Toyota Camry Solara 2003 test drive - 2008
Bird of the color Ultramarin
For successful private entrepreneurs, lawyers, senior banks and other representatives of the glorious community of capitalist labor drummers, there is a special segment on the car market - the so -called business class. His brightest representative is Toyota Camry. In addition, the emblem of the Japanese company is perfectly suitable for this particular model - after all, there is a bird on the hood. Consider that this is a bird of happiness, however, you have so far seized only by the tit, and the crane may still be in your life ...Why can Toyota Camry be considered the coolest car? Yes, because he has classmates and with more prestigious brands, and even a relative of Lexus beats bread. However, the democratic price of Camry, even despite the fact that the last generation of the car has risen in price, is beyond competition. And as you know, the cost of the product itself will not decrease by itself, for this you need to take care of the same developers of the car in advance, for example, about more budget decoration materials. Unless, of course, a deterioration in the car’s running qualities is not supposed. In the case of Toyota Camry, the Japanese managed to find a compromise between the necessary sufficiency and not always justified waste. That is why the designers of the new Camry tried to maintain the configuration of the predecessor as much as possible, saturating it with more modern details, while paying more attention to the technical filling of the machine, allowing it to go, sorry, keep up with the times.
The profile of the novelty absolutely repeats the body lines of the previous model, only the face of the car has radically changed - now it meets the general principle of the Toyota brand: yes, the feed has acquired the features of a la Lexus. Still, no one will deny that it is the back of the majority of the car of this elite Toyota unit that is most expressive. The new Camry has become more aggressive, more sporty, or something. But this is not only thanks to other forms of optics, hood and trunk lids, the car has noticeably increased in the car with the previous dimensions, which means that the overhangs shortened. By the way, despite the 55 mm added to the database, the car has a smaller radius of rotation compared to the predecessor. In addition, Camry reduced in growth, it seems that it creeps on the ground, slightly opening the wings, from under which powerful wheels are visible. As it turned out, sometimes it is better to remove something from the appearance of the car than to add any details. For example, moldings disappeared from the sides of the current Camry, and the horns - the washering of the headlights - changed the telescopic nozzles removed in the bumper. It is not surprising that the new car has such a low aerodynamic resistance coefficient (0.28).
If we go into technical innovations that affected the body, then they are mainly designed to improve the already safe car, which was and remains the predecessor. The new body received a whole set of additional amplifiers - it is not surprising that the novelty in American crash tests of USNCAP took 5 stars against 4 from the predecessor. And if you dig deeper, it turns out that to improve the controllability and stability of the car, all the lower levers are lengthened. In addition, springs, shock absorbers, stabilizers rods, and the suspension geometry itself was processed.
Actually, the former Camry had a good move, but the present has more honed behavior. The car behaves in steep turns collected, almost without rolls, and in a straight line does not suffer from vertical swings, so characteristic of many Americanized cars. A large car does not seem clumsy at all. The suspension extremely quietly swallows the small bumps of the road, it is quite difficult to break through it, if only on the move does not try to jump over a lying policeman. The Toyota Camry is quite comfortable, but not impressive. Camry practically does not respond to a person’s mistakes while driving. True, the top version of Camry was on the Mkobil test, and it is equipped with a target stability system (VSC), which includes anti -circus. Apparently, electronics nevertheless optimize the work of the chassis. Hence the more predictable behavior on the road. Although, we repeat, the previous generation of Camry showed good results even without electronic bells and whistles. Perhaps that is why the basic versions of the model are equipped with only ABS, supplemented by the brake force distribution system (EBD) and an emergency braking amplifier. The exact dosage of the brake force is the branded chip of Camry. With such brakes, sometimes you ignore the impending danger to the last, fully entrusting your life and health of passengers of Japanese technique. But everyone has long been accustomed to the fact that in this area the country of the rising sun is almost ahead of the planet.
For the new Camry, only two gasoline engines are offered: 2.4- and 3.5-liter. With the latter, the car, one might say, flies. What is a large extent contributes to the rate of a new 6-speed automatic box, with which the most powerful engine in the range is aggregated. According to the assurances of the developers, it contains 21% less details than in the previous 5-speed, and therefore its operation time has almost doubled! Some half seconds of the difference, and as a result, an excellent reaction to a sharp press of gas pedal.
And yet: what did the Japanese save on if the new Camry, possessing such a good dynamics and running characteristics, remained cheaper than most competitors (and the struggle in this class of machines is severe)? Let's try to find budget components in the interior decoration. Indeed, at a careful examination, it turned out that some elements of the cabin are quite simple and sometimes even poorly fixed in their places - it was specifically that the triangular curtains could be moved, covering the central console from the driver and the front passenger. Although the new face of the music center looks much more modern, despite the lack of wood inserts. In the updated salon, they generally became much smaller, and the remaining suspiciously resemble plastic. However, in general, the interior of the salon looks quite respectable and does not cause negative emotions.
Of course, the thoughtfulness of its interior and excellent ergonomics contribute to the favorable impression of the salon of the new Camry. But the most important thing for the business class car is still the space inside it. And here Camry is on top - what is ahead, that there is plenty of space behind. And the trunk has become more. And the point is not only and not so much in the added centimeters as in some findings of designers. So, the space around the handles of the doors is maximally increased - and it looks stylish, and their functionality has increased markedly.
And the automatic gear selector shifted to the left, as it were, isolated the driver from the right passenger, thereby creating coziness to both.
In the end, you come to the conclusion that Toyota Camry is worth the money that they ask for it. Moreover, the car fully fulfills each dollar spent on it.
Text: Andrey Konstantinov
A source: Mkobil magazine [07.08.2006]
