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Budget Rs 70L: Why I chose Toyota Camry over Skoda Superb & BMW 330Li

7th June 2022, 08:03 by Rahul Nagaraj

On the same 25 km stretch, the fuel efficiency of my VW Polo is 10 km/l while the Camry returns 21.2 km/l.

BHPian anvay recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Can't wait for the delivery of my Toyota Camry.

Why Camry?

In Dec 2021, We (My wife and your's truly) decided to buy a 2nd car for our household. We already have a Nov 21 VW Polo GT TSI, which has given us no trouble. It's still punchy enough to have safe fun within the legal limits. However, with both of us working and offices eventually opening, we needed a 2nd car.

Budget: Everything included < Rs 70 lakh

Non-negotiable features

Powered seats for front passengers with memory function ( I am 6 ft and my wife 5,2)
Ventilated seats
Moon Roof
Keyless entry

Subjective bias in decision making

We prefer buying the top variant with no 3rd party modification in the car, ever! Upgrades can be considered only from OEM (Eg: Head unit from VW for CarPlay in our polo).
We intend to drive our cars from showroom to end of reliability (If I can't take my car on a 1000 km long ad-hoc road trip with confidence then we don't consider it reliable).

Cars Considered

Mercedes-Benz

Badge attracts. Both GLA and GLC were considered.

We were attracted to GLA as the GLC's top end was out of budget.

The lack of some features like keyless entry and ventilated seats was leaving a bad aftertaste.

We test drove a day after sitting in an Innova cab. In the rear seat, the engine rumble was similar which made us evaluate petrol cars only. (If Merc's diesel is noisy we can't be happy with any other brand). Petrol GLA was a FWD and not considered.

Skoda Kodiaq L&K

Loved at first sight, booked 2 hours after the announcement on 10th Jan. 4 days later, after watching other reviews online wife wanted to change the colour from White to Blue. We asked the sales advisor if it will impact our delivery date on changing colour, and he assured us that it should not impact the delivery date as manufacturing has not yet started. However, in Feb we got an email from Skoda stating we are not a part of the 2022 delivery and the ETA for delivery will be shared in Jan. We became furious and decided to cancel the car immediately.

Over the next weekend, many cars crossed our minds (Creta, Tuscon, XUV 700, Superb, Camry, 330Li).

We decided to go for either 330Li, Superb or Camry.

BMW 330Li

Compared to Polo within the legal speed limits, I was not able to connect with the driver's car feel I read about soo much. Due to chip shortage as per sales person, different cars had some of the features missing. One car did not have gesture control, another did not have HUD. He was not able to assure us what features will be missing in a car if we book now and also retrofitting by BMW once the chip shortage is over was not also on the cards. BMW also felt expensive on the maintenance and service price.

Toyota Camry

During the car buying time Camry was updated and now had Android Auto/Car play. Because it was missing earlier I did not consider it. We were impressed with the central armrest, 3 zone AC, reclining rear seat and amazing mileage (On the same 25 km stretch my Polo gives 10 km/l while Camry gave 21.2 km/l. BTW, I drained the battery in EV mode for ~ 1km before starting the trip meter).

Skoda Superb

We already had a bad aftertaste of Skoda but still decided to visit once again for superb, TBHP had an inclination towards Superb. After the superb's test drive we felt Camry was one upgrade cycle ahead of superb hence some features were better. ( 3 zones vs 2 zones, reclining seat). However, was Rs ~8l worth of difference worth for hybrid vs non-hybrid? We made an excel sheet on estimated ownership cost and booked the Camry.

PDI is scheduled for 1 Jun and I just can't wait.

Update: PDI on June 2, 2022

The wait was not too bad. We booked the car at the end of Feb 2022 and the delivery of the car is tomorrow morning.

With respect to your question on justifying the cost. It's subjective, I can share a few data points that direct me towards owning a car, but every person thinks differently.

My reasons:

We have a dog. That too a Saint Bernard
I have been stuck in the past for many hours because of my reliance on app-based cabs.

BTW, here are some pics from the PDI.

Update: Delivery on June 3, 2022

The not-so-little Red Riding Hood is finally with us. I will post a detailed review later. Uploading a few snaps for now.

Ordering Red was a gut feeling as we had not seen the colour in person, but absolutely love the glitter in sun.

A shoot out to Ravindu Toyota in Bellandur, Bengaluru. Because of a mistake on the delivery date from their side, they gave an additional 10-litre fuel in the car. I like that they were apologetic and did everything in their capability to make the experience a happy one.

Will post the drive reviews as and when we hit milestones. If all goes well we might go for a Bangalore-Delhi drive soon.