Toyota Camry 2007 Motor Trend COTY

[NickF1011]

LINK

 

I know it sells well and it's a fine vehicle and all that, but if that was the only barometer, the F-series should be the truck of the year every year.

 

What "innovations" are there in the 2007 Camry that make it worthy of winning?

[akirby]

LINK

 

I know it sells well and it's a fine vehicle and all that, but if that was the only barometer, the F-series should be the truck of the year every year.

 

What "innovations" are there in the 2007 Camry that make it worthy of winning?

 

Only vehicles that are new or significantly changed each year are eligible. I'm sure they like the new 3.5L engine and the available Hybrid. And it's not like there was a lot of competition this year:

 

"Among competitors for Car of the Year were the Chrysler Sebring, Saturn Aura, Nissan Altima, Kia Rondo, Honda Fit, Mercedes-Benz S Class, Volvo C70 T5 and the Volkswagen Rabbit."

[Michael Reynolds]

That title should've gone to either the Aura or Altima. IMO better choices leaps and bounds over what Toyota had to offer. They may not have hybrid drivetrains now, but they will in the coming months.

Anyhow what a waste of an award.

[ANTAUS]

I agree, I would site the innovation for the Altima is it's CVT, among a few other changes, and available hybrid. And the Aura itself is a huge innovation, well for GM...Although weeks ago I mentioned that it would be faulted for using the 3.5L OHV engine as a base offering.

 

Although in Camry's defense, it has/did bring out all variations out at the same time. Surely something Ford can't seem to do.

 

But in retrospect...the Camry has certainly dropped in reliability recently, and the automatic transmissions are failing at an alarming rate. It's amazing the rantings about that I've been reading on other websites.

[Drake]

I'm not shocked. Remember they made the Ridgeline Truck of Year. Motor Trend lost its credibility years ago. The import bias rolls on.

[NickF1011]

I'm not shocked. Remember they made the Ridgeline Truck of Year. Motor Trend lost its credibility years ago. The import bias rolls on.

 

Well, I wouldn't even really call it import bias. But why the Toyota? It's basically just a reskin of last year's with a bit more power. Why wasn't the MKZ even considered? It had about as many changes as the Camry did from an innovation standpoint. Wasn't the Infiniti G35 new for '07 also? Where was that?

Edited November 22, 2006 by NickF1011

[MGallun]

Its a toyota!

[markfnc]

1983 was when Motor Trend lost all credibility.

 

http://www.renaultusa.org/english/press.html

[05fordgt]

My guess, Toyota threatened to pull their advertising from the magazine if they didn't get the award. :lol:

[JW]

1983 was when Motor Trend lost all credibility.

 

http://www.renaultusa.org/english/press.html

 

 

I like C/D's response to that, too :D

[Mark B. Morrow]

1983 was when Motor Trend lost all credibility.

 

http://www.renaultusa.org/english/press.html

 

 

It goes back even further than that: 1971 Chevrolet Vega - Car of the Year

[Roadrunner]

Only vehicles that are new or significantly changed each year are eligible.

"Among competitors for Car of the Year were the Chrysler Sebring, Saturn Aura, Nissan Altima, Kia Rondo, Honda Fit, Mercedes-Benz S Class, Volvo C70 T5 and the Volkswagen Rabbit."

 

Aha - so the Fusion was a competitor last year, and was totally bowled over by the new Civic.

[range]

"Among competitors for Car of the Year were the Chrysler Sebring, Saturn Aura, Nissan Altima, Kia Rondo, Honda Fit, Mercedes-Benz S Class, Volvo C70 T5 and the Volkswagen Rabbit."

 

That's a pretty weak list of contenders. MT should have just canceled the award this year due to a lack of interesting vehicles.

 

MT should have included the MKZ with AWD.

Edited November 23, 2006 by range

[g48150]

Children, settle down...

 

EVERYONE knows that the Honda Fit should have won!!!

 

I mean, the innovative cargo "storage", think of the raw cubic inches of gear you can store in the thing!!!

 

B cars are going to run wild over EVERYTHING in the next 24-36 months, and that's if gas stays where it is, which it won't.

[156n3rd]

Now please read this one, it is a Motor Trend bashing. I love car mags and so I re-newed my subscription four months early as required by MT. I sent my check and recieved the October issue and then waited. Then, the December issue shows up! After e-mail tag, they tell me that the November issue is no longer available and they can't send it. I write back and tell them either come up with the November rag, or refund my money. The cheerfully refunded the money! How f___ing stupid can a magazine company be? They stood by their lie of having no November issues lying around rather than provide customer service. never again. As for the Camry winning, it sounds like a bought political campaign to me. It stinks. Lastly, my vote for COTY, Nissan Versa, the wave of now and the future.

Edited November 23, 2006 by 156n3rd

[silvrsvt]

B cars are going to run wild over EVERYTHING in the next 24-36 months, and that's if gas stays where it is, which it won't.

 

 

With all the B-cars out there they still haven't even hit 300K total sales....:rolleyes:

[foxrun]

I thought this car had some serious quality issues, the transmission in particular?

 

I read one review where the guy admitted that this new Camry had "a few quality issues" but that it was ok because Toyota learned quickly from its mistakes.

 

I'm still looking for more info about the criminal investigation on toyota executives, apparently they had been hiding safety issues for the past eight years.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006...call_probe.html

[ANTAUS]

Have they really? I mean, it's been going on prior to the 2005 Model year Camry's, it's already MY2007. And similar transmission failures have been occuring on the Tundra as well.

[wildosvt]

I'm not shocked. Remember they made the Ridgeline Truck of Year. Motor Trend lost its credibility years ago. The import bias rolls on.

