C O V E R     S T O R Y

There's a little bland car on the road today
It's the same old thing as yesterday

If Sting were to swap his S-type for a Toyota Camry, that's how he might describe the Toyota flagship sedan.  If so, he would have gotten the idea, but he won't be entirely correct.  For one, the Camry is not a little car any way you measure it.  It clocks in at 4765 mm, 235 mm longer than the Altis.  It's also a juggernaut in terms of US sales, Toyota USA churning out 390,000 units in 2001 and every one of them sold.  In contrast, Toyota Europe has been able to sell barely a handful throughout all the EU countries.  So are the Europeans more discriminating, or do the Americans simply know something they don't?  To find out, we took the latest Camry, the GXE, out for a spin, just a few weeks before the all-new model is set to be released.   

This Camry doesn't look quite like the car that was first released in 1997.  It has clear dual-headlamp lenses now and a larger, 3D effect taillight cluster.  The changes help make the car look better-proportioned—not too flattened like the original—but it'll still disappear in a parking lot, and it won't turn any heads even if Jar Jar Binks is driving it. 

The Camry is a long and wide car, immediately apparent from one glance.  It makes no effort to disguise its bulk, with a beady nose, long angular profile and chubby trunk lid.  Pop open the hood and you'll see one reason for the length: a lot of empty space.  Evidently, this engine bay has been designed to accommodate a V6 engine.  The only engine available in the Philippines, the 2.2 liter inline-4, looks like it might have wandered in by mistake.  It even does a Leaning Tower impression, as it's tilted backward to efficiently use already overabundant engine room space. 

The trunk is similarly cavernous, with a wide, long and deep load space capable of swallowing three airport luggage pieces with room to spare.  You can probably stuff Jabba the Hutt in here.  However, he'll probably conk his head, as the 6-disc changer is mounted in the trunk.

So with large compartments at either end, does that leave the middle box anything short of space?  Thankfully not—Toyota has allocated an expansive great amount of room for five people.  Let's begin with the driver's seat then. Depending on your inclinations, this could be the most or least important in the whole car.  James or Mang Pepe will have no reason to complain but if you plan to drive it yourself, you will surely be asking for something more than this.  Sure, it's soft and leather-covered but the seat itself is rather flat all over—no palpable bolstering at the butt or torso areas. The height adjustment raises the front of the seat only, which makes finding the ideal position more difficult. Also, all adjustments are manual only. Nothing wrong with that-we prefer manual adjustments. But if you're shelling out PHP1.4 million for a car, it had better make you feel more pampered.  For a two or three hour stint behind the wheel, the seat will cause no severe complaints.  But at four hours or more, you will start daydreaming of a massage as you begin squirming to relieve the growing ache in your gluteus.

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