Toyota Camry Solara 2003 test drive - 2008

In the middle range

There are so different cars in the business class range that it is not always easy to reduce them to a single denominator. And sometimes it’s even interesting to choose competitors not from the category of clones, where you look for differences with the stubbornness of the detective, but to get several random lots from the drum of fate. Let them turn out to be not direct competitors, they play everything in one field, declaring their involvement in the class of E.

Who is what
Toyota Camry

The price of a tested car is $ 39 800
Max. Power 186 l. With. at 5300 vol./min
Max. Speed \u200b\u200b225 km/h
Acceleration 0100 km/h 9.1 s
Chrysler 300 C.

The price of a tested car is 40,000
Max. Power 193 l. With. at 6400 vol./min
Max. Speed \u200b\u200b201 km/h
Acceleration 0100 km/h 11.1 s
Skoda Superb

The price of a tested car is $ 47,000
Max. Power 193 l. With. at 6000 vol./min
Max. Speed \u200b\u200b232 km/h
Acceleration 0100 km/h 9.4 s

The starting point we chose the super -popular Camry. Although it was on our tests many times, the fashion does not pass for it. Yes, and the consumer actively votes with a ruble for the Toyot of the business class due to its relative accessibility and high quality. Of the two engines, a three -liter one approached our test more. The equipment here is one maximum, and the box is automatic. The leather salon is present, as well as on competitors.
 
It was decided to roll out not so much popular as the bestseller as the extraordinary and expressive Chrysler 300 C. This brutal giant is located on the border of the E and F classes, but stubbornly does not want to crawl into the upper segment to dangerously emasculated and expensive representative sedans. And in addition, it was built on the Mercedes of the E-Class, and at a price even below the Merce, which makes it possible to draw him into the niche in question. But the engine, in order to meet the framework of the genre, had to be content with the weakest 2.7. But nothing else, except for the absence of Hemi and a single male, instead of two exhausts, our modest Chrysler from the top 5.7 does not differ.
 
Well, the third participant for balance is slightly smaller, although not particularly. Skoda Superb is familiar to both our readers and admirers of the Czech brand. It is not, no, and it flashes in the city stream, but not everyone pays attention to it because of a successful disguise under the VW Passat of the fifth, now last generation. In fact, superb is the Passat, but stretched for exactly 10 cm in the database. This is what the donor car was not enough to cross the class of class D. Here, on the contrary, there is the most powerful of the proposed gamut engine 2.8. And the most complete possible stuffing on this particular copy.
 
We are far from the opinion that a certain real buyer considers for himself this particular circle of cars in the hope of choosing one of the three proposed. But, at the same time, now it will be possible to better imagine the range of possible for close money and within the framework of the genre. Although this can encourage a potential client to the most unexpected actions or rejection of previous decisions.

Toyota Camry

Engine: working volume 2995 cm3,
compression degree 10.5: 1,
max. Power 186 l. C at 5300 about/min,
max. moment 273 Nm at 4300 rpm/min
Fuel consumption (EPA): 8.3/17.7 liters per 100 km
Fuel tank volume: 70 l
Chrysler 300 C.

Engine: working volume 2736 cm3, compression degree 9.7: 1,
max. Power 193 l. C at 6400 vol./min,
max. moment 258 nm at 4000 rpm/min
Fuel consumption (EPA): 10.8 liters per 100 km
Fuel tank volume: 68 liters
 
Skoda Superb

Engine: working volume 2771 cm3, compression degree 10.6: 1,
max. Power 193 l. C at 6000 rpm/min,
max. moment 280 nm at 3200 rpm/min
Fuel consumption (EPA): 7.4/15.6 liters per 100 km
Fuel tank volume: 62 l
 
DYNAMICS
In principle, you can not talk on this topic at all, but simply look at the table of dynamic characteristics and decide who is faster. But subjective sensations and practical comparison are sometimes very different from dry numbers.
 
Not too long, we tested with 300 with 5.7 engine, remember? How it accelerates you can imagine. Hurricane 6.4 s to 100 km/h! From a 2.7 -liter motor with a power of one and a half times smaller, we did not wait for excessive vitality. And in vain. I would say that for a large, solid car, the dynamics is quite sufficient, the gas pedal is responsive and unless the additional reserve is felt under it. A four -speed automatic transmission without manual control was surprisingly sensitive and highly sensitive. And switching is carried out according to the famous Mercedes Zigzag, which facilitates the entry into D, although there is no function of manual control of the box.
 
The brake dynamics of the most heavy of the entire trinity of Chrysler is the best. Giant calipers hug large -caliber discs tightly, and Makhina decreases smoothly and quickly, without grafting and delay. Bravo! Again, thanks to the designers from Daimler.
 
