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Jimmy Drew
Jimmy Drew
Things to like
Cruise control: accurate and no delay in pick-up.
The 5-spoke wheels that look great and are easy to clean.
Fast and accurate steering.
Interior quietness.
Performance of the 4-cylinder engine.
Gas mileage of the 4-cylinder engine.
Entune system.
Roomy interior in a compact exterior package.
Great headroom front and rear.
Comfortable seats.
Hydraulic hinges on the hood. A small thing, but lots of cars still use a prop-stand.
Solid brakes.
Slick and smooth 6-speed transmission
Thing to improve
Some interior plastics are cheesy.
The switchgear for the heater/air conditioner is decent, but it looks like something from a 1969 Chevy.
The SE steering wheel has pronounced thumb grabs at 10 and 2 o’clock that are uncomfortably sharp. I hope they soften up over time.
The great “other”
The taillights are,,, different. Fortunately they work well and I don’t have to look at them.
There are almost too many storage spots in the front compartment. I’ve lost things because I forgot which cubby I used.
The glovebox could be deeper. The Altima got this feature right: make it big enough to fit a laptop computer.
The paddle shifters on the SE are eye candy, but I rarely use them. Putting the transmission in “D” is simple and works very well.
The Eco driving light may annoy some. I find it a useful reminder to ease off the gas.
In that vein, you can find yourself going fast in this car without realizing it.
Got a new 12 Camry SE ( due to same reasons everybody mentions in the forum against Honda - smooth ride and steering )...
Specs says 25/34 mpg but I am on my 170 miles ( about 100 miles in city, 70miles highway ) and didn't drive crazy aggressive either - it is showing about 18mpg on the front and electronic gauge ?
What is your experience ? just started to worry if there is anything wrong with mine..
Feedback is appreciated - Thanks
Anyone know how to do this? :confuse: Thanks.
I've gotten 30-32MPG from my 4-cylinder SE for its first 2,000 miles. Any smart driver can do the same, unless you have a 6.
I have a 4 cylinder loaded XLE model w/Michelin Primacy tires and to make it simple, the Camry EPA rating of 25 city 35 highway as pretty much what I can get. EG, I can get 40 mpg on a level 60 mph backroad trip with no wind and two passengers, but with 4 people, headwind, AC on, 70 mph freeway trip it drops to 33 mpg on a 200mi trip. In a calibration check my gauge MPG readings were always +/- .5 mpg with the gas fillup calculated MPG, so I quit the calculated since I am confident the gauge is close to accurate. I have not reset my main dashboard analog and digital gauge in almost 2k mi and it reads 32.2 mpg. I can't tell you if it's 50/50 city/highway miles, but based on the prior 8k mi it's probably close to that ratio. I rarely drive it wild and racy (a Camry 4 is not racy) so maybe this is close to best case but I am very satisfied with my Camry on MPGs and the other two main factors I bought the car: interior comfort/quiet and reliability.
I suggest to diane31 and others that if you have a Camry 4 cylinder, drive it easy, and can't come within a few MPGs of the EPA numbers to work with the dealer and Toyota customer support to get an answer since that engine should be capable of getting close to 25 City 35 Highway MPGs.
I have a similar driving stye as you and have around 11K miles on my 2012 toyota camry SE. I noticed yesterday that my front driver seat is freying as well. I also noticed the silver dash panel directly above my a/c fan knob is cracking as well. I took my car into the dealership and the manager took pictures of the damage. Since it was a Saturday he said he will have to get with the district manager on Monday and I should hear something from him by Tuesday afternoon. I have had my camry since late December 2011. Other then these two issue everything else has been fine. I'll keep you posted on what the dealership will do about these issues. I'm also leasing my camry as well. At this point I'm on the fence about keeping it after the lease.
I do not have a lead foot and I have tested to see if it was worse or better using cruise control. I actually get slightly better mileage not using the cruise control! I reset the guage when I fill up. I have 4200 miles on my car so far. If it doesn't improve after my first oil change, I'll trade it in! Love everything else about it.
Great description of your new SE. Thanks!! You should work for Motor Trend.
I am debating between the SE and LE 2012 Camry. The principal difference
for me is the seats in the SE. What differences did you notice between the
SE and LE seats? The SE seats look better, the huge question is if the foam in
the SE seats are of a higher quality.
Realistically, when do you really need paddle shifters?? Alloy wheels look
good but the big difference is the seat comfort.
Looking forward to your response
coches1
Mine is a 50/50 town to freeway driving.
What should I do?
Also how did you guys calculate the exact freeway mileage ??
I can check that out and see what am I getting.
Rikin
Fuel car, immediately get on freeway drive 65 mph for 100 miles straight with no city and see what the reading is. It will be around what the EPA says the mpg is for this car. The mpg rating is not what Toyota says, it is what the EPA tests show.
