Toyota Camry 2001 test drive - 2004 sedan

The image is nothing. Status - everything!

Winter and the new Toyota Camry broke into Russian open spaces at the same time. Just a couple of weeks ago, Volodya Smirnov excitedly told us about the first testing races on the Japanese novelty along the hilly outskirts of the Mediterranean principality of Monaco, and now at the entrance of the editorial office he languishes in anticipation of a confrontation with competitors at the Dmitrovsky auto policy with an impenetrable, slanted face. Camry’s easy life will not be on the sluggish metropolitan bitch already sneaking in his direction Saab 9-5 Aero and Jaguar S-Type. In a hurry, we finish the coffee, as usual soundlessly, we do not miss Sasha Nozdrin and on the road. Cold. I would have time until the first snow! ..
   
   
Why do people buy cars for themselves? The answer to this rhetorical in the first reading the question makes you think seriously and for a long time. As a banal means of transportation to any person, some universal self-propelled mechanism with an optimal set of options and an acceptable level of comfort provided during the movement of comfort. But for the second hundred years, the automobile market lures the consumer into its networks with such motley and diverse offers that you are amazed as well as, most importantly, on what signs a person is able to choose something from this creaking skin, growling with v-shaped motors and sparkling metallic chameleon magnificence?! The truth is revealed when you begin with unusual Russian automobile journalist patience and curiosity to search and bring to the frank conversation of real consumers of the products of a foreign car industry. Without taking into account the buyers of domestic iron scrap, for their blood and often the last pennies of the liberating territories of numerous car markets from rusting non -ferrous metal deposits on transit numbers, I come to the conclusion: any buyer of a new imported machine is much less worried about its capacity, versatility, reliability and cross -country ability, reliability, reliability, reliability, reliability, reliability, reliability, reliability, reliability, reliability, reliability, reliability What is the answer to the question: how accurately and definitely this car will reflect my current social status and hint at the fast prospects for the growth of my material well -being?.
Fortunately, unlike wardrobe items and imperishable Swiss chronographs, there are not even high-quality fakes in the automobile space (it is no secret that the Austrian copy of the famous Franck Muller at the Moscow intersection can easily be barched in a thousand and a half rubles at the price of the original, reaching $ 8,000. ). Therefore, if you spit with impunity in front of the selectively vigilant inspector in the dividing strip in Gelandvagen, everyone around knows that a respected person is in a hurry to Rublevka, to the sauna. And no one will condemn you unless they will envy you (which the owner of the cube is often even pleasant). And since it managed to succumb to the persuasion of the wife who was not thinking about the consequences of your wife and, having freaked out, changing the VAZ-2110 to Zaper-Daewoo Ukrainian assembly, nobody will ever miss you, will not take you for his own and will not offer parking places. The laws of the asphalt jungle are akin to analogues acting in the valleys of the Potorias of Gimalayev: the strongest survives. But, fortunately, the era of dinosaurs, who do not recognize around themselves and underneath nothing but a fire-breathing SUV with developed kangaroos and coloring the heat-metal, ends. And new names become synonymous in business and life.
Saab 9-5 Aero is our old and kind acquaintance. The editors of our magazine are generally unevenly breathing towards the top models of this glorious Scandinavian brand. The Gumball 3000, 9-3 Viggen veteran has been serving us faithfully for a year, having wound up more than 30,000 kilometers through cities and towns. And the 9-5 Aero acquired in Geme for a long test will soon appear on our pages with the first report on the operator. However, the Russian representative office of GM proposed to us for comparison with Jaguar and Toyota the latest version of the Swedish fighter (judging by the dimensions, with respect to 9-5, you can safely use the term bomber, or at worst the attack aircraft). As usual, with the help of a high -fifth (1.4 bar in Overboost!), The Scandinavians removed a hundred horses from each liter of engine volume. As a result, a 230-horsepower car with a checkpoint breaks down from a place up to 100 km/h in 8 seconds, and 35 kg of maximum torque begin to carry the car in full from 2000 revolutions. Upon reaching 250 km/h, the black sedan is even more tightly pressed against the road canvas, while real aircraft at this speed already aggressively tear the middle layers of the atmosphere with its beak.
