jerleong

I thought that FT has treated me very well even with me as a newbie and I would like to repay that hospitality with my first ever ride report! I am actually based in Des Moines, IA and this is my second time renting with Hertz. The first time was sometime in February this year where I took a Malibu down to West Lafayette, Indiana. This time 'round, me and some friends decided to head up to Chicago over the past weekend, just because. Having an excellent prior experience with Hertz, I decided to rent with them again.

Having driven a Malibu, I thought I would try something else and surprisingly, I managed to snag a free one-car class upgrade! I quickly got excited as I would now be getting something from the PCAR class and quickly consulted the sifu's over here at FT. However, I was told that the DSM location is not that big nor busy so I should not expect much.

On the morning of the rental, I 'scouted' the lot but did not see anything from the PCAR class save a Grand Marquis. I went up to the counter and the lady told me that I was assigned to a 2012 Chevy Captiva. I inquired and she told me that they also have 2011 Impala's or Altima's as well as a RAV4 that I could have for no extra charge. I decided to check the RAV4 out before committing and that's when I saw a Camry. I asked if I could have the Camry but she said that had NL and I had to fork out extra. But I remembered Hertz sending out an email about having free NL using a PC code so I applied that and voila! Camry it is.

As I am new to writing an actual review on a certain product/service, please do forgive me should I miss out on certain aspects. Also, I would be using jzweighaft's (thanks for the help buddy! ) ride report template.

http://www.toyota.com/camry/

Car Description: N/L CAMRY 2.5LE (2012 Toyota Camry LE w/NL)
Car Class: F6

Looking at Toyota's website, I believe the Camry I got was of the lowest trim level. However, it had quite a few features that were essential to me: iPod connectivity and a Bluetooth Hands Free system!

When I picked the car up, it had 4,381 miles on it. Not bad!



Traveled 755 miles over 3 days.





Powertrain:
Compared to the previous rental Malibu's 2.4l engine, I felt that the Camry's engine is much smoother and noticeably offers more pull (this could also be due to it being a new car). With five adults and a trunk full of weekend vacation baggage, the Camry had no trouble coping whatsoever. The 6-speed automatic transmission shifted smoothly when left in D and was fairly responsive when used in its sequential shift mode. Definitely no complaints there. EPA estimates 25 for city, 35 for highway and 28 combined. Most of our trip was spent on the interstate and I managed to get it up to 33.7MPG. I was VERY happy to see those numbers as it meant that we did not have to even stop for gas even for the 330-ish mile journey! ^





Ride/Handling:
The Camry is very well built! Every door shuts with a solid thud and the noise insulation is excellent. Cruising at 70-ish, I could barely hear any wind noise or feel much vibration in both the chassis and the steering wheel. Probably the low-spec'd LE with it's 205/65R16 tires helped with that aspect too. Suspension was set slightly more for comfort than for handling but that was perfect for our interstate journey. In town, portholes and bumps were absorbed very well. Overall, a very comfortable car! I wished that it came in a higher spec with leather seats though. Having said that, the cloth seats were VERY comfortable and provided good lumbar support. It definitely made the 5-hour ride seem short.



Interior:



The dashboard was mostly faux leather which honestly felt pretty good to touch. I liked the cyan glow of the meters that were visible even during the day, it's really attractive! In addition to the 'standard' gauges, there is also an MPG gauge to show the overall MPG. The info display was pretty simple: odometer, trip A, trip B, average MPG. The steering wheel was decently sized and 'meaty' enough to be comfortable to hold for prolonged periods. It had a four-way directional pad with additional buttons for enter/select, volume up, down, back/previous and mute/mode on the left side and answer and decline buttons for the Bluetooth phone connectivity on the right side. The Camry also came with cruise control which was a nice touch but I barely used it as I wanted to maximize fuel consumption. The major gripe that I had with the interior would be the cheap-looking fake-machined-aluminium-looking plastic center console. The buttons had an OK feel when pressed but the knobs and overall appearance of the center console is.. well, cheap. Toyota, I expected much better from you.