Compared to the American European, the Czech representative of the national German concern must be more awake. With a simultaneous start, it is, but the advantage is much less significant than it should be in characteristics. When you touch, Skoda seems to slow down, damping the driver’s gusts, does not break off the place. Then, however, he walks around, but at the time of the gear shift, he freezes clearly in order to jerking down to the next one. All reactions seem to be knitted, transmitted to the wheels through the watercomoft. However, this is done by a car, on which, with a high degree of probability, a hired driver carries a chef, more adapted for a calm, although not sluggish driving. By the way, if you decide to independently overcast the automatic transmission selector, then you are unlikely to like its handle the first time. At first glance, a great powerful wooden hilt with two chrome buttons in the ends. But to press in order to change its position, only the left key, located under the thumb, should be. The right one turned out to be fake, and its presence interferes with the tactile receptors of the palm. Many will say that this is nit -picking and the search for fleas, but I am sure of a comfortable expensive car there are no trifles.
 
Alas, the same algorithm of work applies to Superbian brakes. In principle, if you slow down on the floor, you will stop quickly good rubber, ABS. But with minor slowdown, the brake system does not work too adequately. This is expressed in the next you touch the pedal and wait. After a few moments, the force grows and bites the brakes. This becomes an unpleasant surprise, although you get used to it in a few days. It seems that this is an incorrect algorithm for the operation of electronics, knowing the performance of brake commands. Perhaps only on this copy.
 
Toyota. Honestly, there is nothing to complain about here. Smooth, without the slightest delay, start, instant switching and responsiveness even to minor changes in the position of the right pedal. At the same time, an illusion of movement with a lower speed is created. This is guilty of high noise and vibration protection and the lack of visible rolls. On the idle, the engine is completely soundless: to determine that Camry has started is impossible without a look at the tachometer arrow. When starting, this often plays with the driver a stupid joke, twisted a starter for a second and a half, and you think it started. You turn on Drive, press on the gas, and the car does not drive, you have to repeat everything from the beginning, lose time. Here we must remember that to hold the key in the starter position is longer than usual.
Camry brakes cannot be called excessively effective, but quite adequate. The exact dosage of their corporate sign. But the dirty floor pedal of the parking brake, for which you cling to the left foot or trouser a clear disadvantage, albeit insignificant.
CONTROLLABILITY
It would seem that the most bulky participant in the dough, and even a half-blood-American, Chrysler, is simply obliged, by virtue of traditions, to fall out of any more or less cool turn. But everything happens exactly the opposite! It stands on the road as a glove even with sharp rearrangements and allows you to actively twist the steering wheel even at high speed. True, this will have to be done for a long time for the gear number of the rail, and the retro -sorcerer has a huge diameter. And the reverse reaction is almost not observed. But there is no guilt of the hydraulic wrap of his effort is not excessive. The cause of the rear -wheel drive: give gas when straightening the rotation, and the steering wheel is in no hurry to unwind to zero. The car will not let you forget the controlled wheels here are not leading.
 
Large irregularities do not lead to 300 with the slightest buildup, it passes the waves of the road even better than the bearer of his mother's Mercedes E-Class Mercedes platform. A trifle also swallows without shudder thanks to small, compared to its own weight, unsped masses. There is even a feeling of some isolation, detachment from the surrounding world. But the average obstacles of the type of bedridden are transmitted to the body with tangible, rigid shocks. But the speech about breaking the suspension here cannot be the energy intensity is high.
Kraisler, as we have already said, is the largest representative of the business class five meters. And his glazing, for the sake of a hot-rod design, is narrow loopholes. The windshield is at a large distance from the driver and the review does not improve. About the back and there is no question, it is blocked by the hex of the high back of the rear seat. And ultimately, taking into account the fact that the side mirrors are in a significant width, it is difficult to see a small car going from behind.
The behavior of Skoda on the road does not differ too much with the habits of most audi and Volkswagen. Who traveled to A4, A6 and the Passat will not know too much new. But since the superb is long and relatively narrow, one of its characteristic qualities can be called stability when moving in a straight line. This adds comfort for driving them less shakes on the pits. A capacious front multi -link suspension adds pleasure with transverse accelerations and vertical ones. But when the front axle has already safely flew by a bump, the back of the trolley rubs on it. And there, the springy elements are harder than that of the Passat, and the wheels are painfully swelling through irregularities, especially sharply showing themselves at the time of straightening the return of the suspension. And on small irregularities, the decent rigidity of the suspension does not allow to completely abstract from road and downs. Everything is clear with you, Pan Superb, give you even European paths.
But here is a very sensitive steering wheel, the slightest movement of which corrects the trajectory of the machine. But even in the most twisted position, Superb does not shine with a small radius of rotation, a long base and not too large angles of rotation of the front wheels affects. Competitors, unlike him, are being cut out of the parking lot surprisingly cool. This is especially true for the giant of Chrysler.
 
