The photography team at crankandpiston.com has been pretty busy as of late, and aside from the occasional Burger King refuel, the Toyota Camry has been something of a home away from home for them.
Why the Toyota? Firstly, practicality. Thanks to an achingly large boot, transporting the myriad camera lenses, tripods, flash units and spare batteries has been a doddle, and without the need to fold down the back seats or affecting the guys’ ride comfort in the front.
And ‘comfort’ is the word. Rather than hugging the frame, the seats prove cosy, making journeys that much easier to enjoy without getting tired. There’s bags of legroom and, somehow, even more headroom. Combine that with an easy-to-use touchscreen infotainment system and an uncluttered dashboard configuration, and you’ll all set for a long dash from pillar to post.
Granted, with a Camry we’d expect comfort to take the helm over lairiness, even if our model is the comparatively racy SE edition. Feeding in the 181bhp has consequently felt very linear, if perhaps a trifle underwhelming: the landscape will start to whizz past at a greater lick but will not have the occupants clinging to their seats with whitened knuckles.
Saying that, we could hardly call the 2.5-litre four-cylinder lazy. Grunt remains steadfast throughout the rev range, and thanks to a responsive six-speed automatic gearbox, this makes both stop-start traffic and highway cruising almost effortless.
It’s a similar story with the handling. In fairness the Camry is a pretty sizeable animal, meaning body roll and understeer – weight over the front means feel for the road through the 16-inch Yokohamas is a little sketchy – can strike from time to time when we push on a bit. Having said that, the speed at which this tends to happen is usually much higher than you’d anticipate for a big, comfort savvy Japanese saloon.
Safe to say then that, after a month of carting them around, the crankandpiston lensmen have comprehensively thrown their hats into the Camry ring.