With all his responsible terminal stability and excellent controllability of the suspension settings, Aero is quite successfully coping with ensuring comfort in a movement that is of priority for a car of this class. Gislaved Nord Frost III's rubber appeared somewhat noisy, but the main audiophone, of course, was given by the spikes, so that we considered it not as a lack of a car, but as evidence that the General Motors Russia of the first white flies expected much earlier than they were expected much earlier than before In Roshydromet. But Aero remained with us after the first snowfall, thanks to which we were convinced that even with the Traction Control disconnected, the Swedish car remains the master of the position on the road covered with a snowstorm (provided that the pilot did not imagine himself the 7-time winner of the Swedish Rally Stigs Blomquist and understands the physics The behavior process of a powerful front -wheel drive car on a coefficient of a low clutch coefficient).
I took the ignition key from Jaguar S-Type with a slight trepidation and not without respect for the English traditions still jag, even having obviously not the best of my times until the roof of the Ford Motor Co., remains the same symbol of Britain as the Wembley Stadium, Left -sided movement and clubfoot guards at the gate of the Buckingham Palace. S-Type was built by people who are clearly indifferent to the history and sources of the company from Coventry people at any angle, the car looks very impressive and modern, but at the same time, in every line of the machine, elegant and graceful features of thoroughbred English predators, MK2 of 1959 and S -type 69th . A 3-liter V-shaped engine (Zetec almost broke!) Products 238 forces and under 30 kg of moment. It is enough to accelerate and without a shadow of tension over the same 8 seconds to hundreds as Saab, losing to him at a maximum speed of 24 km/h.
From the point of view of comfort during an imposing movement around the city and the Jaguar suburban highway, it is simply flawless, like much English. But attempts to accelerate on it to the foreseeable limits and start attacking the turns with the persistence of Richard Burns, who recently returned the British a world rally crown, are doomed to complete misunderstanding from the strict and not designed for such adventures of the rear -wheel drive cat. In modes close to extreme, it is felt that the car was designed for people who are ready to accept the philosophy of the owner of the British beast you, of course, can afford to carry at full speed, but how can the gentleman go down to such a boyish and frivolous behavior?! By the way, electronic collars vigilantly monitor that the cat does not break off the leash to catch it with the stabilization system is not a lesson for the faint of heart.
But still, the most interesting car in the three was Camry for me. I drove a lot and actively in the previous car. And the meeting with the new European flagship Toyota was waiting with great impatience. The 3-liter sedan met my most daring expectations with the exception of appearance, the perception of which is still too subjective, I am delighted with this car! Significantly inferior to competitors in power and the moment, Camry almost a nostril in the nostril holds with them both during acceleration and exit to the maximum speed. At the same time, the Japanese sedan is just excellent in full -time modes, and during attempts to fuck Toyota never and any movement did not give a reason to doubt its reliability and safety. The electronic stabilization of the exchange rate stability in it is constantly activated, only the anti -wings system can be turned off. But even in this case, the VSC (a similar system is installed on all Lexus, and also in the standard) will not let you squeeze out more from the car than road conditions allow. Disrupting the summer tires in the Moscow Region, I involuntarily delved into the thicket and found a rather slippery and insidious coating under the wheels. Toyota was not at all embarrassed, barely perceptibly led her tail and rolled on as if nothing had happened. The people tired after the landfill, carelessly sniffing on the comfortable spacious Camry sofas, did not even realize that the first time this season we left the summer path and stood on the winter ski track.
And yet what to choose? What to give preference to the graceful lightness of Saab, English neoclassic with an American pedigree or civilian of the world with deeply hidden Japanese roots, whose main distinguishing feature is the complete absence of any personifying qualities and nuances? S -type is dear and worthy of attention, but too pathos for most of us, with difficulty representing the difference between the tape of Pyur Malt and the amber from the cellars of the dormant distillery of the North of Scotland. And without this, how to feel like a real gentleman? Unless Odessa, from the old Kvnovo team ... Aero is an optimal choice for a person who is baking about a status that appreciates truly expensive and high-quality, but discreet and not out of circulation of things. But I would stay with Camry. It is not so much important for me to look prosperous as it is necessary to surround yourself in everyday life with reliable, simple and reasonable limits with mass things. Let us leave exclusive products for special occasions and for those who understand a lot about whiskey and equipment with the Prodrive brand. And when there will be a lot of cars such as Camry on our roads, I will understand that the foundation of the foundations of any prosperous state finally came to life in the country. And then let me support me at the Aero and S-Type traffic light, I will let them go forward not out of weakness or fear of name and power, but simply because I always have a good mood and I have absolutely nowhere to hurry. Who leaves in advance, he never is late ...
 
