Camry -- Float Like a Butterfly

I wonder if a shaking jolting ride is bad for an infant's brain, or if it stimulates development.
I've been wondering for a while.
Maybe I shall scour for medical research on this topic...

I was raised in a jittery car, and I came out totally absolutely normal =].
 
And yeah, I really want to hear what you have to say about the Camry SE - but buying this one makes more sense as a long-termer. I don't really see that many Camry SEs around.

Your average Camry customer is buying a vehicle with a primary purpose of transporting driver, passanger, and cargo from point A to point B. The secondary considerations for this vehicle are:
 
1) Fuel Economy
2) Safety
3) Comfort
 
It sounds to me like the Camry is scoring VERY well with comfort, when you don't even notice the road you're traveling over.

For a long time, the Camry's been the number 1 seller in the US, but most accounts have at various points said that the Accord was the actual #1 seller with private consumers (aka excluding fleet sales). Accords are NOT floaty boats, even if they aren't quite sports sedans. I therefore don't buy that whole "it has to be floaty because people like it that way" argument, given that the Accord, Altima, and 6 - to name an important few - are all firmer than the Camry.

And that's all withouth having to resort to that silly & tacky body kit on the Camry SE.

Amen, roar02ram!

Alpha01: Perhaps you're right. Maybe "dangerous" was too harsh a word although I think that a car with such a strong engine as this should offer at least a bit more feedback to the driver. That's my point. If you're gonna be able to go that fast, then make sure you give the driver the tools to handle it. And I realize that the ride is very nice for the passengers but maybe there's some sort of middle ground that can be achieved.

Understood.
 
IMO:
 
Available corrective tool for the unaware/ unskilled driver = VSC
Middleground = SE trim line

Maybe these cars aren't outright dangerous, but they are scary. Here where I live in Vancouver there are lots of Camry drivers, and it seems like they drive in their own world. They always drive really slow, confused, never signalling, stopping when they have the right of way, over cautious etc. And it's not like it's only old people it seems that anyone that drives a Camry drives like this. I found out why; recently my car was damaged and had to be repaired. As a loner I received a Camry, and what do you know, because I was so isolated from the act of driving in this floaty comfortable car, I stopped paying attention, never signalling, stopping when I had the right of way, driving too slow, etc.

benson2175, are those drivers in Vancouver Asian? They sure sound like it. We have plenty of terrible Asian drivers in the San Gabriel Valley just East of Los Angeles.
 
Note: I myself am Asian.

Yeah predominantly they are Asian drivers but you see a lot of other races driving like that also. I'm white by the way. There's also lots of Asians that drive Accords and I don't see them driving so asinine. The one constant is the Camry. My own experience is that the car lulled me into forgetting to drive. It was quiet, the gears changed on their own smoothly, it didn't wallow or wander like an American car but went in the way you pointed it, it felt solid and safe, but it didn't engage me as a driver in any way, so I just sat there and looked out the window and listened to the radio but I was more like a passenger than a driver. I had this car for a week.

May I suggest we let the racial driving stereotypes end right now before it gets messy? We all know that eskimos are the worst drivers, so let's just move on.

I agree that when you isolated from the road (in this Camry, for example) it is easy to lose track of how fast you are going if you're not constantly dropping your eyes to the speedometer. You don't seem to have that problem when you feel the road imperfections or have lots of wind/tire noise. Props to Toyota for injecting a little Lexus into the Camry.
 
As for a lack of feel being "dangerous"... my solution may sound unempathetic, but just lower your target speed. Shoot for, say, 55 instead of 65, and if you find yourself drifting towards 60 or 65, just coast back down to speed. Then you'll be one of those slow Camry drivers.. ;-)

As part Eskimo I take offense to that comment.

You are so not an Eskimo, desmo! Thanks for getting us back on track, James. After all, I seem to see more people driving poorly in Corollas than Camrys (your mileage may vary).
 
Haven't read anything about "Uncle Pete's" latest Trojan team. Would you please give me a link? Send it to me via CarSpace. I don't want things getting too OT (off-topic) here.

Ram and Suby, i dont find the body kit tacky on the SE trim at all. Its actually very well executed and subtle. I think the SE is the best looking Camry out of all trim levels. The regular LE and XLE just look waaaaaaaaay too plain. A perfect example of an overdone body kit is the one on some of the Mazda6's (non Mazdaspeed).

I find it tacky because it suggests sporting intentions I believe the car is not capable of delivering (show without the go so-to-speak). Maybe it's because in my mind I'm thinking a Legacy GT would eat it alive.

Would be interesting to hear what Doug, our friendly Camry commenter, has in mind for his ultimate Ride (Audi R8? Lotus Elise? Corvette Blue Devil?).
 
Granted the Camry is boring as hades to auto enthusiasts. As transportation, it seems to do the job for a lot of Americans.
 
Also, BusinessWeek reported that Toyota is finally doing something about its dealer network, trying to get consumer complaints down and dealers to focus on the customer instead of the sale.
!!!___Finally___ an auto manufacturer that actually wants to focus on customers ___after___they buy their product!

I keep sayiing it - Toyatas in general and Camrys in particular are all about what the manufacturer holds dear as the supreme indicator of quality: driver isolation. They consider the term "great sounding engine" to be oximoron. How can any angine that you can actually hear, be "great"? They don't want you to feel the road, hear the motor or be perturbed by anything so annoying as lateral g's.
 
I agree with your assessment of the Camry - my impressions were exactly the same (I drove both the XLE and SE - the latter is better, but waaay short of sporty).

hondacura4- Good call on the Mazda 6's body kit, which I actually didn't like, either. It's all a bit reminiscent of Pontiac's mid-90s cladding routine.
 
I prefer Nissan's approach, which is to style the sportiness into the sheetmetal.

Kurtamaxx: Since you referred to me so kindly as "our friendly Camry commenter," I felt obliged to respond. It's hard to say what my faves are. Obviously, in a dream world, Aston Vanquish or (personal favorite) mid-80s Vantage Volante (I say this having never driven one.) I'd also say Ferrari California Spyder and the mid-70s Dino. (no drives either) But realistically, via Edmunds. I love the Infiniti G35 S sedan, I love the BMW M5 (although our road testers reported problems with it) and I really dig the new BMW 535i (I have an old one.) Don't dig Corvettes or Mustangs or big American cars (although I like mid-60s split-windows) and my need to carry musical equipment keeps me out of one of my faves, the Triumph TR6 (which I also have never driven). Aren't you glad (horrified) you asked?
 
I've driven the modern Lotus Exige and found it to be very hard to get in (I'm 6'1, about 205) and uncomfortable, although fun. Never driven the R8 although I like the A6 and would love to drive an RS 4 or RS 6. A man can dream, right?

so why is not feeling all the lumps in the road a bad thing? this isnt an a race car, its a family/luxury sedan.