The Toyota Camry: A Comprehensive Review

As we took to the road in the new 2023 Toyota Camry, it was clear that this car is designed for everyday driving. The day-to-day livability of the Camry is pretty easy and straightforward. Forward there are lots of open bins to put a phone, there's a standard wireless phone charger pad, and every car usually has a bin in between the front seats. This one has a nice little felt liner inside it's very spacious you could put your wallet in there. The door pockets are pretty generous, there's built-in bottle holders, and the overall design is very functional and easy to live with.

The infotainment system is another area where Toyota has made significant improvements. The screen is pretty straightforward, with a nice little menu on the left side of the screen that's easy to scroll through to get your music choices. Some of my colleagues have mentioned frustration with their Apple phones not always pairing to the Toyota infotainment system, but this is definitely something we've seen with other Toyota and Lexus models. Make sure to work this out with your salesperson before you take delivery of your new Camry.

One of the things that really strikes you about this car is an excellent driving position. It's easy to see and reach all the controls, and the visibility is outstanding. The front roof pillars are very thin, the glass area is generous, and overall, the driving position and visibility look quite promising. I had the opportunity to drive the rented SE model for about 10 hours on a weekend day, and found the seat mostly comfortable. It's not a fancy seat, but it has two-way lumbar support which definitely came in handy after a long day of driving. The thigh support is a little short, but there's enough leaning edge tilt that you can probably find a very comfortable driving position.

The main difference between the rented SE model and the XLE model we're currently driving is the presence of leather seats and suede inserts in the XLE. While the seat itself is very accommodating and comfortable, I think most people will find it very comfortable without the extra touches. The XLE also comes with a big sunroof, but for me, the top of my head was kind of touching the frame of the moon roof, so I'm not crazy about that. If you're looking to buy a new Camry and want to avoid the sunroof, it might be worth reconsidering getting one. However, if you do want the sunroof, hopefully your local dealer will have a model with the roof removed so you can ensure there's enough headroom.

When it comes down to driving this car really found that the steering had very decent feedback and handling seems pretty precise. It's not a sports sedan, but it isn't like a total boring Camry of 20 years ago either. I think Toyota has worked really hard to improve the driving dynamics of this generation Camry. Noise levels are pretty well kept at bay, with some wind noise on the highway that you can hear whistling around the pillars and the outside mirrors. However, nothing too intrusive. The ride also is very comfortable, considering that the suspension is a little bit more tied down than in Camry's of the past.

Standard safety features are very impressive for this generation Camry. New for 2025 is standard blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning on all trim lines. This goes along with the standard forward Collision warning automatic emergency braking and all of the other standard safety features that we come to know and love in Toyotas. Sticking to the playbook can be risky for any manufacturer when they're faced with redesigning an iconic car like the Toyota Camry, but it's clear that Toyota has made significant strides in this area.

