Green With Less Beige In It: The 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid SE

The 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid SE.

There are very few things that haven't happened to me in 20 years of professionally reviewing cars (there was 11 years of doing just that on local radio and television in Arizona before we launched TireKicker globally in the fall of 2008 and expanded five years later with a move of TireKicker World Headquarters to Folsom, California while maintaining a bureau in Phoenix). 

$75,000 Jaguar bent...not bashed, but the frame bent....by an 80-something lady in a (then) 18-year-old, four-cylinder Mustang with handicapped plates backing out of a space at the supermarket and cutting the wheel too soon, then pressing harder and harder on her accelerator when her car stopped backing up (because it was pressed up against the rear quarter-panel of the Jag)?  Check. 

Flat tire in a pre-production Chevy Tahoe during a press event with no spare on board and the two-way radio out of range somewhere in the Superstition Mountains?  Check. 

Brand new Mercedes-Benz (the unloved C230 coupe) that decided, while parked in a mall parking lot, to put reverse where third gear should be and every other gear in someplace other than where the good Lord intended?  Been there, done that, got the sheepish apology from M-B who thought I must have abused their ride until they found out that someone at the factory forgot to tighten a bolt.

But never...never...has anyone stopped to compliment me on a Toyota Camry.  And with the new 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid SE it happened three times.

A Tale Of Three Camrys: The 2015 Toyota Camry XLE, XSE and Hybrid SE

The 2015 Toyota Camry XLE.

2015 is a year of significant change for the Toyota Camry.  Long derided, somewhat unfairly, as a transportation appliance devoid of personality, the 2015 Camry has had a significant refresh.  Only the roof is carried over directly from last year, the styling is more aggressive and the interior has had a thorough makeover, as well.

Beyond that, Toyota is marketing the Camry with models that have their own distinct personalities. We've driven three of them, very nearly back-to back, recently.