You transplant to Toyota and as if home returned home that he had grown before her address, fades into the background. Yes, it is not too convenient to maneuver in its thin steering wheel in the conditions of variable corners of rotation, but for me now it is no longer fundamentally. Camry relaxes it with one finger. And the vicissitudes of the roadway are elementarily swallowed with a capacious suspension, and extremely quiet. The more you ride Toyota, the better you understand the wide masses, who chose this particular model with a strange appearance of a charming freak to their permanent companions. In a good way, she, like a Volga, is solid and simple. Here, the Noby driver will not shake the chef, and an experienced driver who has moved from previous cars will enjoy the control. Just the car forgives errors and does not respond to the driver’s possible stupidity.
 
A large car does not seem to be an elephant in a chimney shop largely due to a high landing both over the road and the driver in the car itself. The large area of \u200b\u200bglazing also contributes to both reliable orientation in space and accurate parking. In domestic conditions, it is very pleasing that Camry has a large clearance, and it is not so easy to scratch the thresholds and bumper. But for some reason, at the very middle of the bottom earlier, an exhaust pipe was an angle. After recent restyling, this flaw became less noticeable, but it did not completely disappear, which slightly reduces the angle of the ramp.
ERGONOMICS
Three completely different schools are represented here. Almost a concept-Karovskaya decoration 300 C is amazing the imagination of an unprepared person no less than the exterior of the machine. White dials, aluminum, bold forms. And what is the room in the cabin in all directions both in front and behind! No other large -sized American car offers so much air inside. The driver's seat takes back to a giant, basketball distance, so the steering column can be advanced, as it is nowhere else. It is nice that even the instrument panel, nor the door, or the steering wheel here are maximum private space, do not interfere with the knees.
 
Superbia can say that riders are offered a maximum of possible excesses. Although not all these options are included even in an expensive fixed package, they must be ordered separately for money. These are two refrigerators in the front armrest and in the niche behind the back, heating the rear seats, an umbrella (!) In the armrest of the left rear door. Even from behind, you can adjust the right front seat apparently so that the vengeful boss could push a small caliber to the very torpedo of a large -sized guard, so that the service did not seem like that. Small, if only because a large person in the second row is not too comfortable, the ceiling is littered, and the feet rest on the backs of the front seats. No, for the knees in a long cabin, the place is full, but the feet in other models are usually placed under the front seats here. And the width of the sofa is maximum for two. And at the same time the most expensive skin and a magnificent shade of a dark tree.
But in Camry, the tree is perhaps the most annoying miscalculation. Firstly, because it is a plastic, and the car claims respectability. And secondly, because the plastic is cheap, the colors are. Everything else in the interior of Toyota is super, five points. The doors are slammed quietly, the whereabouts of the handles and buttons are perfect. You can argue about the location at the wheel, but I have wide, not very profiled front chairs seem more appropriate style and image of a car symbolizing success.
 
Toyota Camry
 

Wheel base, mm 2720
Length, mm 4815
Width, mm 1795
Height, mm 1490
Clearance, mm 150
 
Now the silhouette of Camry has become familiar, and at first its forms seemed unusual and irrational. But the American view is normal, and in the USA the car is sold out very briskly

In Toyota, traditionally soft, dull plastic is used. The finish is made with minimal gaps. But the artificial tree nevertheless causes noticeable damage to a high reputation

Optitron dashboard is the readiness of all indicators. And the layout pleases and does not tire the eye

In terms of height, I should sit in a cut, and people for 190 cm will already be applied to the ceiling. Width and length is excellent
 
Chrysler 300 C.
 

Wheel base, mm 3050
Length, mm 4999
Width, mm 1880
Height, mm 1485
Clearance, mm 145
 
If you do not know that 300 C is serial, then you can involuntarily assume that either it is the concept of the work of bold young designers, or a hot-car with filed roof stands

In the Salon of Chrysler, not only stylishly and pathetic, but still very spacious and convenient. There are no comments a rare case

Large white scales spaciously located inside a large opening under a wooden rim, a reasonable and verified solution

At the back you can even transport the Big Big Boss. He will not be crowded even with a typical bourgeois attribute on his head with a star-striped cylinder
 
Skoda Superb
 

Wheel base, mm 2805
Length, mm 4805
Width, mm 1756
Height, mm 1470
Clearance, mm 150
 
Passat B5, which served as the superb base, is no longer released, and the Czech flagship is going to produce at least another three years. And he will remain one of the most conservative models in Europe

Skoda seats are the most sports. Active lateral and populated support tightly hold the body in the saddle. Especially if the figure is not too large

A person who cared for the superb driver was not distracted in vain on the shield could not create anything in the shield.