Overall, our first impressions of the new 2023 Toyota Camry are positive. It's likely going to be comfortable, fuel-efficient, and really easy to live with. And when you think about its incredible reliability history when it comes to hybrid powertrains, this is likely going to be a very reliable car. We're looking forward to buying our own test model and putting it through all of our tests here at Consumer Reports' 327-acre test facility in Connecticut.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey I'm Mike Quincy I'm here at Consumer Reports auto test center and this is the 2025 Toyota Camry we rented two different trim lines from Toyota this is The XLE and we also have an SE on site here at the track and the big news is that all models comes standard with a hybrid powertrain but don't panic don't worry about taking a few cost steps toward electrification because not only is this engine really powerful and responsive it gets great fuel economy and you got to love Toyota's awesome reliability history with building Hybrid Power trades so this 4cylinder hybrid powertrain makes between 225 horsepower and 232 horsepower depending on the trim line and whether or not it's front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive now they're all hooked up to an electronically controlled continuously variable transmission and what's also new for 2025 is that all trim lines are going to be available with all wheeel drive so whenever people talk about hybrid technology hybrid engines the first question is how is it going to do for fuel economy and Toyota thinks that the hybrids will produce between 44 and 51 MP gallon again whether or not you have it hooked up to front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive naturally we're going to buy our own Camry test car and we'll do our own fuel economy test to see just how it works out so we're inside The XLE version It's kind of distinguish itself from the from the other trim Lines by kind of an interesting kind of a quilty soft touch fabric here on the mid Dash is all this kind of Rim plastic uh glossy trim uh nice leather wrapped steering wheel what we really like is a traditional gear selector it's very very simple lots of Hard buttons also for the climate system this is super convenient the button is right here you don't have to press the touch screen to bring up a climate menu all this stuff is very very straightforward so one of the biggest differences between the lower trim SE and this higher trim XLE is the higher trims get a much more convoluted and complicated instrument panel that the driver usually goes through to find basic information there's this touchpad here on the left which is unlabeled there's just there's just arrows and a and a big okay button so it's really hard to tell what you're getting but it certainly seems like you have to kind of jump through hoops to get some basic information like a total average fuel economy and certainly if you're driving a hybrid you want to know what kind of gas mileage you're getting so that is way more complicated and one of the reasons that a number of us here at the test track prefer the SE model with its more simplified controls the day-to-day livability of the new Camry is pretty easy pretty straightforward forward there there are lots of open bins to put a phone there's there's a a standard uh wireless phone charger pad here every car usually has a bin in between the front seats and this one has a nice little felt liner inside it's very spacious you could put your wallet in there the door pockets are pretty generous there's built-in bottle holders and you this is a very functional easy to live with car so the new Camry gets Toyota's infotainment system which we've seen and and experience with a number of models here at Consumer Reports the screen is pretty straightforward you got a nice little menu on the left side of the screen easy to to scroll through to get your music choices now some of my colleagues uh talked about their frustration with their Apple phones not always pairing to the Toyota infotainment system this is definitely something we've seen with other Toyota and Lexus models so make sure that before you take delivery of your new Camry that you work this out with your salesperson so we're out driving on the consumer reports test track and the first thing that really strikes you about this this car is an excellent driving position it's easy to see and reach all the controls and the visibility is outstanding the the a they call these a pillars the front roof pillars are very thin the glass area is generous so this this driving position and visibility uh definitely look quite promising so I had the opportunity to drive the rented SE model for about 10 hours uh on on a weekend day and found the seat mostly comfortable it's not a fancy seat there is two-way lumbar which definitely came in handy after a long day drive uh and sort of typical of a lot of Toyota seats uh thigh support is a little short but there's enough uh leaning Edge tilt that you can probably find a very comfortable uh driving position uh we're driving right now in The XLE model which comes with with leather seats and they also have these nice little suede inserts which kind of makes it a little fancy uh I think that most people will find this seat very accommodating and very comfortable now one of the differences between the uh the rented SE model and this XLE is The XLE came with this with a big sunroof big moon roof now for me the top of my head is kind of touching the frame of of the moon roof and and I'm not crazy about that um so my first impression is if you're looking to to to buy a new Camry which is on the Toyota website right now uh you might want to reconsider getting the big glass roof cuz it might cut in on your Headroom hopefully if you're interested in in buying one of these cars you could go to the the dealer and hopefully they'll have one one with the roof and one without the roof to make sure that you fit inside but for me uh definitely better without the roof and when it comes down to you know actually driving this car really found that the steering had very decent feedback handling seems pretty precise no it's not a sports sedan but it isn't like a total boring Camry of 20 years ago either I think Toyota has worked really hard to improve the the driving dynamics of this generation Camry uh noise levels are pretty well uh kept at Bay some wind noise on the highway that you can hear whistling around the pillars and the outside mirrors but nothing too intrusive the ride also is very comfortable uh considering that uh the suspension is a little bit more tied down than in Camry's of the past so while it's not really super sporty it isn't boring to drive either and it does produce a very comfortable ride in terms of standard safety features the new Camry is definitely taking great strides forward new for 2025 is standard blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning on All trim lines so that's really significant and that goes along with the standard forward Collision warning automatic emergency braking and all of the other standard safety features that we come to know and love in Toyotas so sticking to the Playbook can be risky for any manufacturer when they're faced with redesigning an iconic car like the Toyota Camry but really when you think about our first impressions of this model is it's likely going to be comfortable fuele efficient and really easy to live with and you cannot ignore Toyota's incredible reliability history when it comes to hybrid powertrains