Camry – Car of the Day

Toyota’s Lame Names

garythepowers — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:57:28 +0000

Well it should be no surprise that lame cars come with lame names. I’ve documented on this site before the lame-ness of the Camry and even pointed you to the great Anti-Camry Blog.

Autoblog has taken a little bit of time to produce the Top Ten Gibberish Car Names and I’m happy to report that the Camry has made the list.

The list would be perfect if the included the Solara.

The Anti-Camry Factor

garythepowers — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:14:22 +0000

About 18 months automotive writer Kevin Miller started an Anti-Camry Blog. Yes, it is an actual blog about his frustrations of sharing the road with Camrys. I have a found a kindred spirit.

Here is an excerpt from his inaugural post.

“I’ve been infuriated by drivers of dumpy, dented tan Toyotas one too many times. This blog is going to be the outlet for my frustrations.

Yes, I exist in a higher level of automotive being. Your Totyotas are transportation appliances to you, just another refrigerator or washing machine, enabling you to go about your drearly daily tasks with as little joy as possible. You don’t care if they are dirty, dented, smoking, or even if you do a poor job driving them. But I care that you’re getting in my way, and clogging up the roads I need to drive on.”

It is scary how much I agree with him and I’ve even posted on this site a few times my disdain for the “transportation appliances”. Start paying attention to what the bad drivers are driving out there. Next time you see someone do something stupid on the road look at the make and model of that car. More often than not, it is a Camry or one of its derivatives.

Anyway, if this is a frustration you share, spend a little time at the Anti-Camry Blog. It is entertaining. Unfortunately for the members of the Anti-Camry faction this site’s last update was a few months ago. It appears that Kevin is now a regular contributor at Autosavant.com.

It’s nice to know that I’m not along in the blogosphere with my Camry hating. Maybe, I won’t need therapy after all and I can use that money to make my GTO faster!

The Mod Squad

garythepowers — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:33:44 +0000

No, not that Mod Squad. I’m talking about the people that “mod” their cars.

There is an entire industry out there where a lot of people are making some serious coin around aftermarket modifications of their vehicles. There are a lot of reasons people will modify their vehicles, but they can really be organized into 2 simple categories; “Go” or” Show”.

If you want your car to look unique, personalized or cooler you throw some “Show” mods onto the car. This can range from wheels to window tinting, glowing lights under the car to bumper stickers declaring your affiliations.

If you want to make your car perform better you start bolting on the “Go” mods. Perhaps cold air intake, an exhaust, a cam, headers, or even a supercharger might fit the bill. (if you don’t mind paying that bill)

The cool thing about mods is that they are as varied as the customers who purchase them. It gives an automotive enthusiast a way to customize or personalize their car into their own creation.

I’ve done a fair amount of modding to my vehicles and I started thinking about why I’m driven to make these modifications to my vehicle. I don’t really car about having a custom creation. I don’t care about “personalizing” my vehicle. I could do that with a pinstripe with my initials in it.

What it is boils down to is that I simply love my vehicles. And at times I may want to improve on a vehicle’s deficiency. Let’s say a car has crappy traction, that is fixed with a suspension mod or some really sticky tires. And other times I may want to improve on a vehicle’s strength. Especially, if that strength is one of the reasons that I like my car.

For example, a 6.0 liter V8 LS2 is a very nice engine. And the aftermarket has a number of parts to improve the power output of that engine. I’m not talking about risky modifications. I’m not talking about one-off custom changes to a motor. I’m talking about tried and true, installed on thousands of motors all over the world, proven improvements.

There a folks out there driving cars that have strong aftermarket support for them. Not strong support because their car is a the bestselling car in the land, but because is a platform that has significant racing support behind and room for improvement.

The GM LSX engines have a vastly superior aftermarket for their powerplants when compared to say the bestselling sedan in the country the Toyota Camry.

People aren’t buying Camrys to mod them and make them better. They are buying them to go from point A to point B. The entire automotive enthusiast world is lost on them. Camry drivers are really looking for a good selection of beige and other dirt-ish colors so they don’t have to wash their car. I’ve actually heard Camry owners beam about their slop-brown colored car by saying “oh yeah, and you can’t even tell when its dirty.” To which I think, “Great, a car that looks dirty all the time.” I’m going to stop my Camry rant now. (If you want to read more Camry ranting go here.)