It is very spacious and comfortable only together, but someone's caring hand added an equivalent headrest in the middle, which completely kills the rear view
 
SUMMARY
Not too fertile soil for assessments occurs when the purpose of the goods is different. If you abstract from the price, I would put in the first place a stylish, original and aggressive Chrysler. But, given the Eurocond, the American car is about $ 52,000, Camry see a much more interesting purchase that you can easily notice if you just go to Moscow streets. Well, Superb? I would not dare to call him unsuccessful. But the car for an amateur who does not want to stick out at the same time, buying Chrysler, and staying in the mainstream, choosing Toyota.
TRUNK
Toyota Camry

Maximum volume: 520 l. The space of the most correct configuration. But loading is interfered with a high threshold and oblique lanterns that narrow the opening. But why forgot to attach the inner hand on the lid?
Chrysler 300 C.

Maximum volume: 445 l. Yes, such a large car could have a larger cargo compartment. The main thing is that the volume is stealing, giant wheel arches. And again, there is no pen inside. Is this saving?
Skoda Superb

Maximum volume: 460 l. The optimal luggage opening is low, rectangular. And the even threshold is a metal overlage, which is not so sorry and not so easy to scratch.
HOW DO THEY LOOK
Nikita Rozanov

Toyota Camry

The 1996 premiere of 2001 Toyota design under the leadership of Kazuo Morohoshi.
Chrysler 300 C.

Prime Minister 2003 Chrysler design under the leadership of Trevor M. Creed.
Skoda Superb

Prime Minister 2001 Skoda Design.
OUTSIDE:
This is not a couple about all those who try to attach to the parking lot next to Chrysler 300 C. Therefore, in general, the Camry design is inexplicable for its owner, the reason begins to seem to him the same infantile-Damsky, and the Superb image is quite characteristic of Superb ... It is clear that for a long time this advantage in the style cannot continue, but so far the style in the spirit of El Capone Favorite, and this is a fact. The same stylistics peremptorily demonstrates its superiority both in the nomination recognition and in all other articles. Even fashionable corporate parties in modern design are blown away. If you get rid of bias for a moment and look at our three from the side, it turns out that 300 C is not so perfect. The proportions do not improve the dynamics, and the deliberately lifted windows only enhances the topic of the vertical, which also does not decorate the silhouette of a fast car. Camry, on the contrary, is elegant and rapid, even in places even too much, and Superb can be used as a standard of some middle between two poles. At the back the triple is more tolerant of each other's appearance. Everything is quiet and calm, and the Kraisler aggression is concentrated only on the sharp rays of the emblem.
INSIDE:
Once inside any car from the tested three, you immediately understand that manufacturers are very proud that they were able to appear in the business class. Proud, you must be that you have joined. In this regard, the skin and wood, as it were, determine the level of the height of the bar, with which the overestimation of self -esteem begins. Dangerous. Here Chrysler is another matter: the tree is only in those places that the host hands will concern in the cold machine. This is a small segment of the steering wheel, the hilt of the automatic transmission and the door handle. The rest of the decorative decoration is entrusted to silver metal, which brings dynamics and severity to the image. The architecture of the instrument panels is very diverse from the Camry panel formed by the central console and the cross -cutting board of the Camry panel to the newfangled bedside table, which replaces the central console in 300 C. Of course, the rudders of the four -spokes and solid, but American stylists managed to give the helm of lightness, volunteering its spokes and up to a minimum Reducing the size of the central pillow.
SUMMARY:
If you are ready for the fact that a week after buying a new car, your daily routine will be known to the whole house, then Chrysler 300 c your car. Camry and Superb are equally suitable for everyone else. True, Toyota can also charge its lines with expression, but this is a matter of taste.
 
LIKED
 
Toyota

The automatic transmission handle lies perfectly in the palm of your hand, and when moving to position D does not strive to slip through it without stopping
 
Chrysler

The style of watches, music and climate is concise and self-sufficient. You will not have to be distracted from the road
 
Skoda

Cool hole in the front seat. Greatly helps to place a long-dimensional load
 
DID NOT LIKE
 
Toyota

For some reason, the rear armrest does not lie horizontally, but falls on the pillow. And a healthy cup holder crashes into a brush with a plastic edge
 
Chrysler

With huge heavy doors, the inner handle is a small grip, for which it is completely inconvenient to pull
 
Skoda

The second chrome button on the AKP Grand ACP handle. It interferes with the right grip of palm. And past D you easily miss 4
 
Text Vladimir Smirnov photo Oleg Platov
 

A source: Cars