American car customers love the Toyota Camry — enough to buy 429,355 units in 2015 alone. It’s been the number one selling car in the US for the previous 12 years, essentially selling itself despite market preferences turning toward sport utility and crossover utility cars.
The Camry is a tremendously significant car for Toyota, but the competition is better than ever, which led the firm to fast track updates and enhancements to stay competitive. Toyota sent techradar a 2016 Camry XSE with its convenience package, GPS and JBL premium audio, its advanced technology package, a sunroof and integrated Qi wireless charging to test. All of it raised the MSRP to $31,560 (not available in the UK, AU$41,402 for the Altara SL level with 18″ wheels and sport suspension option).
Toyota’s current-generation Camry initially arrived as a 2012 model year (MY) vehicle, but it received an extensive exterior makeover during its mid-cycle refresh for MY2015 to make the car more aesthetically attractive. I personally don’t mind the styling too much. The Camry has an aggressive posture, especially in SE or XSE trims, which are the sportier-looking cars, but Toyota left the green house (or the window pattern of the car) alone.
If you park the current generation and the last two generations of Camry’s next to one another, the green house appears practically the same. It may be nitpicking, but the aggressive style from below the beltline (or below the side windows) doesn’t match with everything above, and that’s bothersome. I favor the subtle looks of the Kia Optima and Volkswagen Passat over the Toyota Camry.
Reach for the door handle, and a sensor mounted on the rear of it unlocks the car. A press of the capacitive touch button locks the car. The unlock sensor and lock button are only available on the front doors, which is appropriate for this class. I’ve only seen rear door handles with locking and unlocking features in luxury automobiles, such as the Mercedes E-class.
Interior
Entering reveals a completely black interior with red stitching. The majority of the interior materials are of a high caliber and have a soft-touch texture. The sturdy plastic components have an attractive smooth matte finish that doesn’t feel slick or draw oily fingerprints but still looks sharp.
For my 5-foot-7-inch and 195-pound frame, I feel that the half leather and ultrasuede seats offer ample of side bolster and back support. The seat heaters also heat up very rapidly.
In the front, the Camry has conventional analog instruments with an LCD in the middle. A useful addition that many new cars are removing is the engine coolant temperature indicator, which allows you to determine whether the engine is at working temperature quickly. The trip meter, turn-by-turn directions, audio information, and driver assistance features are all represented visually on the LCD display.
The interior design of the Camry doesn’t bother me in any way. Toyota did a fantastic job maintaining conventional buttons and knobs, which is how I prefer an interior.
While I’m being picky, I don’t like how all the wording is in a huge font. The text is clear and simple to read, which is good for the average Camry driver, but I feel old driving it.
Informational system
A 7-inch Toyota Entune system with HD Radio, SiriusXM, USB, and Bluetooth connectivity controls the Camry’s entertainment system. Toyota states that the 7-inch touch screen display is high-quality and has an 800 x 480 resolution. The screen is powered by a digital interface rather than an analog one, which is probably why it appears clear and vibrant from the driver’s seat despite the (in my opinion) low resolution.
The home screen is somewhat sparse but shows information that is frequently used, such as music information, weather data, and a tiny map. It can also be customized, but I chose to leave it set up as is.
There are no surprises when listening to HD Radio with SiriusXM. In a shared list of presets, SiriusXM and HD Radio channels can coexist. It’s awful to play files that are on a flash drive.
Toyota skipped over a straightforward option: folder-based music browsing. It’s absurd that you can’t access a USB drive using your own folder and file structure; I’m not sure how this got by. Although using an iPhone to search your music by track information makes sense, I like to arrange my flash drives using mix folders rather than playlists.
Similar to every other vehicle in the mid-size market, the navigation features are standard. Heck, the maps and navigation program resemble the Kia Optima extremely well. There are no surprises in this situation; the flat maps are effective. You cannot enter a new location while the automobile is driving due to the standard lock outs that are in effect. Voice instructions are available but, like in every other infotainment system, they are incredibly horrible.
My Motorola Nexus 6 and iPhone 6s are both Bluetooth-enabled phones. Although text messaging is supported, you can only send simple responses. In any case, Google Now or Siri are preferable. Speaking of Siri, iPhones can support Eyes-Free by depressing the speech recognition button.
iHeart Radio, MovieTickets.com, OpenTable, Pandora, and Facebook Places all have app integration. Your phone must have the dedicated Entune application from Toyota installed and logged in. You can link Entune to the supported applications using your Entune login.
It’s a minor nuisance, but the Entune app allows the car to use the internet rather than the app’s API, which would have forced Bluetooth audio streaming with some quality loss. Toyota now has more flexibility, but I don’t think it’s really necessary.
Why bother with any of the other applications if not for Pandora and iHeartRadio? Compared to using your phone, the interface is slower and clunkier.
I’m particularly perplexed by the support for Facebook Places. When I can turn off the car, get out, take a picture, and then check in via Facebook on my phone, why would I put the car in park, check in via the car, and then shut the car off?
Actually, this demonstrates how out of touch Toyota is with modern entertainment system technologies. Unfortunately, Toyota is unwilling to accept Apple CarPlay or Android Auto and prefers to go its own way despite the fact that there is simply no reason to access these apps while driving.
The integrated Qi wireless charger, which is put in the cubby behind the climate controls, completes the infotainment system. The charger can be turned on or off using a status light button. I was unable to test it out because my Motorola Nexus 6 was too big for the charger. The Qi charger, nevertheless, should allow your phone to charge if it fits.
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