Anyway, I love the way my car goes. I now want to make it go faster. I like the way it looks. I now want to make it look better. These are the base thoughts at the heart of the aftermarket customers.

(excuse me, I’ve got to go study what my next mod should be)

Camrys Have a Problem

garythepowers — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:00:49 +0000

I have a small problem. I don’t care for the Toyota Camry. And when I say “I don’t care” I really mean “I wish I had a Spy Hunter style missile launcher to destroy them.”

If there was a Camry Haters Anonymous I would attend the meetings and introduce myself with “Hi, my name is Gary, I’m a Camry Hater.”

Why do I hate the bestselling car in America? It is kind of a long story. I recognize that a Toyota Camry is a well made car. If you own a Camry, I mean no personal offense, but the Camry has no soul.

A Camry wasn’t made for people who like cars. A Camry has no idea of what is fun about driving. A Camry represents what would happen if Consumer Reports ruled the world.

If you have no passion about driving or cars, if you only care about getting from point A to point B, if you think of your car and your dishwasher in the same thought, then the Camry is right for you.

A Dishwasher and a car in the same thought? There isn’t a “The Truth about Dishwashers” website for a reason. A dishwasher is a dishwasher. It is a simple appliance that makes your life easier. People aren’t enthusiastic about their dishwashers. Even the yahoos at MTV don’t have a “Pimp My Dishwasher” show to further help the youth of America’s brain to leak out of their collective ear.

Paul Walker and Vin Diesel won’t be starring in a film entitled the “The Clean and the Cleanliness”, that highlights the underground world of dishwasher racing. We won’t hear cheesy lines like “I clean my dishes in a high speed, no spot cycle, in those ten minutes or less I’m free.” or “Ask any dishwasher, any real dishwasher, it doesn’t matter whether you clean your dishes with a drop or a gallon, clean is clean!”

That is because a dishwasher is a freaking appliance! There is nothing to be passionate about, it is just an appliance.

And that is my problem with the Camry, it is an appliance. It has no sporting soul. It’s not that “fun-to-drive” is low on the Camry’s priority list; it is that “fun-to-drive” isn’t even on the list, or on the list next to the list of good things about a Camry.

This hatred for the Camry is contagious to other cars that are related to the Camry.

Whenever I see a Lexus ES, I don’t see Lexus’ excellent entry level luxury sedan. I don’t see a car that is an amazing combination of value, quality and luxury. I see a tarted up Camry! I see Toyota tricking people in buying “Fancy Camrys”. I’m ticked at Toyota for tricking these people into buying a dressed up Camry.

When I see a Toyota Avalon I simply see a bloated over-sized Camry. The Corolla is simply a mini-Camry wannabe. A Highlander? I don’t see Christopher Lambert on his quest to be “The One.” I see a Camry SUV.

And the worst offender, the worst pretender, the most confusing vehicle of all is the Toyota Solara. I seriously can’t believe that people buy this car. I would rather eat glass than own a Solara.

I just want to grab the Solara owners and ask them “what were you thinking?” Were they even thinking? The Toyota Solara is an automotive oxymoron. It is the sporty Camry. I can’t imagine someone being a the car lot looking at a Camry thinking “this is a fine car and can probably do a fine job of cleaning my dishes, I wonder if there is a bloated coupe version of this car with a lame name?”

Do they even know that they just bought a Camry coupe? Or are they unsuspecting victims thinking they bought the cool Toyota coupe?

Because the Camry appeals to the people who don’t care about the joy of driving it attracts a disproportionate amount of bad drivers. The next time you on the road and there is an obliviot (oblivious idiots) doing a famous job of horrible driving, more often than not it will be a Camry or Camry-base vehicle. I’m talking about cars doing a 14-point turn on a 2 lane road, cars backing up the entrance ramp, cars sitting through green lights and driving 15 miles under the posted speed limit.

So that is my cross to bear. I hate the bestselling car in the country and am forced to see them everywhere. And if you hear of some horrible Camry hate crimes I promise it wasn’t me.

PS – There is one exception to my blanket Camry hate and that is the new V6 SE it has a bit of soul and some respectable performance numbers.