Toyota
Toyota continues to improve the Camry models, which makes them consistent winners in the market.

Toyota Camry wins applause for new enhancements in 2002

Alan Vonderhaar, The Cincinnati Enquirer

Originally published Saturday, April 13, 2002

I only like to bet on a sure thing. Accordingly, I'll wager that the Toyota Camry will be the best-selling car in America for model year 2002, despite being edged by Honda Accord this year.

I reviewed the all-new 2002 Camry a few weeks back, sampling what Toyota expects to be the biggest seller, a base-level LE with four-cylinder engine and automatic transmission.

I promised to return in short order with an assessment of the other end of the spectrum, a decked-out XLE series with automatic and six-cylinder engine, and here it is. For now, I'm skipping over the SE, which is said to be the sportiest member of the family.

The redesigned fifth-generation Camry is wider, taller and longer than its predecessor, with greater interior volume. I found even the relatively austere LE a very satisfying ride, with a standard equipment load that includes everything a family-car buyer might need.

The question then is, what does the extra $5,605 get you in an XLE, comparing base prices of the two series? The body shell is virtually indistinguishable, with a clean, understated look with just a nod here and there to the winds of fashion, as in the D-shaped tail lamps. A chrome side molding on XLEs is a restrained tipoff to Camry cognoscenti. (The SE has a rear spoiler.)

The underpinnings are essentially the same, bearing a strong resemblance to the Highlander truck's and the Lexus ES 300's. The XLE, even with a four-cylinder engine, sits on 16-inch wheels. If you go for the six-holer, they upgrade the wheels to aluminum alloy from steel.

As noted in the earlier review, even the LE comes with air conditioning, power locks, power windows, power outside mirrors, cruise control, console, rear defogger, map lights, exterior-temperature gauge and vanity mirrors.

Move to XLE, and you get power driver and passenger seats, heated power outside mirrors, wood-like interior trim bits, climate control, trip computer with steering-wheel-mounted controls, chromed inside door handles, HomeLink garage door opener, auto-dimming rearview mirror, remote keyless entry, a rear sunshade and a cargo net.

Even with the simulated wood and a well-executed leather package, the tested XLE seemed not so much a different class of car as a gilding of a familiar friend.

How much difference does the six-cylinder engine make? Perhaps not as much as one might think. The four, after all, has been put on steroids, and now produces 157 horses (at 5,600 rpm) and 162 foot-pounds (at 4,000).

Of course the V-6 machine is peppier, even though in XLE trim the car weighs 220 pounds more. The 3.0's output is 192 hp (at 5,300) and 209 foot-pounds (at 4,400). So equipped, the XLE automatic does the all-American sprint in about a second less than the 2.4-liter car does.

The XLE I tested came with the optional navigation system. DVD-based, it affords street-level coverage of the entire lower 48, and its processor has been souped up to provide nearly instantaneous route calculation.

Working in conjunction with the on-board Global Positioning System receiver, it pinpoints your location and will send you to a new one with vocal advice, if desired. It's quite an impressive piece of gear.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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