2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid

2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid - The Camry has been America’s bestselling car eight of the past nine years, and this all-new 2007 version comes with three powertrain choices: four-cylinder conventional, V-6 conventional, or hybrid. Call ’em vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. You can’t get more mainstream than strawberry on the Camry starting roster.

The Camry’s hybrid operation continues the pattern set by the Prius sedan and Highlander and RX400h sport-utes, albeit with new hardware. The engine is a 2.4-liter Atkinson-cycle four of 147 horsepower, coupled to a continuously variable transmission and supplemented by up to 45 horses from an electric motor.

Still, if performance were all that mattered, you’d opt for the 268-hp V-6, which will be quicker still, and save (we estimate) about $3000 on the sticker. You pay extra for the hybrid’s promise of performance and fuel savings, as seen by the EPA’s ratings of 43 mpg city and 37 highway. We find it easy to get 33 or 34 in mixed metro driving. Then again, it’s easy to drop down toward 25 mpg if we romp on the power often. As with conventional cars, how you drive determines mileage. Overall, we averaged 33 mpg.

Hybrid or not, there’s a lot to like about this new Camry, starting with its intriguing shape. It crouches with its nose low, ready to pounce as you approach from the front. The side glass arcs inward as it rises, suggesting a canopy. Inside, the feeling is spacious, with the windshield and dashboard pushed forward and out of your face. The driving position is excellent. Even with the optional navigation system, remarkably few buttons are needed to operate this complex machine.

Brake feel, always a hybrid bugaboo, is good here, if not quite up to nonhybrid-Camry standards. Although Toyota has not yet released Camry hybrid prices, we expect you’ll have to drive some six-digit distance to save enough gas to pay back the extra cost. You’ll enjoy the trip.