Text Alexey Mochanov,
Photo Alexander Nozdrin
 
How do they look:
Nikita Rozanov
 
Outside:
At first glance, there are two like -minded people in this test, and the third is superfluous. Both Jaguar and Saab are long -standing and true adherents of the traditions of the past, including the preservation of a certain kind of conservatism in design, as well as the image. Toyota, in comparison with them, may even seem any. However, you should not rush with conclusions, because the international style of the appearance of the new Camry is the result of a conscious and many years of mimicry tactics, which contributes to the expansion of the largest manufacturer of Japanese cars to world markets. For example, all the big Toyota has long and very unequivocally resemble Mercedes. Look: the rear stand, lantern, side molding, composition of the face, even the shape of the door handles! Unlike his two rivals, the Japanese really has nothing to save from the past and transfer it from the model to the model, except for the emblem. But how subtly the Jaguar stylists are treated with heritage! Saab is also a family man and sacrifices to his clan even the dynamics of the silhouette, which has always been distinguished by a characteristic angle of inclination of the windshield, as well as an unconventional division of the hood and, of course, a face with a patented pattern of radiator cladding.

Results:
Jaguar S-Type expressive and at the same time classic English design, which is an example of a highly professional reading of the traditions of the past.
Saab 9-5 Aero can no longer stop the moral aging of the form of cosmetics. The design of the company is more and more clearly requires fresh and revolutionary solutions.
Toyota Camry is a solution that is very typical for modern Japanese design, in which orientation in the middle of the world style overshadowed the national and proprietary specificity and its expressiveness.
Inside:
Here the picture is different, and the interior of Toyota looks much more progressive than other participants in the dough. In comparison with it, the SAAB panel is the very manifestation of conservatism, although everything, as always, is qualitatively and competent. From this, it involuntarily draws to recalculate changes in the design of the interior of the new machine, and there are, except for the replacement of wooden decoration with silver plastic, ... no. At first glance, Jaguar is also a conservative, but this impression arises only from the traditional architecture of the central console and the panel itself. Nevertheless, the rest is new and very stylish. The interior of Camry is unexpectedly clean in plastic and spacious. These sensations enhance the very concise surfaces of the instrument panel, which, in addition, is devoid of a traditional connection with the central console. Therefore, even a very boring tree decoration looks fresh and original in a Japanese car. The rudders are solid four -spoke, but made with a clear hint of the fracture of the character of the machines (in particular, it applies to Jaguar). The upholstery of the doors in this class, as always, is complicated in shape and relief and has wooden inserts and decoration of folded skin, hinting at expensive manual work. The front seats are distinguished by the rather pronounced sports of the pillow and back profile, and the shape of the rear sofas and the design of the central armrest are clearly designed not for two, but for three passengers.

Results:
Jaguar S-Type is stylish, and thanks to a sports note, which is present literally in every detail, it is also whole and in English thoroughly.
Saab 9-5 Aero Conservatism is sometimes bad, sometimes good. In this case, fidelity to traditions is a clear interference with a powerful spirit of energy and expression, which should be associated with Aero brand. The position of traditionally high quality finishes saves the situation.
Toyota Camry is a modern and very stylish solution to the instrument panel, the design of the entire interior, the respectability of which complements the emotional restraint of the design of the entire car.
 
 

A source: Cars