Space wise, with five averaged-sized adults in car, nobody complained as everyone had plenty of room. There are two medium-sized cup holders in the center console, one on each of the front doors and TWO (!!) in each rear door with extra pockets on all doors for magazines/maps/anything else you can possibly imagine. The center console is big and so is the glove compartment, enough to fit in lots and lots of snacks! In the picture, you can see a 'cover' right below the climate controls and that is another fairly decent sized storage bin (that's where the audio connectivity inputs are).

In the multimedia department, this car came with a 6.1" touch screen multimedia unit with a CD slot (only one) with MP3/WMA playback capability, an auxiliary audio jack as well as a USB port with iPod connectivity and control. It also has hands-free phone capability, phone book access and even music streaming (!) via Bluetooth. I hooked up my iPhone to the car with ease and connected my iPod to the USB port. The speakers are pretty good, to be honest. Much better than what I was expecting, playing decently sharp trebles while able to deliver gobs of bass! If you were wondering, yes I did adjust the equalizer and pushed the sound to the front speakers in hopes of increasing overall sound stage. Interface wise, I would say it's not visually stunning but it does a decent job of displaying information with the use of nice, big fonts. More importantly, the system does not seem to have any noticeable lag, which is THE most important aspect of a touch-screen system in my books. Ah, the multimedia unit also doubles as a vehicle information screen. It is able to display individual tire pressures (but not labeling which tire the shown pressure reading is for ) as well as trip information. You can also customize several vehicle settings such as if you want the car to automatically unlock when you put the car in 'P' or how long you want the headlamps to stay on after you lock your vehicle etc.

As for the NeverLost system, I have nothing to say about it as I did not use it at all. Sorry!




Exterior/Design:
Being a base trim car, it came in 'Super White' and I honestly didn't mind as it would mean that the car remained cool inside (white does not absorb heat as 'efficiently'). It being in base trim also meant that it came with 16" steel wheels with wheel covers. Else, nothing else that deserves a mention. Wished it was in a SE trim though, that looks good!







Features:
Not much in addition to the multimedia unit mentioned above. This car does have daytime running lights (DRL) and auto-headlamps. Boot size was large as it gobbled up all of our baggage plus the mountain of bags from shopping on Michigan Ave easily.




Value:
Using the USAA CDP, I was charged $20.49 per day, which I thought was fair. Compared to a Captiva/RAV4/Impala/Altima, the Camry was the newest and had the lowest mileage on the lot. Not to mention, it had the best MPG rating among all. All in all, there were no regrets picking the Camry (given the choices). However, when I returned the car a couple of days later, there was a Mercedes GLK350 in the lot! Now why didn't they have that when I was renting. Oh well, I am constantly having an internal struggle between the choice of power or better gas mileage. Please forgive me.




Summary
• 2.5l 178-hp; 170-lb.ft
• 6-speed automatic with sequential shift
• 25/35 MPG
• NeverLost equpped

Pros:
• Low-mileage (<5000 miles)
• Very smooth powertrain
• Very good NVH
• Comfortable and spacious
• 31MPG combined!

Cons:
• Low trim level
• Cheap looking dashboard




Final Verdict:
Very happy to have gotten this 'upgrade', much better compared to the Malibu I received previously. I will definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a comfortable and gas saving long-distance car (if you'll be spending most of the time on the interstate/freeway, that is).

That concludes my ride report. I hope I have covered the basics. Feel free to ask me anything about my rental/experience or something that I might have missed out.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Jeremy

KevinMD

Drove one two years ago from Tulsa to NJ and back. Not the most exciting car, but it got the job done. Very nice review, btw.

bhunt

2012 Camrys are redisigned. They are so much better then the 2010-11 models

GW McLintock

Great ride report!

The Camry seems a lot nicer than I would have thought, especially with the touch-screen info-tainment system. After having driven an Ecotec-powered Malibu and 2.5L Duratec-powered Ford Escape and Fusion, I'm not a fan of I-4 engines, mainly because they're buzzy and they never seem to shift well. But I really want to try and get one of these at some point now Maybe the next time I rent a car I'll get lucky.

