C O V E R     S T O R Y

It seems that Nostradamus is right after all.  Our world may not have ended with the now infamous Y2K debacle or with a Nuclear Holocaust, but continuously watching CNN would have anyone thinking that every day is a disaster.

True enough, I believe that everyone from the balut vendors to the high-ranking CEOs are feeling that the past few months have been the most challenging (and nerve-racking) in a long, long time.  From the country’s ballooning budget deficit to the impending threat of war with Saddam Hussein, these factors have been driving the market forces down and the sales of anti-depressants up.

It’s times like this where spending an hour doing laps around a pool would soothe and calm the soul.  Unfortunately, with the removal of the Unified Vehicular Reduction Program (UVRP), by the time I’ll get to the health club, it would already be in the dead of night.  Fortunately, there’s the next best thing to chase those work blues away: the new Toyota Camry.

The latest mid-sized executive car offering from Toyota is by far the most sorted out Japanese barge that I have ever tried.  That's because it doesn’t pretend to be a fighter against Audi, BMW or Mercedes-Benz, but rather it does one thing so well that the Germans (or even the Swedes) could only hope for: escapism.  Everything about the Camry is isolation from the troublesome world outside.

For starters, the 2.4-liter DOHC 16-valve inline-4 equipped with Toyota’s VVTi system is just as quiet as it is at idle as it is when shut off.  The pristine character of this refined powerplant makes it the smoothest and quietest that I’ve been able to experience in a while.  Though I’d still put a certain V6 engine as the number one on my list, this one comes in a close second place.

Though I somehow miss the lack of any exhaust-induced character, the engine revs smoothly all the way without any hint of boominess that’s been plaguing Toyota inline-4s since time immemorial.  The maximum output of 157-bhp may not seem big, but believe me; it feels a lot more compared than what it seems on paper.  I simply enjoyed the flab-free throttle and the adaptive, quick and smooth-shifting four-speed automatic.

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