Toyota Camry i-Tech Hybrid 2012 new car review

The top-of-the-line Toyota Camry i-Tech is a hybrid with no performance compromise. There’s not a whole lot of price difference between the Camry i-Tech and the Prius i-Tech (only a couple of grand), but while the Prius i-Tech is packed with more features (adaptive cruise control, heated seats, head-up display and a few other comfort items), the Camry focuses more on the driving experience.

Fuel economy is quoted as 5.2l/100km on the combined cycle. To achieve this you have to travel between 90-95kph on the open road and accelerate gently. In the real world, you’ll more likely be in the low sixes. That’s still good for a large car (the Toyota Aurion Sportivo I swapped the Camry for is sitting at 7.9l/100km for a similar journey as I write this). 

Of course, being a hybrid helps, and you can use the EV (full electric mode) to travel up to 2km at up to 45kph. The Camry will stop at the lights and if you accelerate gently will gain momentum using just the electric motor until the petrol motor is required.

Inside there’s a large 7-inch touch screen for the satellite navigation, radio and other media features. The sat nav is generally easy to use but seemed to be a bit behind, missing some roads that had been built at least a year ago – check for an upgrade if you’re purchasing one. The radio operation was annoying and fiddly.

Present stations seem to jump about in their position and it was unintuitive to retune the stations. The overall sound quality was good, especially because the level of road and engine noise is quite low. iPod integration was easy to use and you can stream audio over Bluetooth.

The large screen made Bluetooth phone integration convenient, as did the voice recognition (though it didn’t understand my ‘hybrid’ accent every time). Buttons on the steering wheel enable you to pick up and hang up. Additional buttons control the menus and stereo functions. Information such as the trip computer and graphics to display battery/engine usage are shown on a small LCD in the instrument cluster.

Thankfully these seem to have been fixed. A dash across the Kaimai Ranges confirmed that you can maintain speed and poise easily, with a dollop of torque to get you past slower cars. The seats don’t appear to be much different, but the only complaint from my passengers were that they felt cold – leather always does when it’s 11 degrees outside, though. An additional passenger comfort feature was the electric blind in the rearview mirror which automatically retracts when you put the car into reverse.