[amavin]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Hey guys. An important update. Toyota / Toyota dealers have not openly publicized this yet but they have finally started taking bookings for the facelifted Camry (I speak for Mumbai at least). My friend had been chasing them since several months to update him the moment they are in a position to provide any clarity or accept a token.

If anyone has been in the market for one and waiting for this, you should speak to your local dealer to be suitably ahead in the queue. A friend of mine has already put a down payment for one, earlier this week.

I called the local dealer in Bangalore today and they said they have 'no clue' about a facelift. They tried selling me the current one, albeit at no discount :-)

[apocalypse]

Originally Posted by apocalypse

I have a rumor that the current model is getting discontinued soon. Please take it with a pinch of salt, as it is unverified.

Update: Received a promotional video from my network, the new Camry is coming to town.

Converted it to a GIF for everyone's convenience.

[apocalypse]

Additional update: Toyota India has posted the same on their Youtube channel with the same promotional video as of yesterday, 7th Jan 2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0piXETEnfUU

Toyota using the old model for the promotion of the new model!? The registration number of the vehicle in the video is DL11CE0500. A quick registration check shows that it is 2 years and 10 months old.



Expected to be a minor update, similar to the old model on the exterior, and with a new infotainment system, amongst other interior changes.

[kshirekar]

Friends, Toyota is offering 8 years extended warranty on Hybrid batteries for the new Camry bought from Jan 2019 onwards. Please check the link.

https://www.toyotabharat.com/news/20...ers-first.html

This is available till end of April 2022, earlier it was till Jan 2022 but has been extended not till April.

I got it done through Wasan Toyota, Navi Mumbai. Cost is Rs. 18,305/- including taxes.

Most of the dealers and owners are not aware of this. I had to tell Wasan Toyota and then they checked with Toyota.

Originally Posted by RJK

Congrats!!
Pls also post price & break-up of the costs involved of your Camry. Btw which dealer did you take it from in Mumbai?

Cheers

Thanks RJK! Apologies as could not post the details earlier. I bought it from Wasan Toyota, Navi Mumbai. Total on road was INR 45.5L including extended warranty upto 5 years, accessories, insurance, registration, FastTag etc.

Thanks Mr. Narayanan! I fully agree with you. 2 years of pleasant ownership. No complaints!

[SR-71]

I test drove the Camry yesterday, the last of them in my list of cars that I wanted to TD before I finalized my purchase. This is one car that has nothing to love about or nothing to hate about (barring the sticker price). Here is my personal opinion...

The Good:

• Looks classy, inside and out
• I was surprised when I started the car as I could not hear the sound. I refused to believe it was running, the SA mentioned it starts on the battery. Its the same when you are waiting in traffic or crawling.
• Excellent mileage. The HU was consistently showing 15+ on a dense but mostly moving city traffic. I can only imagine how good it hsould be on a highway run.
• Well insulated cabin
• Spacious, my 6' 1" brother was able to sit comfortably behind me (I am a 6 footer)
• Put together solidly, gives you the impression that it can withstand a decade plus abuse easily
• Fantastic long distance cruiser, especially if you are chauffeur driven
• Minimal body roll in the back
• Perfect seating contours both in the front and in the back. I loved how everything was perfectly positioned for my reach and how I could rest my arms on the door bad and the center console comfortably. I am sure I will be comfortable on 8 - 10 hour highway runs.
• Loved that black wood insert in the dash and the leather door pads.
• Fat rubber but low profile (235/45)
• Full sized alloy spare wheel
• Just like the Superb, you dont feel you are driving a lengthy car around, its easily maneuverable

The Bad:

• If you love to have fun with driving just don't bother about the car. The moment you press down on the a pedal, the engine groans and its lethargy is noticeable. Don't get me wrong, its a fast car and you will not notice the speed building up. It just doesn't respond to the pedal to metal expectations
• You cannot do high speed lane shifts on a fast highway run, you need to plan it a bit.
• I felt the ac in rear was just OK despite being a car with 3 zone climate control. However it was quiet a chiller up front.
• OK speakers despite being a JBL with clarify technology.
• Average HU and IMHO sticks up like sore thumb. I like neatly integrated setups. If its floating it has be classy with rounded contours, not boxy. Black plastics on the door and dash seem to be from one segment below, not from a car that costs 5 million rupees on road.

