2016 Toyota Camry Review: Curbed With Craig Cole

In 2015, nearly 430,000 people drove home in a shiny new Toyota Camry, enough to make it America’s favorite car for the 14th year. But why is this middle-of-the-road sedan so popular?

Pundits are keen to call it a snooze, equating this family hauler to little more than a washing machine or microwave oven on wheels. According to them, it’s too sedate and totally unappealing to anyone with a pulse, and yet it still wallops all other midsize four-door cars in sales year after year. Clearly, the Camry has advantages that attract vast swaths of buyers and upsides that aren’t immediately obvious to armchair quarterbacks.

Further visual enhancements include a gussied-up font fascia with mesh inserts along with piano-black and dark-chrome accents. Inside, you get leather and suede-trimmed sport seats, dual-zone climate control and wireless charging for supported electronic devices. Red contrast stitching adds some pizzazz.

Our test Camry also featured blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert plus Toyota’s Entune infotainment system with navigation and a premium JBL sound system. This definitely wasn’t a stripped-down rental car.

You also get 10 standard airbags and a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, handy if you ever mistake a crowded farmer’s market for a highway onramp.

Our test Camry was equipped with a metric ton of equipment, but against the odds, it didn’t break the bank — it wasn’t even close. As tested, it cost less than $32,000, which makes it a terrific value, especially true for such a well-respected, blue-chip nameplate.

Options that inflated this XSE’s base price included the $750 Advanced Technology Package, which gets you lane departure warning, automatic high beams and more; $915 for a power sunroof; $1,330 for the Entune infotainment bundle; and $845 for the convenience package, which is good for a smart key, push-button start and a handful of other items.

If you’re looking for an even better value, an entry-level Camry LE can be yours for as little as 24 grand. But no matter which flavor you choose, you’re getting a lot of car.

ALSO SEE: 2016 Honda Accord Review

The Camry’s interior is stretch-out spacious with a commodious back seat that’s ample enough for members of the six-foot-plus club. Even its trunk is huge, with more than 15 cubic feet of volume. Making this space easy to access is a massive opening and low lift-over height, but it’s a shame the folding backrests don’t go anywhere near flat and the pass-through opening is small, but you can’t win ‘em all.

Appealing to a broader swath of customers, two powerplants are offered in this car. There’s a base 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and an up-level V6 that puts out a robust 268 ponies.

But our test model was equipped with the entry-level unit and it proved to be totally adequate for family car duty thanks to its 178 horsepower and 170 lb-ft of peak torque. But those numbers don’t tell the whole story because this engine is impressively smooth for a big four-banger. It runs to redline almost without vibration and is even hushed when working hard.

In typical Toyota fashion, this 2.5-liter unit is also economical, stretching a gallon of gasoline 25 miles in city driving and 35 on interstate drives. All told, it should average 28 mpg combined, which can be compared to compact-car efficiency from just a few years ago. Thanks to its abundant performance, refinement and efficiency, it’s easy to see why nearly 90 percent of Camry buyers go with this engine.

Helping deliver those admirable figures is a perceptive six-speed automatic transmission. This is the only gearbox offered in non-hybrid Camrys; electrified versions feature a CVT.

With essentially no choice, this transmission better be good, but isn’t … because it’s great! Smooth, responsive and basically unflappable, it deserves an A+ grade and honor roll status.

As you’d expect, this Camry’s acceleration won’t knock the wind out of you, but it’s perfectly fine for everyday driving – you’re not craving more power, at least on flat Midwestern roads. Also, the car’s electrically boosted steering is unexpectedly hefty, providing a planted feel.

It’s a similar story with the brakes and chassis. The former have a firm, confidence-inspiring feel while the latter keeps the body even with the horizon. This resistance to roll is impressive for any family sedan, let alone a Toyota.