Toured Seattle, rented a Camry

Nice car.

It drives like my mom's old '84 Cutlass.

Which, frankly, I'd rather have anyway...

Kind of confirms the recent thread about Toyota having lost it's "sporting intentions".

Toyota is the new buick

Yeah because Buick is now the new Pontiac

Except for a few oddities, I've never seen Toyota exhibiting signs of sportiness intensions in their vehicles.

old_ wrote: Toyota is the new buick

True, but this happened around 15-20 years ago. It's been a long time since the Camry has had the basic handling competence and balanced handling/ride compromise that most generations of the Accord have had.

ShadowSix wrote:

old_ wrote: Toyota is the new buick

True, but this happened around 15-20 years ago. It's been a long time since the Camry has had the basic handling competence and balanced handling/ride compromise that most generations of the Accord have had.

the Camry never had it, the RWD Corona however...

the RWD Celica, the RWD Corolla, well you see what I am saying...

Yeah, I always thought Camry's were for mostly middle-aged folks that just needed an appliance-car, but now I see more elderly driving Camry's than anything.

In reply to CLynn85:

They've probably been driving them since they were middle-aged.

foxtrapper wrote: Except for a few oddities, I've never seen Toyota exhibiting signs of sportiness intensions in their vehicles.

This.

petegossett wrote: In reply to CLynn85: They've probably been driving them since they were middle-aged.

Nah, I'm sure they started looking that aged shortly after buying the car due to the boredom of driving the Camry - or fwd Corolla, or Accord (which handles just as terribly) or modern Civic...

amg_rx7 wrote:

petegossett wrote: In reply to CLynn85: They've probably been driving them since they were middle-aged.

Nah, I'm sure they started looking that aged shortly after buying the car due to the boredom of driving the Camry

Touche

My dad had an 80's vintage (86?) Maxima, drove far better than the Camry. My wife's 05 Saturn L300 is a better car from a dynamics standpoint, and equal in most cases for all other areas (couple of minor interior items of questionable design/quality).

I guess the point is that for a "modern" car (especially given their claim of improvement for this car), I expected more than it feeling like an 84 Cutlass. Not that there's anything wrong with the Cutlass, mind you.

I test drove a Hyundai Elantra before we picked up the Focus and I would swear that it's closer to what a Camry should be, and it's a market segment below.

I guess (scratch that, I know) that all most people only want reliable transportation. I know that many of them expect something "new" or "new technology" in the feel of the car, and to me the Camry didn't deliver on that.

Thus the source of my complaint; I had higher expectations of the car.

foxtrapper wrote: Except for a few oddities, I've never seen Toyota exhibiting signs of sportiness intensions in their vehicles.

Really? 2000gt, celicas (1st gens, 2 body stles of alltracs, gts), hachiroku, mr2s (3 body styles, 1 supercharged, 1 turbocharged and 1 2000lbs), supras, is300, lfa, isf, frs. Not to mention some of the most capable off road vehicles ever produced? I'm upset that they're not doin more recently, but that doesn't mean they havent built all manner of interesting, and really good to drive vehicles that are overbuilt enough to handle being heavily modified without grenading drivelines despite doubling power levels (if not more). Never mind that they offered superchargers for almost every car they made in the las 25 years as a dealer installed option, along with a plethora of performance tuning options, from springs, struts and , swaybars to tubular headers and exhaust systems. So what makes like say, mazda a more sporting company than toyota? A couple of rx3/7s mazdaspeed3s and miatas? Or is it just better advertising toward enthusiasts? I say, we celebrate the cool things they've built, and encourage them to build more.

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