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Alan Cesar
Alan Cesar Associate Editor
7/24/12 10:04 a.m.

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/new-cars/2012-toyota-camry/

Keith
Keith MegaDork
7/24/12 10:14 a.m.

For a magazine with "motorsports" in the title, you guys pull some weird choices out of the press pool.

Joe Gearin
Joe Gearin Associate Publisher
7/24/12 10:17 a.m.

Yeah, we don't always choose what shows up in the press pool. Sometimes it's a C6 Z06.......sometimes it is a bland-mobile.

Believe me, if we got to choose, this car wouldn't be high on the list.

DoctorBlade
DoctorBlade SuperDork
7/24/12 10:20 a.m.

I'd think the review should include a lap time of some nearby track.

Ian F
Ian F UberDork
7/24/12 10:20 a.m.

My guess is if they want to get handed the keys to something fun, they also need to review the boring stuff. Fortunately, the manufacturers seem to be happy with web-publishing vs. wasting paper on printed reviews.

PHeller
PHeller SuperDork
7/24/12 10:43 a.m.

Tom Suddard Intern: It was large and boring, but it had great power. Kind of like Jabba the Hut.

MCarp22
MCarp22 HalfDork
7/24/12 10:43 a.m.

Soon:

http://youtu.be/1Vm6PNearEU

I was laughing the whole time.

JoeyM
JoeyM SuperDork
7/24/12 10:58 a.m.

In reply to Joe Gearin:

"grassroots commuting"

(Online only....just stick the reviews of boring cars there.)

scardeal
scardeal Dork
7/24/12 12:03 p.m.

All I know is that if I ever were to buy a Camry, it would have to be painted in a camouflage scheme. It would actually stand out more.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH PowerDork
7/24/12 12:12 p.m.

Whoa didn't take them long to copy the Kia Cerato's grille and headlights. Bumper looks like the FR-S' a little bit. But it gives me the feeling that it wasn't designed by a horribly underpaid guy who hates his job so that's good.

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon MegaDork
7/24/12 12:21 p.m.

Yep, another blandmobile which will sell in the millions to those who like their transportation drama free, thus supplying the parent company with $ or yen or euros or ? to spend on their racing program for the likes of us. In that respect, it gets mine.

Good one, Tommy.

Tyler H
Tyler H Dork
7/24/12 12:26 p.m.

I recently got a new Camry SE as a rental. It was the sportiest driving sedan I've gotten out of the rental fleet in a while, especially compared to the '10-'11 Camrys. I was also really surprised when I got a '12 Impala the other week and mashed the gas for the first time...enough so that I went and looked it up and it has the 300+hp direct injected V6 in it now. What a sleeper.

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
7/24/12 12:32 p.m.
Keith wrote: For a magazine with "motorsports" in the title, you guys pull some weird choices out of the press pool.

Yeah, like Joe said, we get what the press car gods send us. We can (and do) make choices when it comes to stuff that we're going to track test, but for these little online updates we pretty much review whatever comes our way.

Last week, for example, we had a Porsche Cayman. This week we have a Malibu hybrid. That Malibu is pretty decent, to be honest. If it wasn't sent our way, I probably never would have driven it. Color me impressed. Am I going to race it? Heck, no. But I'd say it's a nice people-mover that's good on gas.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker
Giant Purple Snorklewacker UltimaDork
7/24/12 12:55 p.m.
David S. Wallens wrote: Yeah, like Joe said, we get what the press car gods send us.

Listen to me! You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. -- Tyler Durden

Alan Cesar
Alan Cesar Associate Editor
7/24/12 1:13 p.m.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:
David S. Wallens wrote: Yeah, like Joe said, we get what the press car gods send us.
Listen to me! You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. -- Tyler Durden

This Camry is your life, and it's ending one corner at a time.

mndsm
mndsm PowerDork
7/24/12 1:28 p.m.

Tighter suspension, a manual, and we might have something slightly amusing. And to top it off, people quit looking at Camrys 20 years ago, so you'd NEVER stand out in traffic!

Tom Suddard
Tom Suddard Intern
7/24/12 1:29 p.m.

You guys seem to be missing the fact that this Camry does 0-60 in 5.7 seconds. It's fun if you don't mind squealing tires and defacing the reputation of septuagenarians everywhere.

pinchvalve
pinchvalve UltimaDork
7/24/12 1:48 p.m.

The Camry is the '32 Ford of our day. In 70 years, everyone will be hot rodding them.

Ian F
Ian F UberDork
7/24/12 1:48 p.m.
mndsm wrote: And to top it off, people quit looking at Camrys 20 years ago, so you'd NEVER stand out in traffic!

A Camry travelling at a 120+ mph still stands out... a former co-worker has the tickets to prove it...

fasted58
fasted58 UltraDork
7/24/12 1:51 p.m.
pinchvalve wrote: The Camry is the '32 Ford of our day. In 70 years, everyone will be hot rodding them.

I

just

hope

the

hell

not

Vigo
Vigo SuperDork
7/24/12 2:29 p.m.
I was laughing the whole time.

After you passed the Miata and the E30 i felt a pretty good joke about most of the people on this forum coming on..

Although that video also brings out a bit of the Confucius in me: He who does not have to drive home on those tires can pass many commuters on track..

You guys seem to be missing the fact that this Camry does 0-60 in 5.7 seconds.

Im sure as heck not missing it. Im not afflicted with the same blind spots as a lot of people here.. That thing is a good starting point for a very entertaining car. Hell, i even LIKE the styling and some of the interior options.

I just really dont like the steering wheel.

And at the end of the day, id rather be hauling ass in a Sienna with the same motor instead.

wbjones
wbjones UltraDork
7/24/12 3:45 p.m.

he was hustling that thing around the track pretty darn well

bet there were a few embarrassed folk in "race" cars that day ... looked like he was even catching the Evo/STI ( whatever that winged thing was that came out a couple of laps from the end ....

I laughed at all the times the driver inadvertently reached for a shifter

Mitchell
Mitchell SuperDork
7/24/12 3:48 p.m.

Driving pedestrian cars should give the staff more perspective of how performance cars are developing relative to the total market. How can someone accurately write about sports cars if he or she still thinks that average sedans drive like a mid-nineties Lumina?

Vigo
Vigo SuperDork
7/24/12 3:57 p.m.
How can someone accurately write about sports cars if he or she still thinks that average sedans drive like a mid-nineties Lumina?

Bravo! Excellent way of putting it!

And for that matter, thinking that average sedans still drive like a mid 90s lumina is probably exaclty how people dismiss cars like these as being boring when, in the grand context of all the crap that fills the roads, it's really not. Id rather drive this camry than probably 96% of everything i see on the roads every day.

93EXCivic
93EXCivic UltimaDork
7/24/12 3:58 p.m.
Vigo wrote:
How can someone accurately write about sports cars if he or she still thinks that average sedans drive like a mid-nineties Lumina?
Bravo! Excellent way of putting it! And for that matter, thinking that average sedans still drive like a mid 90s lumina is probably exaclty how people dismiss cars like these as being boring when, in the grand context of all the crap that fills the roads, it's really not.

I have driven my parents new Camry. It is pretty damn dull.

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