50 mph
on secondary highways, was trying to find the "warp stealth" state
with the engine spinning but not consuming, and the car being gently
pushed by electric alone. All my thrashing with that probably kept
the short-term FE down. Extra instrumentation is probably needed.
.
Ours also had leather, which I largely ignored. The thing feels
*big*. I finally learned the term for that narrow-windows, slab-
sided "retro roadster" look -- it's called "high beltline". Anyway,
the Camry has that. I'm sure it will appeal to many who want a
regular *car* with all the amenities expected nowadays. What would
appeal much more to the gear-hauling crowd would be a *wagon*
version of this, which would require relocating the battery pack
and some other changes, but I think that would be well worth it.
The payload is something around 900 pounds in the sedan [not that
the prius at 850 is very far behind...] and a wagon version could
probably be beefed up a little to a full half-ton.
.
_H*

 

My only concern for the new Camry Hybrid, would be the reliability. I am hearing more and more reports of the new Avalon being much less reliable than typical Toyota standard, and the Camry has only been out less than a year and already has a recall under it's hood. I have been totally satisfied with my Prius' reliablity, and I would buy a Toyota again, but with the new reliablity reports, I would definately check out all options before just sticking with Toyota.
My thinking with the Prius is that they probably did so much research and developement for the design of it, that it is bound to be a better built car, whereas the new Camry they just sort of threw into the market.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(remaxmanager @ May 15 2006, 02:14 PM) [snapback]255787[/snapback]</div>

Aren't the Avalons and other Camrys the American Made ones?

The current Hybrid Camrys are made in Japan. They won't start assembling them here until later this year as I understand it.

Not saying that's a major factor, but something to consider.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tempus @ May 15 2006, 03:55 PM) [snapback]255813[/snapback]</div>

OHHH, OK! That make's me feel better than hehe... sad to say. I have heard that the models that are built here, are significantly less reliable, such as the Nissan Titan- they are receiving many complaints about Nissan's reliability for the Titan, as it is produced here, yet the one's built over seas are still reliable. Ford and VW is having a lot of their vehicles built in Mexico- not the smartest idea- the reliability on those models have been bad. I saw an article regarding the reliability ratings of the new Hyundai's- as their reliability has been ranked up with Toyota and Honda, yet they are concerned with the new Sonata, as it is manufactured in America now. Also, I have been hearing/reading that GM's reliability is on the rise, and I have noticed a MAJOR increase in their marketing, something tells me that Toyota better keep an eye on their plants here if they plan on knockin' out the (former?) "big 3".

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(remaxmanager @ May 15 2006, 12:09 PM) [snapback]255818[/snapback]</div>

Toyota has been very, very happy with the quality of the vehicles they have been building in the US. I read an article about a year ago where they said the quality stats for Toyota showed the US factories producing better product than the Japanese ones.

Nissan is another matter; they recently "tanked" on all their new models ("tanked" being relative to other manufacturers; they still have better reliability than most of the cars built in the 1980's and 1990's.) Quality usually has less to do with the workers than it does with the management.

 

My understanding is that Toyotas built in the US have been of the highest quality. The Avalon is the first instance of a Toyota that I have heard of that has had any significant quality control issues. Likewise, Honda has also built excellent vehicles in the US. Nissan, on the other hand, has had problems with their US plants. All of the German companies- VW, Mercedes, BMW- have had quality problems with US-built vehicles. Clearly, it's not a deficiency on the part of US auto workers- it would seem that some companies have management problems.

 

Almost sounds like the typical first generation problems with a new product.

Not enough prethought and it sounds like it will not be a "perfected" product until a few generations of customer comments changing things a bit.

Its ashamed they took the good attributes and ruin't them with bad attributes..

But then again, its hard to beat the prius.... even for toyota... unless they make a better prius!
And it sounds like.. thats "not" the Camry.