The Ugly:

• The sticker price pf 52.5L OTR Bangalore, its simply too high, even for Toyota's reliability. Its 8L over and above the similarly spec'd and more fun to drive Superb and just for couple of more Ls I get the insanely fun to drive 3 series. Even if I have to replace the DSGs twice in the Superb's lifetime, the ownership cost of the Superb including fuel over a period of 10 years will be lesser compared to the Camry. If this were priced on part with the Superb, I am pretty sure it would sell more than it does now.

Verdict (for my buying decision):
I only test drove it because the wife loves the Camry. My brother found it nice cause loves sitting around and not driving as such. I on the other hand (enthusiast mindset), think its 'meh'. Perhaps 8 - 10 years from now, I might like something like this, who knows, but not now. However if one is looking for a reliable long distance mile muncher, is chauffeur driven, appreciates a classy and quiet cabin then this is the car to go for. I don't plan to go for it, unless the wife exercises her veto power. The Superb offers all of it and then some. That should be the pick if one were OK to overlook the DSG quirks.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by SR-71

[*]Excellent mileage. The HU was consistently showing 15+ on a dense but mostly moving city traffic. I can only imagine how good it hsould be on a highway run.

Highway mileage will not be as impressive. The hybrid drivetrain is programmed very well for city driving where the A-pedal input is very light/feather-touch. Lot of energy is recovered by the battery and the same is used at every opportunity - it is as if the car is trying be in EV mode all the time. Unfortunately, the program is terrible for highways where the A-pedal inputs are usually generous and the car is always trying to be in ICE mode. To nudge the car into EV mode, you have to be so gentle with the A-pedal that it is impossible to do it on the highway.

I will give you a scenario: Let us say you are cruising at 100 kmph, you slowdown for a speed hump and then you want to accelerate after clearing the hump. You would expect that the hybrid recovers the energy during deceleration and uses it for acceleration. It does recover to charge the battery but the battery is likely to be already full so there is no storage left. It always uses ICE for gaining speed after clearing the hump. If you want to nudge/force the car to use EV mode - you have to accelerate ever so gently that it is humanly impossible.

I was super impressed with the mileage within the city where the car is programmed to behave like an EV as much as possible. On the highway, the car behaves very much like an ICE. Very disappointing because common sense tell me that if I rapidly slow down and then rapidly accelerate (this happens a lot of on our roads) I would have minimal loss of energy/fuel due to hybrid tech but for some weird reason Camry doesn't do it. It uses EV mode only during mind-numbingly gentle A-pedal inputs.

With typical German cars, I have no problem with frequent and aggressive braking. My experience with Honda City and Camry Hybrid is that the brakes start acting up if I use them aggressively and often. A typical Camry Hybrid driver is never expected to drive like a hooligan and I suppose the brakes are good for a regular driver but just want to highlight the differences between these category of cars.

As someone who is a fan of the German brand of cars, I still say Camry Hybrid is a fantastic car for predominantly urban driving and is a better choice than the German equivalents. It is just about ok for highways if you are an extremely sedate driver.

It will make an excellent pre-owned car choice if you are considering between a new Honda City vs pre-owned Camry Hybrid.

[amalji]

Expect similar mileage for the Camry both in City and Highway drives. While the optimization is great for City drives, it does help ( though not as much in a city drive ) efficiency even in Highway drives. This is how it does it.

• Even though it has a mammoth 2.5 l petrol engine, it runs in a very efficient Atkinson cycle ( vis-a-vis the Otto cycle in a typical non hybrid petrol engine ). This improves the efficiency by around 10 percent.
• The air conditioning is constantly powered by the lithium ion battery and doesn't steal from the engine power. Again, another 5 to 10 percent improvement in efficiency ( assuming that the battery has enough charge )
• In quick acceleration scenario even at high speeds, the electric motor switches on and supports the petrol engine which saves on the efficiency of the petrol engine.

Other than the direct benefits mentioned above, another thing we have to remember is that it's these high way drives that actually makes the city drives so efficient by harvesting the power and storing it in the lithium ion / NiMH batteries.

If inspite of all of this, if we still feel that the battery is full and we need to use some of it forcefully, just switch to ev mode and drive for half a kilometer. It's going to take the battery charge down to 60 - 70 percent.

