Camry, The Epitome of Reliability

The Camry is a car. There's no simile that I can use to describe it. It's just a car with four wheels, four doors, a boot, a bonnet (or hood if you're American) and an engine to make it move. As far as cars go, the Camry is so generic, three-year old kids will almost always draw a Camry every time they're told to draw a car.

Supposedly, the Camry is a luxury alternative to the Corolla, which is just a scaled-down version of the Camry. The Corolla is just a car, like the Camry. People who buy these things brand new know about cars just enough to identify the models, but not so extensive that they know about double overhead camshaft (DOHC), Variable Valve Timing (VVT) and many other acronyms that I'll not get into because this is a Camry - knowing acronyms won't excite anyone who drives one of these brand-new.

Okay fine, I'll throw in a few more combinations of seemingly-meaningless words and letters into the mix. My 2002 Toyota Camry 2.2 GX - codenamed SXV20 - is powered by a 2.2-litre DOHC Inline-4 5S-FE engine pushing out 130 horsepower and 199 N.m of torque because Toyota couldn't be bothered with adding one more newton-metre, I suspect. The codename SXV20 is a combination of words and letterings which - believe it or not - is a whole different formula for different models with different body styles, different engine and even different fuel type that I don't feel like going to because this is Six Man's Garage, not algebra. You can look it up on Google and the formula is on Wikipedia. Look it up.

If the 5S-FE sound familiar, that's because it's from the Toyota S Engine family. Guess which engine is also from the same family? It's the legendary Yamaha-developed 3S-GE and the turbocharged 3S-GTE that powered the legendary Celica GT-FOUR rally car and many other GT-FOUR cars like the Caldina, because of course you would want a family car with the same drivetrain as a rally car - Airtrek Turbo and Forester STi, anyone?

Anyway, back to the Camry. The Camry is obviously an automatic because anyone who could be bothered to buy a Camry in the first place just wants an A-to-B car that's more "luxurious" and seeing that the Camry won't be bought by those idiotic youngsters whose personality trait is defined by leaving "11" skid-marks wherever possible without getting caught by authorities, you can't buy a Camry in Malaysia with a manual gearbox. Like I said, those who is still driving a manual couldn't be bothered to get a car like the Camry.

What the Camry is, though, is a luxurious way to get from A-to-B. It is very comfortable. Perhaps, too comfortable. I have no issue with the seats and the cabin is just massive - it's the suspension that's soft. Too soft for my liking.

The Camry's soft suspension meant that the car is comfortable when the going gets rough, but it's also sensitive. There are times when there's a slight imperfection on the road and the Camry somehow managed to bottom out and scrape the road, especially when going at slightly-above-average speeds. I can't emphasise how much it hurts every time that happens.

I have asked in a few Camry groups and the answers I received are just a convoluted mess - some say it's the absorbers, some say it's the coil pads, some say "oh it's already like that" and some go as far as suggesting swapping the suspension for a set of adjustable racing suspension which defeats the purpose of having a comfortable luxury barge like the Camry, and that's what frustrates me.

My W124 serves the same role as the Camry - to be a comfortable land boat - and while it offers a slightly-firmer ride, the car never scrapes on any imperfections. I took it over the same part of roads where the Camry often scrapes under the same conditions, and it never did. The W124 is far more planted and the ride and handling balance is bang on compared it to the Camry, allowing it to do some serious cornering that belies its size and weight.

However, I personally think that the W124 is not just a car - it's a lifestyle. You must embrace the ownership experience, because people who owns one of these are mostly enthusiasts who appreciate every detail and engineering aspect of their bank vault on wheels and have enough passion inside of them to actually fork out cash to spend on it every time something goes wrong - which it will as it ages. My brother personally dislike the W124, citing it to be "heavy" and "gas-guzzling" even though his Camry that I snatched from him is hardly more economical, either.

The Camry XV20 here is no new car, either. It will eventually have failures that requires attending to. However, for reasons that's quite hard to explain, Toyota's cars will take much, much longer to break, as though it doesn't understand the concept of wear and tear. It is one of those "get in, start the engine and drive" kind of car that's just guilt-free. You can pull off a massive oversteer in one of these, and no one will bat an eyelid. I assure you.

To sum it up, the Camry reminds me of a girl I met a little while back during my Diploma. She was a dry-texter and doesn't offer much in personality. But, she's the girl you'd want in your groups for she is the most reliable group member you'll ever have. Whether you want to keep in touch with her after your group assignment is over and be friends or vanish into thin air, that's up to you. Same goes to the Camry. Yes, it lacks fun and there's nothing much to write home about, but it's the one car you'll definitely want in your fleet. Get in, start up and drive off.

The Toyota Camry. Truly, the epitome of reliability. If you excuse me, writing this article makes me sleepy. Time for bed.