How big were your bags, if you don't mind me asking? (I.e. how did it compare to the Malibu? From my one experience renting a Malibu last October, I thought its trunk was much smaller than an Impala FWIW.)

By the way, a Captiva is essentially a re-badged Saturn Vue (crossover) which is tagged YF.

-J.

grobma

Thanks for the great ride report! I have a "specific model" reservation for a Camry on Friday for a 1700 mile one-way, and was curious as to what I might end up with. Glad to hear that your LE had the touch screen audio/car info option as that is not standard on that trim level, and heard that it is a great feature. Also glad to see the NeverLost was Gen5 - I have had F cars with the older model which, according to the website, is not supposed to be the case.

bhunt

There is a few SE models out there also.

Only diff. alloy wheels, firmer ride, fog lights, paddle shifter on steering wheel.

I think the LE's have the touch screen because of bluetooth. Seems to me Hertz orders bluetooth on all their cars now. (least the ones I have rented)

jerleong

Thank you. I would agree that it is not the most exciting car in terms of performance or handling, but for long distance driving, the Camry does it very well. ^

I would have to agree. I have driven the 2009 model and I can say the the new 2012 has been vastly improved, most notably in the powertrain division. The 2.5l I-4, while not as silky smooth as BMW's I-6 (obviously ), is smooth enough to enjoy. Linked the the new responsive six-speed auto, it's very well packaged.

Thanks bud! Appreciate the kind words.

Compared to the Malibu, the I-4 in this is WAY smoother. Power delivery is balanced across the rev range, with notable power available from around 3000rpm. I would definitely agree with the transmission in the Malibu, it's bad. Put your foot down, and nothing seems to happen for a few seconds and then.. boom, downshift. I'm glad to report that the Camry does not experience this at all. However, if I had to nit pick, I would say that the Camry's transmission is ever so slightly sensitive. There are times when you would want to just stay in gear and increase the speed slightly, but the Camry's transmission will downshift automatically. It doesn't happen often and I did not find it to be particularly annoying.

We had a total of five travel sized duffel bags and seven average sized backpacks. I'd reckon we could have put in at least one extra full sized luggage if we wanted to. From what I recall, the Camry's boot seemed to be slightly larger than the Malibu.

Yes, I did some researching and thank God I did not choose the Captiva.

You are very welcome! I did some searching on Toyota's website and the LE does actually come with the 'Display Audio system' as standard. Hurrah!

As for the NL, even though I did not use it, I did power it on. I have to say, the UI has some noticeable lag and that is why I did not use it on my trip.

As mentioned above, the LE's do come with the 'Display Audio system' as standard.

KevinMD

The SE also has upgraded 10 speaker JBL system and power driver's seat. Currently renting one right now, and it is much improved.

CathyJune

There is a lower trim level in addition to the LE but I haven't seen any base models at Hertz. Enterprise & the 3rd/4th tier rental agencies may carry those.

Toyota manufactures lots of Camry LE's. Very few base models are made and Camry SE, Hybrid & XLE are trim levels above LE.

GW McLintock

My streak of good upgrades and Japanese cars continues, but it's time for something newer! I was recently given a 2012 Toyota Camry with a little over 16,000 miles on it from my HLE; I bet they were thrilled to have this gem on their lot, and I certainly didn't mind taking it off their hands for a couple of days. Considering that the Camry specifically is in a sub-class separate from other full-size cars, I was looking forward to seeing if it really was any better.

www.toyota.com/camry

Car Description: 12 Camry 2.5L S (2012 Toyota Camry LE)
Class: F6


The LE is the mid-level trim for the Camry. With only a couple of optional features, the MSRP of this car when new was $23,826. I got it when it had 16,422 miles on the odometer and took it 115 miles over the course of two days. Note: there are already two other ride reports for this car (by jerleong and drzoidberg), and they are both well worth reading