There are so many variables that pull down mpg. Many people think that there is something wrong with their car, but 99.9% of the time on a new car, there is nothing wrong. This is a very common complaint for all makes and models.
When you say 50/50 town to freeway, that means nothing. For one person, the 50% city could be in a LA traffic jam, where you are sitting still for a long time on the way to work, getting zero mpg. Another could be stopping at 30 traffic lights in 10 miles, averaging 20 mph, and another could be stopping at 5 lights in 10 miles, averaging 40 mph.
The only way to calculate exact mpg is to fuel up at the same pump to the first click (when the pump shuts off). Then reset one of your trip odometers. Drive until you get down to around a 1/4 tank. Fill up again at the same pump to the first click, then take your miles from trip odometer divided by total gallons from the pump. Or, you can track this for several or all tanks, keeping a total of all the miles and gallons.
I am sure you will find your car's mpg is fine and is fully capable of getting the EPA rated mpg.
Compared to my last Sep 14 posting, I now show 32.3 MPG as the car computer average over around 4000 miles in mixed highway/city driving the past 2 mons. Our A/C is rarely used now unless for defrost when it's raining and we switched to winter gas, so I just measured a 370 mi fillup 11.8 gal @ 31.4 MPG with 35% city miles. Note my "city" is probably more "suburban" to most people since I have two 1 mile stretches with only one stop and the other few miles have stop lights averaging every few blocks on a typical drive to Target, Home Depot, restaurants or church. I plan to do another true winter measurement in December.
Reminder: put more air IN your tires in winter. Last night when it was 52 deg out I noticed mine are down to around 32 lbs, and they were at 35 in the summer. I will wait for a 30 deg morning and put them back up to 35 lbs.
And, yes, if you do lots of short trips of less than 3 miles, your mpg will REALLY suffer, so you can't use that to say your mpg is bad.
I never seriously considered the LE so I have no comparison on the seat foam. After 3K miles I have found the seats to be very comfortable. Comfort is related to many things including height, weight and body shape. What works for me may not work for someone else.
I noticed at least one complaint about seat cloth durability in the LE. My SE has the textured cloth that is wearing well so far. Surprisingly, it does not produce a static build-up. I was shocked every time I exited my Accord.
BTW, I get 30 - 33 MPG consistently. My only problem was the trim on interior A pillar. It was a 20-minutes job to replace. I've adapted to the sterring wheel and love SiriusXM. Now that it's raining where I live I notice the Bridgestone Turanzas can break away when accelerating quickly from a dead stop. I hope Michelin is still making Pilot Exaltos when it comes replacement time. For my money: the best all season tires on the market.
The key choice factors on LE versus SE are exterior styling and handling. The SE has its own look while its steering and road grip are much tighter than what the LE (I had a loaner) offers.
Thank you in advance!
Oil changes every 10k, or 1 per year, whatever comes first. Rotate tires every 5-8k.
No, at 30k miles, it only needs a new engine air filter, a new cabin air filter, and that's it. Those two items took me 10 minutes total to replace - very easy to do.
Hopefully, the place you purchased it already did those two things, because if they didn't, you are over-due.
I should also mention that the cabin air filter replacement is very very easy to do, and requires no tools. The instructions are even in the owner's manual. Get the filter at Toyota dealer or autoparts store. Doing it yourself saves about $30 vs having dealer do it. And it only takes 5 minutes.
Engine air filter only requires a socket wrench with a 4 inch extension bar, also a 5 minute job.
Bad design by Toyota that should have been caught and resolved during development.
I live in NJ and I want to buy a new 2012 Camry SE. I want to pay $23,000 out the door and do not have a trade in vehicle. Am I asking for to little or to much? Can somebody help me with this.
Thanks in advance!
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First, I wish I had delayed my purchase until the new Accord appeared. I don't know if I would have chosen it over the SE, but I would have liked to done the compare. I have no other regrets, though, regarding the SE versus the Altima, the Sonata, or any clunker from Detroit.
My mileage has dipped into the high 20s from the low 30s. I attribute that to oxygenated gas and running the compressor often to defog.
Performance is still excellent. The Bridgestone Turanzas are still not my favorite tires, especially in the wet. SiriusXM is a great upgrade and I wish I had the back-up camera.
One feature that is missing relates to the intermittent wipers. My old Accord would slow the wipe cycle down when the car was stopped and immediately start it when you took your foot off the brake. A simple feature that every car should have.
I am surprised Toyota still does not offer body side moldings. I will go to the aftermarket in the spring.
All in all, a happy customer.
I wish you luck with the Turanzas. I have a set on an accord. They are very quiet, very smooth, and handle very well in any condition. I have rotated them every 5k miles and always maintained the pressure. These 70k mile tires are now shot at 45k miles - down to the wear bars. The performance has been great, but they did not approach the advertised life expectancy.