this is likely going to be a very reliable car and we really look forward to buying our own test model and putting it through all of our tests here at Consumer Reports 327 acre test facility in Connecticut for more sedans check out consumerreports.orghey I'm Mike Quincy I'm here at Consumer Reports auto test center and this is the 2025 Toyota Camry we rented two different trim lines from Toyota this is The XLE and we also have an SE on site here at the track and the big news is that all models comes standard with a hybrid powertrain but don't panic don't worry about taking a few cost steps toward electrification because not only is this engine really powerful and responsive it gets great fuel economy and you got to love Toyota's awesome reliability history with building Hybrid Power trades so this 4cylinder hybrid powertrain makes between 225 horsepower and 232 horsepower depending on the trim line and whether or not it's front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive now they're all hooked up to an electronically controlled continuously variable transmission and what's also new for 2025 is that all trim lines are going to be available with all wheeel drive so whenever people talk about hybrid technology hybrid engines the first question is how is it going to do for fuel economy and Toyota thinks that the hybrids will produce between 44 and 51 MP gallon again whether or not you have it hooked up to front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive naturally we're going to buy our own Camry test car and we'll do our own fuel economy test to see just how it works out so we're inside The XLE version It's kind of distinguish itself from the from the other trim Lines by kind of an interesting kind of a quilty soft touch fabric here on the mid Dash is all this kind of Rim plastic uh glossy trim uh nice leather wrapped steering wheel what we really like is a traditional gear selector it's very very simple lots of Hard buttons also for the climate system this is super convenient the button is right here you don't have to press the touch screen to bring up a climate menu all this stuff is very very straightforward so one of the biggest differences between the lower trim SE and this higher trim XLE is the higher trims get a much more convoluted and complicated instrument panel that the driver usually goes through to find basic information there's this touchpad here on the left which is unlabeled there's just there's just arrows and a and a big okay button so it's really hard to tell what you're getting but it certainly seems like you have to kind of jump through hoops to get some basic information like a total average fuel economy and certainly if you're driving a hybrid you want to know what kind of gas mileage you're getting so that is way more complicated and one of the reasons that a number of us here at the test track prefer the SE model with its more simplified controls the day-to-day livability of the new Camry is pretty easy pretty straightforward forward there there are lots of open bins to put a phone there's there's a a standard uh wireless phone charger pad here every car usually has a bin in between the front seats and this one has a nice little felt liner inside it's very spacious you could put your wallet in there the door pockets are pretty generous there's built-in bottle holders and you this is a very functional easy to live with car so the new Camry gets Toyota's infotainment system which we've seen and and experience with a number of models here at Consumer Reports the screen is pretty straightforward you got a nice little menu on the left side of the screen easy to to scroll through to get your music choices now some of my colleagues uh talked about their frustration with their Apple phones not always pairing to the Toyota infotainment system this is definitely something we've seen with other Toyota and Lexus models so make sure that before you take delivery of your new Camry that you work this out with your salesperson so we're out driving on the consumer reports test track and the first thing that really strikes you about this this car is an excellent driving position it's easy to see and reach all the controls and the visibility is outstanding the the a they call these a pillars the front roof pillars are very thin the glass area is generous so this this driving position and visibility uh definitely look quite promising so I had the opportunity to drive the rented SE model for about 10 hours uh on on a weekend day and found the seat mostly comfortable it's not a fancy seat there is two-way lumbar which definitely came in handy after a long day drive uh and sort of typical of a lot of Toyota seats uh thigh support is a little short but there's enough uh leaning Edge tilt that you can probably find a very comfortable uh driving position uh we're driving right now in The XLE model which comes with with leather seats and they also have these nice little suede inserts which kind of makes it a little fancy uh I think that most people will find this seat very accommodating and very comfortable now one of the differences between the uh the rented SE model and this XLE is The XLE came with this with a big sunroof big moon roof now for me the top of my head is kind of touching the frame of of the moon roof and and I'm not crazy about that um so my first impression is if you're looking to to to buy a new Camry which is on the Toyota website right now uh you might want to reconsider getting the big glass roof cuz it might cut in on your Headroom hopefully if you're interested in in buying one of these cars you could go to the the dealer and hopefully they'll have one one with the roof and one without the roof to make sure that you fit inside but for me uh definitely better without the roof and when it comes down to you know actually driving this car really found that the steering had very decent feedback handling seems pretty precise no it's not a sports sedan but it isn't like a total boring Camry of 20 years ago either I think Toyota has worked really hard to improve the the driving dynamics of this generation Camry uh noise levels are pretty well uh kept at Bay some wind noise on the highway that you can hear whistling around the pillars and the outside mirrors but nothing too intrusive the ride also is very comfortable uh considering that uh the suspension is a little bit more tied down than in Camry's of the past so while it's not really super sporty it isn't boring to drive either and it does produce a very comfortable ride in terms of standard safety features the new Camry is definitely taking great strides forward new for 2025 is standard blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning on All trim lines so that's really significant and that goes along with the standard forward Collision warning automatic emergency braking and all of the other standard safety features that we come to know and love in Toyotas so sticking to the Playbook can be risky for any manufacturer when they're faced with redesigning an iconic car like the Toyota Camry but really when you think about our first impressions of this model is it's likely going to be comfortable fuele efficient and really easy to live with and you cannot ignore Toyota's incredible reliability history when it comes to hybrid powertrains this is likely going to be a very reliable car and we really look forward to buying our own test model and putting it through all of our tests here at Consumer Reports 327 acre test facility in Connecticut for more sedans check out consumerreports.org\n"