Powertrain: The seventh-generation Camry (designated XV50) carries the 2AR-FE inline 4-cylinder engine from the XV40, which now produces up to 178 horsepower and 170 lb.-ft. of torque. This is generally average for a full-size car. Although it does have three more horsepower than an Altima, I thought it felt less powerful; however, it takes the same amount of time to go from 0 to 60, 8.6 seconds. The Camry comes with a 6-speed automatic transmission with a sequential shift mode. Gear changes are very smooth when in drive. On the other hand, the sequential shift mode is a complete joke; regardless of how fast you're going, it starts you in 4th gear, and it reminds me more of the low-gear range selector of an Impala or my 2004 Malibu MAXX If the Toyota wants to downshift, there's no stopping it from doing so (other than changing how you're driving). The Camry is rated at 25 mpg in the city and 35 mpg on the highway, and I averaged disappointingly far towards the low end of that range.


One other thing that bugged me was that the gear shift handle got sticky after a while, meaning that when I down-shifted it didn't immediately return to the center position. This is probably caused by a past renter spilling something or just generally lots of use; however, I would have expected it to hold up better with only 16,400 miles on the odometer.

Ride/Handling: The suspension was surprisingly stiff in my opinion, and didn't generate much body lean at all, even during higher-speed and tight turns; on the other hand, it wasn't so tight that you felt every bump in the road. The brakes were strong and responsive, and you could enhance their effect with downshifting. Steering was lighter than I would have liked.

Interior: The interior is where the 2012 Camry really shines (both literally and figuratively). The Ivory cloth trim actually looked good with contrasting tones on the seats and throughout the cabin. The faux-leather of the dashboard looked very good, especially with the contrasting white stitching, but felt much more like hard plastic or some other material -- it definitely was not leather. The steering wheel did not attempt to emulate leather at all, but redeems itself with its thumb grips at the 10-o'clock and 2-o'clock positions and the huge Bluetooth and sound controls; although they are very functional and intuitive, I personally think it looks awful. Cruise control is the classic cheap Toyota stalk, somewhat hidden behind the wheel.


The gauge cluster is lit up well and relatively easy to read; I wish numbers had been slightly larger and less covered by panels. These panels contained two screens, with the one on the left displaying the gear you were in, the engine temperature, and the outside temperature; the right one displayed the odometer, trip A/B mileage, or average MPG. That last data point was somewhat redundant as the gauge just to the right of it indicated that same statistic.


The coolest thing (in my opinion) about the Camry was the 6.1-inch multimedia touchscreen. Through this, you could control audio and Bluetooth, as well as see tire pressures and track your fuel economy. Although it looked really neat, I was not a fan by the time I returned the car; controlling the audio was not intuitive, and the system only registered input with a hard push. Finally, I must inform everyone not to forget to delete your phone from the Bluetooth memory; otherwise, you'll end up like me with the SLC station manager's personal phone number! It's much harder, if even possible, to find this information on voice-controlled Bluetooth systems. The hard plastic buttons and dials surrounding the touchscreen (to navigate through the touchscreen) and on the rest of the dashboard (HVAC, etc.) felt surprisingly cheap to the touch.


Up to five people can sit in the Camry, with plenty of legroom in the back. The driver's seat is power-adjustable (including lumbar support), and the passenger seat is adjusted manually. There are two cupholders in the front and two more in the rear armrest (I think), as well as bottle holders in all four door pockets. There is plenty of storage space, with a decently-sized glove compartment and center console. There are also compartments below the center of the dashboard and just behind the gear selector which offer space for smaller items, in addition to a DC power outlet in each as well as USB and auxiliary jacks in the front one. Road noise was not too much of an issue as you were busy listening to the whine of the 2.5L engine, which at first sounded cool but got old quickly, and the obnoxious buzz at higher RPMs.



Exterior/Design: The Camry looks like a Corolla on steroids, but in a good way. Similar to my most recent Corolla, this car was painted in a Sandy Beach scheme. Toyota took a conservative approach to designing the exterior in my opinion, but it works well in this new generation. I'm a big fan of the chrome grille accent and the sharp tail light structure, but my enthusiasm ends there.