[real_koolkrish]

Originally Posted by SR-71

• Minimal body roll in the back
• Perfect seating contours both in the front and in the back. I loved how everything was perfectly positioned for my reach and how I could rest my arms on the door bad and the center console comfortably. I am sure I will be comfortable on 8 - 10 hour highway runs.
• Loved that black wood insert in the dash and the leather door pads.
• Fat rubber but low profile (235/45)
• Full sized alloy spare wheel
• Just like the Superb, you dont feel you are driving a lengthy car around, its easily maneuverable

How's is the comfort in the Camry compared to the Innova Crysta with captain seats? Is it worth spending the additional 20 big ones ?

[androdev]

Originally Posted by real_koolkrish

How's is the comfort in the Camry compared to the Innova Crysta with captain seats? Is it worth spending the additional 20 big ones ?

Camry Hybrid is a poor man's S-Class and Innova is a rich man's Bolero.

I drove with enormous restraint just to see what is the maximum FE I can get out of this car (previous gen Camry) and this is the best I could get on a highway after 2 hours (140KM) of exclusive highway with minimal traffic. Later I drove the way I usually I drive and I got 15 kmpl on avg.

[amalji]

Originally Posted by androdev

I drove with enormous restraint just to see what is the maximum FE I can get out of this car (previous gen Camry) and this is the best I could get on a highway after 2 hours (140KM) of exclusive highway with minimal traffic. Later I drove the way I usually I drive and I got 15 kmpl on avg.

What's the year of manufacture of the car that you tested on?

[androdev]

Originally Posted by amalji

What's the year of manufacture of the car that you tested on?

2015 model i think. It's not mine, just get use it on and off.

[RJK]

I’ve driven our 2020 Camry on highway (Bombay-Pune e-way) few times and got about 22kmpl - speeds ranging from 100-120kmph.

I also used to think that at speeds above 80kmph will be all petrol engine and mileage wouldn’t be great but was pleasantly surprised on multiple occasions. The on board graphic also shows battery supporting the petrol engine around 110kmph or whenever necessary

Originally Posted by real_koolkrish

How's is the comfort in the Camry compared to the Innova Crysta with captain seats? Is it worth spending the additional 20 big ones ?

If focus is on backseat and ride quality with budget not being a problem, Camry any day. Camry’s ride quality is superlative and is mega silent.

[SR-71]

Originally Posted by real_koolkrish

How's is the comfort in the Camry compared to the Innova Crysta with captain seats? Is it worth spending the additional 20 big ones ?

If you are comparing only the seating comfort, its very difficult to choose one over the other. However, in a real world run, the Camry will be more comfortable as it has lesser body role compared to the Innova, less bouncy and the cabin is way quieter. However where Innova will beat the Camry is on straight smooth tarmac because the captain seats can be flipped behind like a business class seat in 777 without the downsides of the ride quality creeping in. The Camry is way more classy but Innova has the VFM quotient. Both are built to last, you wont go wrong with either choice.

Originally Posted by androdev

As someone who is a fan of the German brand of cars, I still say Camry Hybrid is a fantastic car for predominantly urban driving and is a better choice than the German equivalents. It is just about ok for highways if you are an extremely sedate driver.

As a lover of German steads myself, the only misgiving with them is that they are inherently less reliable

[uniquecon6199]

Booked the Camry hybrid in pearl white colour today . considered Mercedes C 220d , Audi A6 (discounted ) , Bmw 330i, and also Lexus nx350h.
1. Mercedes C220 , loved the interiors but ground clearance is very less .
2. Audi A6 loved the car for the price ,but didn't get good reviews on
maintainance .
3. Bmw 330Li was the only option for test drive , somehow just didn't connect with the Car.
4. Lexus nx350h waiting periods are more than a year .
5. Camry was never on my list as wanted to buy a premium brand car , but after reading a post on team bhp about some 5.5L bill on a 2015 Audi Q3 ,just called the local Toyota dealer to take a test drive of the Camry and to my surprise they offered to send the car for the full weekend and after driving the Camry test car for about 400 kms , just went ahead and booked the Camry 2022.

[KKapadia]

There is usually a waiting period of 3-5 months depending on the colour you choose for the face lifted Camry. Supplies are in single digits on a regional level. If anyone wants to take a chance for immediate delivery( only for outright purchase won’t work for finance) one should visit the dealership at the end of the month. Last day or 1st 2nd date of new month. Dealers want to close the billings at this time for sales targets. If there are cars awaiting finance clearance, delayed payments or cancellation due to any reason, the dealer will most likely give you the car against immediate payment. Though you should be ok with whatever colour is available.