Toyota Camry Hybrid – Brian Chee’s Driving Impressions:
Silence is strange when you’re driving a car. Really – it’s surprising how much we use our ears to drive, to listen to the sound of the engine, the noise that comes up from the tires, the brakes. Even with the radio volume up, your brain fills in the details and tells you what’s going on.

Hybrid vehicles knock the whole sweet symphony out of whack. Oh, they make noise. But not the noise we’re used to. They’re quiet when they ought to growl, they whirr instead of grunt, any they whine instead of roar, tossing the driving experience off-kilter and leaving you with an unsettled feeling, unsure whether you just went for a drive or a ride at Disneyland. Shoot, given their real and imagined benefits, hybrids are just plain weird – and I like ‘em. Yet, for all its efforts to fit in with all the other cars out there, the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid stays firmly entrenched with the rest of the freaks, a slow-footed sedan that will try your patience at times, scream like a startled bird when you step on it too hard, and generally lose its carefully coiffed composure while traversing a hill.

On the freeway and in traffic is where the Camry Hybrid shines, however, silently cruising along at a nice pace, absorbing bumps, and muffling unwanted noise and vibration with Camry-like effectiveness. Brakes perform capably, if a little starchy, while the steering feels good on-center and responsive when the car is in its comfort zone of urban driving, red and green light maneuvering and freeway lane changing. Not a lot of feel for the road here, fellas, so get over it now and remember what it is you’re driving – a Camry with a hybrid powertrain. And about that powertrain: you can barely feel the typical hybrid jolt when you take off. It’s there, but compared to other hybrids it’s barely detectable. To work and back, you’d be hard pressed to find a more comforting ride – that’s sort of like the vehicular equivalent of a polite Brit. Fuel economy is pretty good, if not great, it’s a comfortable sedan that doesn’t pollute, and it makes a killer bread pudding. Cheers, mate!

Toyota Camry Hybrid – Ron Perry’s Driving Impressions:
With all the buzz about hybrids these days, I was excited to drive the Toyota Camry Hybrid. Some here in the office might call me a cynic (okay, maybe I am a little) but I did keep an open mind during my drive – even though I don’t really see the point of these cars yet. I mean, they don’t surpass a standard car with enough merit for me to bother with one.

I wish I could say that with the push of the start button the Camry comes to life, but it doesn’t. In fact, you start to wonder if it is ready to roll until you notice the system check cycling on the gauge pod. When the system check was complete, I sheepishly slipped the car into reverse and cautiously applied the gas to see if anything would happen. Once I felt reverse engage I knew I was on the right track. Right away I concluded that I preferred the normal startup of the Honda Civic Hybrid.

Once on the road, I was surprised at the reasonable acceleration the Camry Hybrid produces. It’s no rocket, but does have enough pull to keep up with the flow of traffic. I did feel a slipping/grinding sensation when accelerating away from a stop that really became an annoyance the more I drove the Camry. This feeling alone would prevent me from buying one for use as a daily driver. I just accepted it as a character flaw of the hybrid drivetrain. As I continued my drive, the Camry Hybrid really felt like its gas-powered sibling. The brakes and steering felt good, as did the ride quality. The cabin is quiet and there isn’t the buzziness I experienced from the gas engine at freeway speeds in the standard model. On the freeway, I actually preferred driving the Camry Hybrid over the standard model we had a few weeks back. During my drive the consumption computer stated that fuel economy was 32.7 mpg, not bad but certainly not impressive. For now I think I will stay with the non-hybrid cars – at least I understand how those work.

Toyota Camry Hybrid – Thom Blackett’s Driving Impressions:
Being a fan of sheer engine power, I probably wouldn’t be the best spokesperson for hybrid vehicles (my fellow college classmates, most of whom were environmentalists, are probably poking needles into a little voodoo doll with my likeness right about now). True, there are muscular models like the Honda Accord Hybrid, but personally I’ve always considered performance hybrids to be oxymoronic. Well, at least those marketed as such.

And then I drove the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid, a gas/electric variant that I found to be superior to its fossil-fueled brethren. Like most hybrids, a continuously-variable automatic transmission forces the engine to scream up into the high rev range as it doles out the power, but hammer down on the pedal and this vanilla family sedan will actually move with some authority. There’s not a tremendous amount of gusto on takeoff, but mid-range power is surprising, so much so that I was able to make multi-car, high-speed passes on a return trip from central California’s Hearst Castle. I wouldn’t have dared attempt such a move in the Honda Civic Hybrid that we tested the same week. Both the Civic and Camry are supposed to travel at slow speeds solely on electric power, yet I was only successful in getting the Camry up to 20 mph (acting as though there was an eggshell behind the accelerator) before feeling the gas engine kick in. The entire trip up and down the coast covered nearly 500 miles, much of it at high-speeds, so an average of 33.4 mpg was acceptable in my eyes. No, those aren’t great numbers for a hybrid, but I dare say they’re better than I would have seen in a regular Camry under the same conditions, and are due in large part to an aggressive right foot.

Admittedly, those hundreds of miles afforded me the time to fully appreciate the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid’s powertrain, yet they also brought some sore points to the surface. The brakes had a tendency to be too effective, at one point causing me to lock ‘em up because of difficulty with modulation. And the ride, while compliant, is a bit soft, accented by Bridgestone Turanza tires that like to squeal.