2013 Toyota Camry XLE

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

August 15, 2013

Answer: This vehicle in 2012 sold 404,886 units, making it the best selling passenger car in the U.S. for the past eleven years

Question: What is the Toyota Camry?

Why has the Toyota Camry been the best selling car in the U.S. for eleven years? After spending a week with a 2013 Camry XLE four-cylinder, I might have the answer to this question.

The Camry's exterior design doesn't take any real risks. You won't find any distinctive sculpting, bold character lines, sloping roofline, or any other design cues that happen to be the hot thing at the moment. Toyota designers took the last-generation Camry, cleaned it up a bit by giving it some more tone and smoothing it out. I found it to be a nice looking vehicle.

Inside is somewhat a mess. The overall look feels somewhat dated with a mismatch design, hard materials in places where you think there should be soft-touch materials, and somewhat dated climate control interface. This isn't a good sign considering Toyota had just launched this generation of Camry for the 2012 model year.

There a few good points to the Camry's interior though. All of seats are very comfortable and there is a surprising amount of head and legroom for the front and back seat. Toyota's Entune infotainment system is one the easiest systems to use and provides a wide selection of audio choices and applications (such as Bing, OpenTable, and Pandora) you can access. I just wished the system was a little bit quicker when moving around the different functions and the screen did not wash out as easily in daylight.

The 2013 Camry sticks with the tried and true four-cylinder, V6, and hybrid powertrain lineup. My XLE tester came equipped with the 2.5L four-cylinder with 178 horsepower and 170 pound-feet of torque. This is paired with a six-speed automatic that routes power to the front wheels. The engine and six-speed transmission might the bright spot in the Camry since its a very smooth and refined affair. Plus, I found the engine to provide enough power for daily driving. EPA rates the 2013 Camry XLE four-cylinder at 25 City/35 Highway/28 Combined. During my week with the Camry, I got 30.2 MPG.

Competent would the perfect word to describe the Camry's ride and handling. The suspension does a great impression of doing a big sedan ride as it smooths over bumps and road imperfections. The Camry does exhibit some lean and roll when cornering, but how many Camry drivers are going to push their car to the limit? Not many.

Why do many people buy the Camry? Well, partly its due to the Camry being a good car. Its not the most stylish, nor fun to drive. What the Camry does right is the basics; offer a vehicle that seat four comfortably, provides a comfortable ride and very good fuel economy, and a pricetag that doesn't hurt the bank. There is also the long standing reputation the Camry has built over the years. Looking for a vehicle that is reliable and worryfree? You want a Camry. Those two items have made the Camry a perennial breadwinner for Toyota.

However, the current Camry is just average. Back in the early to mid-nineties, if you wanted the best midsize sedan, you went to the Toyota dealer and pickup up a Camry. Now with the likes of the Ford Fusion, Nissan Altima, Mazda6, Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima, and Honda Accord, the 2013 Camry is riding on its reputation and name. I understand why many people get the Camry, but you doing yourself a great disservice by not looking at others. The midsize marketplace is as strong as it ever was.

To sum up, the 2013 Toyota Camry is a good car and many will buy it. However, there are a fair number of vehicles who are much better and deserve a look.

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

Year - 2013

Make – Toyota

Model – Camry

Trim – XLE

Engine – 2.5L DOHC 16-Value w/Dual VTT-i Four-Cylinder

Driveline – Front-Wheel Drive, Six-Speed Automatic Transmission

Horsepower @ RPM – 178 @ 6,000 RPM

Torque @ RPM – 170 @ 4,100 RPM

Fuel Economy: City/Highway/Combined - 25/35/28

Curb Weight – 3,245 lbs

Location of Manufacture – Georgetown, Kentucky

Base Price - $24,855.00

As Tested Price - $29,570.00* (Includes $795.00 destination charge)

Options:

Leather Package - $1,675.00

Convenience Package - $1,195.00

Display Audio with Navigation and Entune - $1,050.00

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[riviera74]

Of course the Camry is riding on a reputation that may no longer be deserved. The 1990s have ended, and the competition is either catching up rapidly (Sonata, '14 Malibu) or has passed the Camry already (Fusion, Accord et. al.). If I had to buy one, I'll take an Avalon instead. Midsizers to me are too small these days, especially in the era of the CUV, which was invented by Toyota and Honda as a response to the BOF SUV boom of the 90s.

