The Camry is so hot right now

I know the Camry is not a hot topic here - it doesn't work on the track or autocross - but the latest gen is very popular around me. I see very head-turning Camrys all the time now. The TRD package is nice right out of the box, but it doesn't take much to make even the base model look good. I'm a car guy and I love seeing people get into customizing their rides, regardless of what they are.

The back 3/4 of it isn't bad, but that nose is weird.

Not that it is worth anything, but in my opinion the styling of that rig is a big miss for me, even though I am probably in the middle of the target market.  The fake vent dropping from the taillight down, yuck.  Same comment applies to the cut line between the black roof and the white body on the c-pillar.  

Personally, I'll take a current gen Accord Sport any day over it.

Not a Camry fan but the 7spd DSG and 300hp 6cyl is pretty impressive.  I think that is the TRD option as pictures above.

Mr_Asa said:

The back 3/4 of it isn't bad, but that nose is weird.

Took this photo a month or two ago and was going to start the same thread but never did. 

I believe the owner of this one works at my kids elementary school. 

einy (Forum Supporter) said:

Not that it is worth anything, but in my opinion the styling of that rig is a big miss for me, even though I am probably in the middle of the target market.  The fake vent dropping from the taillight down, yuck.  Same comment applies to the cut line between the black roof and the white body on the c-pillar.  

Personally, I'll take a current gen Accord Sport any day over it.

I suspect they're real vents, given how many sedans I've seen with the bumper knocked off that had vents in that area. But it's still fugly. Separating the vent from the taillight might help. And a manual transmission, although I could see a DSG being decent.

Did the TRD edition do anything good for the handling, or did that still come from the Department of Corporate Beige?

The bumper vent cracks me up. Not just because it's ugly, but because the previous version of the Camry had some kind of a design defect in that area. I saw lots of brand new Camrys that had their rear bumpers rippling in the breeze on the freeway like they were old beaters with too many parking lot altercations. There must have been an issue with how they were attached. It looks like they solved the problem. 

Just rented one for a week. SE 4 cylinders ... came out thinking it was a much better car than I thought it would be. 

We got a Camry as a rental recently and it was much nicer than I expected.  It had an 8-speed automatic that shifted pretty well, and it was a comfortable highway cruiser that didn't completely suck my soul out around town.  The front end is miserable, but the rest of the styling isn't so bad.  It would be an interesting car with a V6.

I guess I’m the third to have rented one recently.  We put 600 miles on one down in Texas in May, 4 miles on it when we picked it up.  

It was a decent enough appliance but I thought the steering was numb.   Reasonable performance for a 4 cylinder and good gas mileage considering the average speeds in Texas.  Our 8 year old 82 K Fusion feels more dialed in if I’m honest but we don’t make those anymore so....

I personally really like the 2-tone, at least at first glance. The nose is bad, but no worse than 80% of the cars out there today. 

The longer I look at it, the worse it looks to me, and the ones that are a light solid color are worse. But so many Camry's have looked so cheap and appliance like - basically every one since 2003 - that this is a huge step up. I doubt the driving dynamics would ever get me in one, but I can't deny that the TRD in deep red and black is a good looking car. 

84FSP said:

Not a Camry fan but the 7spd DSG and 300hp 6cyl is pretty impressive.  I think that is the TRD option as pictures above.

Are you saying the Camry has a DSG (VW Dual Clutch)?  The Camry has a traditional 8 spd auto.

I think it needs:  LSD, more wheel/tire, and the styling needs to be much more subdued.  

It's still a Camry. No amount of polishing is fixing that now larger and uglier turd.

The color keyed "mask" between the headlights  is hiding the Lexus hourglass corporate grille. I'm hopeful this model is peak grille but am afraid it's not.  Once someone in design convinces someone in plastic tooling they could save millions by removing that mask, it's going to look a little cleaner. But the Lexus front ends aren't great either.  Camry styling is going to get worse before it gets better.

The EV trend of small/no grille will help a lot of brands and models. Camry needs this help.

The low side window sills are great looking and are a sensible feature.  The rear view is busy but cohesive and more modern than the "F1-inspired" nose Toyota should have never grafted to their lineup.

Zoomy-looking and competent regional salesman's steed.  

I was just stuck in traffic next to a black TRD model and had this same convo with SWMBO. Not ever been a Camry fan but if I was in the market for a FWD 4dr the TRD would be at the top of my must drive list. I like it for what it is. 

In 2017, the Toyota boss said, "No more boring cars"

I had one of those as a rental car a year or so ago, and it was considerably better than my parents' and sister in law's 2014 and 2016 versions.

So grounded to the ground.

My 24 year old son, and my 23 year old step-son are both die hard car guys.  They both lust after the "new" Camry . . . To be fair, I had a '92 Camry V6 5 spd when the 24 year old was in a formative stage of development.

Crxpilot said:

The color keyed "mask" between the headlights  is hiding the Lexus hourglass corporate grille. I'm hopeful this model is peak grille but am afraid it's not. [].  Camry styling is going to get worse before it gets better.

The EV trend of small/no grille will help a lot of brands and models. Camry needs this help.

Take a look at the new Avalon.  Toyota is absolutely doubling down on the Krill Grille.  Don't hold your breath waiting for anything better looking.

I respect Toyota a little for even making the TRD Camry, but they REALLY shouldn't have taken a page from the Civic Type R and run with it.

Adding a lot of fake crap doesn't make things more interesting.  It just makes them covered in pointless visual clutter.

How's the Camry TRD any different than the long-loved Taurus SHO?

I feel like if you just scaled down the current TRD Camry onto a Euro saloon silhouette chassis, you wouldn't have to change a thing, it would fit right in.

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

How's the Camry TRD any different than the long-loved Taurus SHO?

You could order the SHO with a manual transmission.

I'm not sure how the TRD Camry matches the SHO for suspension tuning; I'll keep an open mind about this until I can find a trusted review there. The SHO was trying to make a Taurus run with a BMW, and they may not have quite succeeded, but it was a pretty good effort.

But the big thing about the SHO is how the engine fit in with the standards of its time and compared to what else you could get in the Taurus. The TRD Camry just has the stock four cylinder or V6. The SHO was a case of Ford and Yamaha putting together an exotic new engine for a planned mid engined Corvette fighter, canceling the chassis, and deciding "Berkley, we've got an awesome engine we have absolutely no suitable vehicles for. So we'll just make it an option in the Taurus and see if we can make the rest of the car worthy." That is what made the original SHO great.

It's kind of funny now to read about 0-60 times and 1/4 mile times.  With the advent of the Tesla 3 and its lightning fast times, it all sort of becomes a moot point when you realize that it's really not a race.  However, the Tesla 3 looks dull and the interior looks dull.  Of course, this dull is in the eye of the beholder.  

Said another way, the Tesla is gonzo fast but does not look it.  One way the Carmy can compete is by looking "fast styled" in ways the Tesla 3 does not.  

John Welsh said:

Said another way, the Tesla is gonzo fast but does not look it.  One way the Carmy can compete is by looking "fast styled" in ways the Tesla 3 does not.  

I personally have a distinct preference for the former approach and mostly disdain for the latter.