Camry hybrid?
 

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A friend at work drives a 2012 Camry Hybrid and isn't too pleased with the fuel economy she gets.
I used to get better figures than she did with my Mazda.:D
I stopped telling her after a while because she was getting upset.

She complained about the relatively poor fuel economy to the dealer and was told that the 2012 models weren't nearly as good as the 2013 in that regard. Not much help.

I showed her the (non-hybrid) Camry speed verses consumption chart that was posted here as a gentle hint that she may have been as much at fault as the car was.

I don't have any personal experience, but my wife used to work at a Toyota dealer and said they always got complaints about the camry hybrid. I have a teacher that claims mid to high 30s with his and he isn't the gentlest of drivers. However, there was someone selling a 2007 over on cleanmpg that said he averaged mid 40s. So I guess it's all in the way you drive. I think high 30s out of a car that size is still darn good.

I think the Camry gets about what it should get: mid-30's mpg. The problem seems to be that people think the word hybrid equals 40+ mpg. It was the first successful "normal" car to get a hybrid drivetrain, as opposed to a purpose-built one. I guess the Ford/Mercury/Mazda SUVs preceded it, but the letters SUV lower expectations. Toyota has rested on its laurels a bit too much with the Camry. I like the Ford/Lincoln/Mercury mid sizes are a better option from a cost AND fuel economy standpoint. My opinion is a bit off, though, as I have an attachment to the first gen Accord.

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you probably have seen them. they look like regular Camry except for the little "hybrid synergy drive" badge on the back.

I notice tons of them. But then again i live in a major city, so i see a lot of "exotic" cars.

I think Hybrid Synergy Drive is a fantastic system, but Toyota forgot to up the battery capacity along with the weight of the car they put it in. If they bumped the battery by almost 60% when they bumped the car weight by 60%, there would be no complaints. I think this is why the FoMoCo SUVs can get ~30mpg while the Highlander gets low 20s. Ford used a 330V battery while Toyota used a lower voltage and a boost converter. Cobb, you know better than most what a difference extra capacity makes. For all of the advantages of Toyota's system, they can be eliminated with a bigger battery. It's that simple.

Altough I'm not a Ford enthusiast, if I would ever be on the market for a midsize hybrid, I'd go with a Ford Fusion over a Camry.

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I caught up with my Camry driving friend today.
The car's lifetime fuel economy is down to 6.1 l/100km (about 38.6 MPG), not too bad for mostly (non-hypermiling) urban commuting.
Her 2012 model (with the old 2.4 litre engine) has a combined rating of 6.0 l/100km.


The 2013 Camry with the current model 2.5 litre engine has a much better combined rating of 5.2 l/100km (about 45 MPG).

To put that in perspective, the 2013 non-hybrid Camry with the 2.5 litre engine is rated at 7.8 l/100km combined (about 30 MPG). :rolleyes:


Note: These are the Australian (usually optimistic) figures, but they're OK for comparing models.

2013 Prius vs 2013 Camry Hybrid - Battery Size and Curb Weight
 

Actually, Toyota did not forget to bump the battery size on the 2013 Camry Hybrid, which has a 1.6 Kwh battery, compared to the Prius's 1.3 Kwh battery. This represents a 23% increase in battery size. The 2013 Camry Hybrid weighs about 3,500 lbs, compared to the 2013 Prius's weight of 3,040 lbs. The difference in weight (15%) is actually less than the 23% increase in battery size. So, in fact, Toyota overcompensated in the increase in battery capacity. The reason why the camry hybrid's combined mpg is about 20% less than the prius's is because it weighs 15% more and thus requires more energy (more fuel) to propel. The extra 5% can be explained by the Prius's slightly better drag coefficient.

Many people read these posts, and many will take what we write as fact, so please don't use statistics that you haven't thoroughly researched as fact.
:cool:

I think he was talking about the 2012, not the 2013 camry.

Gas Mileage of 2015 Vehicles by Honda

Look at the 2015 Accord Hybrid mileage. Looks like Honda got their act together on that one.

No more Insight?

regards
mech

They dropped the Insight because of poor sales. But there are plenty of new 2013/2014s available.

Whoa, did you see the v6 manual vs automatic MPG? It says the auto gets a whopping 6 MPG better highway MPG over the manual. Honda must have totally ruined the gear ratios of the manual. I'll bet 6th gear is worthless as a gear to accelerate with, as well as worthless as a gear to cruise at steady highway speed.

Very impressive with the hybrid though. 50 MPG from a midsize sedan is excellent.

All those numbers make me sad about my 31 MPG from the TSX.