[regfootball]

30 mpg and expected to be reliable with a butt load of room inside. Can be had for good deals.

No nonsense. No risk means big reward.

Is it any wonder they move millions of these?

[Robert Hall]

An American icon. A cousin of mine worked for Toyota in Kentucky building these for the last 20+ years...got a new one every couple of years. I wouldn't want one, but I understand their appeal..

[G. David Felt]

As a mid size sedan, they are not as roomy as people say they are for those over 6' tall. The body is anything but nice looking. One of the most bland, conformist cars you can get.

If you could look at who is buying them, I would not be surprised that most of the buyers are of Asian decent. The drive to fit in and be uniform is what sells this car and it's total false reputation for being so reliable. I think there are cars that are far superior than this one. Eventually it will fail.

[Drew Dowdell]

Oh... a Camry... how... interesting....

[regfootball]

As a mid size sedan, they are not as roomy as people say they are for those over 6' tall. The body is anything but nice looking. One of the most bland, conformist cars you can get.

If you could look at who is buying them, I would not be surprised that most of the buyers are of Asian decent. The drive to fit in and be uniform is what sells this car and it's total false reputation for being so reliable. I think there are cars that are far superior than this one. Eventually it will fail.

helluva lot more rear seat room than a 2013 chevy malibu

[dwightlooi]

Affordable, dependable, comfortable. That defines the Camry and its reputation. You can sell a lot of cars on that definition and reputation, unfortunately you cannot design or engineer a car that immediately takes on that persona in the minds of Camry shoppers. You wanna be a Camry? Go build a Malibu with 99% of the owners not having to see a dealer or a mechanic for 15 years and 200,000 miles, then come back in 2028 and be the new Camry.

OK, I may be exaggerating a bit. But such exaggerations may not be too far off from the perception of Camry owners and buyers as far as the reliability and low maintenance of the car. Such legendary reliability may be legend indeed, but we have a Camry in the family... it's a 2003 model with 190,000 something miles. Never broke, never fixed never failed emissions. My in law takes it to an oil change place maybe twice a year paying little attention to mileage between changes. Never done any inspection, never changed the brake fluid, never replaced the transmission fluid, never touched the powersteering fluid, never services the A/C, never went to the dealer or mechanic for routine maintenance. The steering is a little lose from worn tie rods, the parking brake is out of adjustment & essentially does nothing when pulled, the CV boot is torn but they decided to ignore it until the joint makes noise (it hasn't yet) and the windshield washer tank has been dry for years. I think his philosophy is that if the car runs he's not going to fix it. The car has seen a mechanic exactly twice -- to get new brake pads. And they did it the quick and dirty way without turning the rotors or replacing them for about $100 each time, I think the chinese shop they went to probably didn't even measured the disc thickness but hey it's $40 an hour and the cheapest joint in town. The car just won't die, won't even leak oil!

[ponchoman49]

Your 2003 is the polar opposite of my parents best friends who owned a 2006 XLE V6 that they just traded with 78K miles on the odometer. In that 78K miles there car was in for the following issues- left front and right rear wheel bearings, intake manifold gasket failure, plug wires, alternator and battery, spark knock when using 87 octane fuel, leaking tires on corroded alloy wheels and last but not least transmission chugging in and out of overdrive on the open road which turned out to be a prom update. All of these issues just go to prove that Toyota's supposed reliability is hit and miss and that lately there cars have been cheapened and are no better than most of the competition. This brings me to the last paragraph in this write up. There are better sedans available and folks need to open there eyes when sedan shopping.

[dwightlooi]

Like I said... such reputations took decades to build and takes decades to dispel.