Features: Lots of stuff comes standard with this second-level LE trim, including the multimedia touchscreen, Bluetooth audio and phone capability, automatic headlamps ^, door-based ground lights, cruise control, a tilt-and-telescopic steering wheel, USB and aux-in jack inputs, and other normally-expected amenities. The only optional features included were an ashtray ($26), which could fit in a cup holder, but otherwise was stored loose in the center console), and the power driver's seat adjustment ($440), which had 8 directions and lumbar adjustment.

Value: I paid $29.92 a day for this reservation -- which was supposed to be for a Kia Rio -- using the USAA CDP and a $5/day PC. With this 4.5-class upgrade (4.6 if the "6" in "F6" means anything ), I certainly got my money's worth. Additionally, I found a quarter under the driver's seat

Summary

• 2.5L inline 4-cylinder engine (178 hp, 170 ft-lbs. of torque)
• 6-speed automatic transmission w/ overdrive and manual mode
• 25/35 mpg
• Second trim level

PROS:

• Very comfortable
• Lots of high-tech, creature comforts
• Very intuitive controls
• Touch screen!!

CONS:

• Whiny engine that gets very loud when revving high
• Very unresponsive manual mode that starts you off in 4th
• Sticky shift handle (and that damn maze track...)
• Leather look-alike interior trim attempt is better seen and not felt

This is my 4th car in a slew of Japanese-design FCAR rentals (including the Legacy in my count) and it's by far the coolest of them all. It also feels the largest, and is the most comfortable. However, I'd say it ties at the bottom in terms of driveability (not meaning that I can't drive it, but that I don't like it) with the Mazda6. Perhaps CVTs have grown on me, but simulated manual shifting on this was a complete nightmare. Notwithstanding that, it did well on gas and I bet my HLE was thrilled to have this on their lot (although it did come from the airport at some point, I think).

Final Verdict: If high-tech amenities and creature comforts are what turn you on, you'll be pleased with the Camry. For those that prefer lots of power and better handling, better options exist. This still is one of the preferable FCARs in the fleet.

-J.

KevinMD

I've been driving one for the past 2+ weeks and it beats the snot out of the Avenger I traded in when it needed an oil change. I really like the bluetooth audio, and the seat is one of the more comfortable for a FCAR.

jerleong

Hahaha I see that you enjoyed the Camry overall!

On my way from Des Moines to Chicago I took a more eco-friendly driving pattern, thus not being able to experience the noisiness of the engine at higher RPM's and the severe lag noticeable with the sequential shift. Also, you must have been pushing the rev's if you achieved ~25MPG. :P

And I definitely do stand by my saying that the quality of the center dash panel and it's knobs/control switches feel cheap! No idea why this is as such with a new Toyota vehicle but it is surprisingly disappointing!

Overall, great ride report as usual! As yes, the Camry is touted as more of a comfort car than a sporty one.

GW McLintock

Very true -- definitely more comfortable than sporty ^ But with that said, it still needs to drive well. I was pushing the revs a bit, at one point I tried to keep them low by going into 6th gear, but saying there was lag doesn't even cover it -- I would upshift and it would downshift. The sequential shift mode just didn't work like that

I also thought of a reason why I'm getting such low MPG calculations in this and the Altima, and even in my Impala back in August -- perhaps it's because I'm in Salt Lake City, Utah, a little over 4,200 feet above sea level. Going through mountains just means I'm going even further up, so I bet these higher altitudes are taking a hit on my fuel economy.

-J.

jerleong

I concur. They ought to amp up the 'intelligentness' of the sequential gearbox, but to be honest, people who buy the Camry (for example, say, my dad) are never going to use the sequential mode, opting for the good ol' 'D' and leaving it to the car. Younger crowds (*ahem*us*ahem*) would love to play with sequential mode and I have yet to experience any rentals with a decent gearbox that does this feature well.

AH! That definitely affects the MPG! We're pretty flat over here in the Mid-West so I guess that's why I was able to get higher numbers.

GW McLintock

FWIW the 4-cyl in the Malibu is wayyy too weak for the car, but its manual mode was perhaps the most responsive of any car I've ever driven. Ride report forthcoming

-J.