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By the way, I went to see the XLE V6 today since they did not have the SE V6. Time constraints didn't allow me to test drive it. From what I saw, I was very impressed. The car is quite the site in person and has that taute look of the IS; it is very muscular and aggressive looking. The interior is very Lexus-like and tight. And no, the interior didn't seem like it was made of nylon.
Keep the test drive and deal making reports coming!
Yeah, the performance of the IS250 is underwhelming with respect to the Camry.
However I personally need power only for freeway onramp maneuvers and passing.
There's a bunch of cars that I think of as 'luxury poser' sport sedans: IS250, Acura TSX, BMW 325i, Audi A4 2.0T These have prestige labels, impressive styling, decent mileage, and luxury amenities. They all would get dusted by the Camry in a straight line test.
Is it worth the extra $$$ in upfront cost and gas to upgrade to their more powerful brethren? Just so I could put an upstart Camry owner in his proper place? For me, no.
Wow, I think I just convinced myself to buy the IS250! These forums are better than psychotherapy and much cheaper to boot
If the V6 SE is what you are interested in, be sure to drive one when available. I drove two XLE's, a 4 cyl SE and two V6 SE's - and the V6 SE has a very different feel from all of the others. The seats wrap your back a bit and the handling is night vs day different. XLE felt like a boat while I was very impressed w/ cornering on the SE. My reference car is a Maxima SE w/5sp, 220 hp and 17" Michelin Pilot Sports.
If I were you, I would opt for the leather interior since it is very durable (believe it or not), it looks much nicer, and also, you wont have to worry about fabric buildup on the doors from fleeces, other fabrics, or what not. The buildup of lint and other fabrics on the cloth lining on the doors of my parents' 2006 Camry is an annoyance of theirs.
link
Here is my incoming car:
link title
Any idea when yours is due (also, when did you place your order)? I hope to get a date this week (ordered two weeks ago).
Are you saying the '07 Camry doesn't have this option? Every other car I've seen with stability control did have a button for turning it off
This is from the Toyota websites interactive experience.
"Q. When does a car ride become a rejuvenating experience?
A. We took a silk protein and bonded it with a synthetic fiber to create the Frachir process, a coating that makes seat fabric that is remarkebly gentle on the skin.
-Standard on XLE 4-cylinder only
-Uses serin, a natural by-product of the silk industry
-Serin, a natural moisturizer, is combined with synthetic seat fibers to create a fabric that is gentle on the skin"
There we have it!
http://www.caranddriver.com/roadtests/10873/road-test-review-2007-toyota-camry-s- e-page3.html
There's a lot of technical talk that I couldn't understand, but I think they were generally happy, they just wish VSC would let them spin the tires.
Does anyone know?
A fer'instance?
You're moving slowly or are stopped. In your rear view mirror you see a vehicle barreling towrad you. You know he won't be able to stop. You mash the gas pedal to try to provide space between you and the on coming vehicle - OOOPS - Mr. Computer says "No No No...wheel spins are not allowed" Your car WON'T respond and you get hit from behind. D'OH!!!!!!!!! :mad:
I'm in left lane of highway traveling 65 or 70, guy in right lane decides to cut in front of me (no signal, of course) and he's maybe doing 40! I have 2 choices: slam on the brakes, maybe slow down in time but probably get rear ended by the guy behind me OR accelerate while swerving violently into the left breakdown lane - which is what I did, fishtailing a little in the process. I'm convinced that had my car been VSC equipped I wouldn't have been 'allowed' to do this - the guy behind me incidentally did hit the idiot.
Badmouthing 'safety systems' is a little like attacking motherhood - but my point is folks out there with the attitude that if it is safety related it must be good, need to understand what these systems actually do.
Thanks!
Pricing at numbers approaching MSRP (or even above) very common with high demand cars which I would think the new Camry will be for awhile. And you better believe that the dealers know exactly what they can and cannot get - a specific dealer that seriously undercuts the pricing of the other dealers in the area will likely receive a clandestine call from the distributor threatening to cut off his supply. The Avalon had the same situation a year ago. A lot of dealers will take 'orders' at supposedly better prices only to get on allocation lists with the distributor - somehow the actual car ordered never shows up or magically appears with some 'added features' at a higher price. Not real kosher, but been going on for years.
Again, good things (i.e. saving money) come to those who wait! Early adopters always pay the price.
If it were me, I would certain have paitence and wait. Not only for a better deal, but to sort out any first year production glitches. Toyota generally does a very good job on sorting out a car prior to production, but it's inevitable that something will arise within the first few months of sales.
But this is the situation that has to be present:
you are stopped or moving slowly - given
you see that you are going to be rearended by a high speed vehicle-given
but then:
road must be loose, slick or icy - if it's dry just get out of the way.
but then:
it's must be safe to shoot out into the intersection at which you ar stopped to avoid being hit.
Captain: VSC/Trac would not have prevented you from accelerating out of harms way, it likely would have controlled your 'fishtailing' for a few instants until you were back in control.
My own, since I used to drive in the snow most of my life. I'm at an intersection with a stop sign, probably not a light, and I begin to venture out suddenly realizing that I grossly misjudged traffic and shouldn't have gone into the intersection. I stomp in it to get across but the Trac slows the spinning wheels to regain traction and I get hit because I didnt make it across in time. It's not a pleasant idea but it's not the car's fault it's my fault for misjudging traffic.
Now in my 96 Concorde without Trac I did two 360's in front of Giant's Stadium across 5 lanes because the left front wheel was going 80 mph when it came out of a puddle while the right wheel was only doing 60 mpg.
For the isolated instances where good defensive driving will avoid most accidents I will take the addition of Trac to avoid unforseen problems.
This only applies to cars on the lot, not special orders or cars that must be acquired from other dealers.
On most sophisticated manufactured good 5% profit is about the minimum unless it's an extremely high volume commodity where the margin might be 1-2%.
5% of a
$10000 car is $500
$20000 car is $1000
etc.
Surprise, surprise I always knew you were not the sport sedan type--especially from what I gathered from your posts in the "IS versus 3 series forum".
I myself was interested in getting the hybrid Camry (but the trunk space is too small for our family needs).
Good luck with your choice. Camrys are great cars(although my bias is towards the Accord)
think you possibly wrong and only 'possibly'because without the VSC on my particular car I have no way of knowing. Example: Lexus is currently advertising a 'great' safety system that anticipates an accident, and when the car thinks it is about to hit something it does things like tighten the seat belts, disable throttle and will even apply the brakes for you lest you forget! So now we have a recent test (C&D, I think) of this in a GS 430, and somehow the vehicle's speed thru a 600' slalom is seriously limited by this system - why, because the car 'thought' that the track pylons were the impending accident and shut everything down before that particular car's limits wewre even approached. This 600' slalom (speeds tend to be about 60 mph or so) approximates a car's evasive capabilties. So, yes, I think that for what happened to me, there is a really solid possibility that my car would not have allowed me to do what I did because I also had accelerate hard, not to mention swerve hard enough to create the fishtail. Remember what the original poster of this thread was talking about - a 'magically' sluggish and unresponsive car driving in bad weather. Had my car been at all sluggish and didn't have all of those 280 horses, I don't get around that guy.
All this said - is VSC/TRAC (they generally come together) a bad idea - not necessarily, properly applied with the system set close to vehicle limits - it can certainly save your bacon - an overapplication of technology, perhaps - but, when you get stuck in that snow drift that you used to be able to 'plow thru', or your car simply doesn't react as quickly as you expected to in an emergency situation - you need to understand why.