 

 

Could'nt of said it better myself Drake. :shades:

[g48150]

With all the B-cars out there they still haven't even hit 300K total sales....:rolleyes:

 

When gas prices go back up to what they were last spring/summer, who wins?

 

Is it really the car companies and us?

 

Honda didn't get THAT much volume out of the Fit, I imagine because they were tweaking the factory because of the first model year.

 

To be fair, Scion is the only one who wasn't in the throes of a new launch year, and they STILL had their production curtailed.

 

Supply and demand, my friend, keep em thin and pump the price. I wonder what industry still uses that technique?

[KWMJ-KTP]

Motor Trend once again re-affirms that they are a bunch of idiots. Last year, when the 2006 Explorer was up for Truck of the Year, among some others, they gave the award to the joke of a truck Honda Ridgeline. In their own article, they even admitted that they gave the award to the Ridgeline because it was the only thing in the running that was really new, no matter that it sucked in comparison to some of the other models in the group. That statement was testament to how pathetic Motor Trend can be. The Explorer with it's new frame, new transmission, heavily updated engines, new interior, and more was nothing new according to them. Sure, it may have looked much like it's predecesser, but at least it looked good which most people could not and would not say about the Ridgeline. Now, the Ridgeline with it's "innovative" Front-wheel drive pick-up, unibody frame derived from a minivan, with parts bin engine and transmission, also from their minivan, with a small payload and towing ability, while being priced comparatively with the likes of the F-150 and Silverado is just so amazingly innovative that we have to give it an award. The fact is, if Ford, GM or Chrysler made a product anything like that POS, they would have been laughed right out of town, but since it's Honda or Toyota doing it, it's a genius idea.

I thought it was interesting that just about every magazine that reviewed the 2006 Explorer commented that they were not expecting much at first, but were surprised at the level of improvement over the previous model year.

Motor Trend is also very hypocritical, which they proved a couple months after awarding the Ridgeline Truck of the Year. A couple months later, they were doing a review of the 390 HP Trailblazer SS and 425 HP Jeep SUV, which are both amazingly quick and well priced considering their power levels. They had limited towing ability, as do all performance trucks & SUV's, and Motor Trend decided to knock both vehicles by saying that the vehicles were pointless because they could not do what a truck was made to do. Ironically, the Ridgeline, with FWD and a unibody which also can't do many of the things a truck is designed to do qualifed for Truck of the Year by the same group of writers.

While I still like to read their magazines and read their comments on various vehicles good or bad, one thing is certain, and that is to take anything they write with a grain of salt.

[RAdams]

Honda didn't get THAT much volume out of the Fit, I imagine because they were tweaking the factory because of the first model year.

 

Supply and demand, my friend, keep em thin and pump the price. I wonder what industry still uses that technique?

 

The current Fit, although a new model in the U.S., is actually in its last model year overseas. Since it was plucked directly from Japan, there is serious conjecture as to what will happen in the next year or two (i.e. will they continue to build this "old" Fit in Japan an export them to the U.S. until the Indiana factory is up and running and can build a replacement or will the Indiana plant continue to build this "old" Fit for another few years since it's new to the U.S.?)

 

Given that it still sells well in Japan and that they earmarked some plant capacity to building Fits that are exported to the U.S., you can see why the availability is low. My super huge mega Honda dealer with a 5-story parking garage has *1* Fit listed as available on their website (as compared to 136 Accords).

[RichardJensen]

I'm still looking for more info about the criminal investigation on toyota executives, apparently they had been hiding safety issues for the past eight years.

IIRC, the Japanese government declined to press charges, after Toyota publicly acknowledged lapses in judgment, and implemented better policies, which the government will be able to inspect.

 

Aside from the public acknowledgement of past error, it's pretty much like what happens stateside in product negligence cases filed by the gov't in behalf of the public.

 

Because Japan doesn't have a tort system (lawsuits for money or to institute "equitable remedies" between individuals), negligence is investigated as a criminal matter by the gov't. I think.

Edited November 28, 2006 by RichardJensen

[Kotzenjunge]

I would have given the nod to the new S-Class, but I guess it's too far out of most people's range to consider a mass consumption car of the year.

[Ovaltine]

Has anyone ever noticed on what appears to be ALL renditions of the Camry, the way the exhaust pipe is ALWAYS hanging low as it dips underneath the rear axle area?

 

Whenever I get behind one of these, I can't help but notice how crappy this looks. It looks as if the exhaust has come loose and is hanging down.

 

The *brand new* model even exhibits this design! WTH?

 

I do want to compliment Ford on doing a much better exhaust packaging/design on the Fusion/Milan/Zephyr trio as well as their other lines as well!

 

 

I've found a few others online making this observation:

 

http://www.autotalkworld.com/x/?p=9

DzynOne said,

 

on April 24th, 2006 at 11:46 am

I thought I was alone in the Camry exhaust issue. WHY is it so low!! it totally takes away from the design of the car, which is OK, but the hanging exhause makes it not OK.

 

 

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.autos.t...0a69cfd6a086e42

> I never noticed this until I followed my wife home one day, but, when

viewed

> from the back, the exhaust pipe on the new Camrys almost looks like it was

> an afterthought. It hangs low below the car, almost as if they forgot to

> put the hangers on it. Is there a reason for routing it so low under the

> car, away from the chassis?

 

To clear the suspension. On the older ones it went over the suspension.

Since 1992 they have had it go under since there is not enough room above

anymore.

 

Chris

 

http://www4.shopping.com/xPW-Toyota_2002_Toyota_Camry

Cons: foam-rubber brake feel, exhaust system hangs down like on an old school bus.

 

 

-Ovaltine

Edited November 29, 2006 by Ovaltine