Initially, our 2012 Toyota Camry SE comes across as inhospitable for AM/FM radio listeners. After all, it has the same ridiculously long reach to the tuning knob as our Sienna did. If I need to tune a new public radio station while driving (weaker stations don't always come up in seek/scan), I have to lean way forward in my seat to work the knob. It's uncomfortable and annoying.
However, the Camry's radio has one feature I really like.
And that is the ability to disable the HD feature for FM radio by simply hitting a button on the touchscreen.
Why bother with this? Well, because I've found that when driving in far-flung suburbs of L.A. (Orange County, Inland Empire), HD coverage is spotty, so it will go in and out -- and when it does this, it's hard to hear newscasts and music because the volume and sound quality fluctuate so wildly. Disabling HD radio is a beautiful thing in these situations.
Erin Riches, Senior Editor
blueprint1 says:
06:05 AM, 02/ 4/12
Are the ergonomics as bad with the regular radio?
Erin, if you own gloves (skiing, working, gardening ... any gloves), can you operate the touchscreen while wearing them?
Up here, we usually drive with gloves for half of the commute, until the interior starts to show some warmth and the ice starts to melt from far corners of the windows.
ewkid says:
07:52 AM, 02/ 4/12
The Seek button is right there on the left side, nice and close to the driver.
csubowtie says:
07:58 AM, 02/ 4/12
I feel like this wouldn't be a huge issue in your own personal car. The last time I used the tune button was when we moved, and then it was to tune in and set all the presets. On a road trip outside the range of my normal stations, I would probably have a passenger that could take care of it.
jasond52 says:
09:44 AM, 02/ 4/12
What is this "AM/FM radio" you write of?
ed124c says:
10:06 AM, 02/ 4/12
@jasond52: Funny, but there are people out there (especially Camry drivers, I would guess) who have not embraced the 21st Century electronic media. I am one. I do not blanket my waking hours with music. I did that when I was young. Now, I mostly like it quiet.
Of course, I did buy the new digital enhanced Dark Side of the Moon CD, and I really crank up the volume on discs like that.
On trips I watch the scenery, discuss with myself why I have not bought a new car in going on 8 years, etc. And once in a while I will scan through the unknown FM channels. Sometimes that is amusing.
ptcdawg says:
10:48 AM, 02/ 4/12
In the South, can't live without local College Football talk at times. AM is necessary.
ctpaul says:
11:01 AM, 02/ 4/12
no steering wheel buttons for tuning the radio?
se_riously says:
01:01 PM, 02/ 4/12
ctpaul - The steering wheel buttons allow you to switch between the radio presets, but not tune the radio.
Erin Riches - When was the last time you used the tune knob in your personal vehicle? I set my presets, and forget it thereafter. Just curious if you have the same complaint about the temperature knob, since it appears in the photo to be just about the same distance.
dg0472 says:
05:13 PM, 02/ 4/12
Honestly, what part of this post did some of you not read? She clearly said Seek often doesn't work for many weaker NPR stations.
And do some of you never travel beyond your regular commute? If I want to go to the beach, once I get there I'm set because the Conway (Myrtle Beach) station is the same frequency as here, but to listen continuously means a lot of knob twisting trying to swap around among the Sumter and Columbia (and some times Rock Hill) stations trying to stay on the one I can hear in Florence.
Also, if you're going from Charlotte to Atlanta, a trip a lot of people take, trying to hear news, the same frequency is also used for the main Atlanta station as the Greenville station, meaning you'll have to do some knob twisting to hit the Athens station or some other station until you're past that area where WABE and WEPR talk over each other. And Seek isn't going to find it. And you're not going to hear any local news on any satellite feed.
se_riously says:
11:27 PM, 02/ 4/12
dg0472 - What part of my post did you not read? I assume you travel to the beach frequently enough, or travel from Charlotte to Atlanta often enough that you would preset the stations so you wouldn't have to turn the knob at all. Did you by chance notice that it looks like the Camry has 36 presets? Do you think that's enough to switch from one broadcast area to another?
And yes, I do occasionally travel beyond my regular commute. But that's maybe 5% of the time. Take 5%, multiply that by the likelihood that I'll be listening to the radio instead of pre-stored music (5%), and multiply that by the likelihood I'd use the knob to search every 0.2 MHz frequency instead of using the "seek" button since I don't know the local stations I travel through (1%), and the knob is appropriately placed for the 0.0025% of the time that I'm likely to twist it.
Sounds like good ergonomics to me!
So I ask Erin Riches again: When was the last time you twisted the tuning knob on your own personal vehicle?
Erin Riches replied to comment from se_riously
04:16 AM, 02/ 5/12
I take a lot of road trips, and sometimes the scan and seek functions don't pick up weak local public radio stations (for the NPR news I listen to) and weak AM stations (for baseball games), and yes, I use the tuning knob for that.
jasond52 says:
08:20 AM, 02/ 5/12
I also travel a lot up and down the East coast quite a bit. If I'm not listening to Sat radio, I'm listening to music/podcasts/books on my iPhone. Need up to the minute traffic? The Mapquest app on my phone provides much better data the local "on the 8's" radio traffic report.
mk40 says:
10:34 PM, 02/ 5/12
Yep, found an ergonomic flaw in the Camry. Kind of silly when they have all that blank space right below the screen.
milt721 says:
01:30 PM, 02/ 7/12
People still use Mapquest? Their directions are wrong too often. Any other service is better.