The 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid greenin’ it up at the NADAguides.com parking lot.
With no children to lug around, it goes without saying that a 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid is not on my must own list at the moment. Regardless of what I am going to drive for a week, I typically get excited to be in a new car, but the Camry wasn’t a thrilling prospect. I figured I would be bored for a week and then move on, but I was totally wrong.
I still play video games. I may play less of them than I used to, but I still play them. The 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid could be renamed Grand Theft: Fuel Economy because I found myself driving in a way to which my wife is unaccustomed - efficiently!
A screenshot of me going for a new high score on Grand Theft: Fuel Economy.
The speedometer of the Camry Hybrid displays a graph that Toyota calls the Eco Drive Level. As you drive more efficiently, the meter fills up. The blue glow behind the speedometer also becomes increasingly brighter as the MPGs stack up - and stack up they do. Thanks to a combination of Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive and an electronic continuously variable transmission (CVT), I was consistently able to cruise around near the 40 mpg mark.
Whenever I started the Camry Hybrid, the Eco Drive Level would reset and the game would begin again. I didn’t just want the gauge cluster to turn blue; I began to need it to turn blue. I became addicted to driving efficiently with a constant desire to get the Eco Drive graph pinned, rather than the doing so to the gas pedal.
A clean room by day.
An addicting blue glow at night.
The interior of the Camry Hybrid is comfortable for five full-size adults. The driver’s seat is power adjustable with lumbar support and the steering wheel is of the tilt and telescopic variety, which is a huge plus in any car. The center stack is very simply laid out but has a plastic quasi-future vibe, which looks fairly sterile during the day and adopts a nice blue glow at night. This style works really well on the inside and is a surprising contrast to the fairly mundane exterior styling.
The Sky Blue Pearl paintjob looks better than the grey sky in the background.
The outside of the car is not very exciting and just because it is a mid-size family sedan doesn’t mean it has to be bland stylistically. The lines are much nicer than Camry’s of old however and the more I look at pictures of this car, the more it grows on me.
Could I live with the 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid as a daily driver? Yes, but I would need a weekend toy to keep my enthusiast heart pumping. At a cost of $26,568 as equipped (base MSRP $25,350), this is a comfortable, fuel-efficient, and safe choice to haul the family. The Camry Hybrid is an appliance of a vehicle. It is simply a tool to get from point A to point B. There are cars on the market that deliver the same fuel-efficiency without sacrificing the joy that can be had behind the wheel of a good car.
The Toyota Camry Hybrid is not a bad car, not even close to a bad car in fact. It has a very understated design that many actually prefer. It gets well over 30 mpg. It has plenty of passenger space and is under $30,000. It actually made me drive more responsibly from a fuel-economy standpoint. Many people will buy this car and be happy. I was pleasantly surprised at my own experiences with the car, yet I still can think of cars in the mid-size sedan category that I would pick well before I would choose the Camry. I don’t think it is a knock on the car, but more of where I am in life right now. Maybe the Camry Hybrid and I will meet again in 30 years…
For more information on all
2009 Toyota vehicles, visit
NADAguides.com the vehicle pricing and information leader since 1933.
For more information on other Hybrid and Green vehicles, visit our
Green Zone.