The Most Camry Camry Of Them All

Toyota makes the best hybrid powertrains in the industry, in our opinion, and has now made the forward-thinking move of putting the fifth generation of its hybrid system in the new ninth-gen Camry as the sedan’s sole powertrain. Why is it a brilliant move? Because if you’re a smart, sensible person in 2024 looking for a new car, you’re buying a hybrid – and a Camry is, historically, the most sensible sedan on the market, selling in numbers for the last few years.

The reworking of the 2025 Camry also includes the interior and chassis, with Toyota promising a more comfortable and fun to drive sedan that continues to be known for its dependability. While visiting Toyota for a media event, we slipped away with the new Toyota for an hour into the hills and winding roads of the most southern area of San Diego to see if it makes an impression.

Style: Not Your Uncle’s Camry

The Camry stopped being boring to look at in its last generation, and for 2025, it has become a little sleeker and more chiseled in some key areas. The usual slew of trim levels are available, with LE as the base model, then the SE and XLE leading up to the top XSE trim. The Camry lineup starts on 16-inch alloy wheels and ends on 18-inch black machine-finished alloy wheels.

As you move into what Toyota describes as the “comfort trims,” you start finding things like chrome finished window trim and, on the SE and XSE, sportier looking mesh front grilles and black trim finishes, and even a rear diffuser along with the requisite spoiler. Head up to the XSE trim, and you can go for a two-tone look with a black-metallic painted roof.

2025 Toyota Camry

Base MSRP

$28,400

Engine

2.5L Inline-4 Hybrid

Drivetrain

FWD | AWD

Transmission

eCVT

Horsepower

225 hp (FWD) | 232 hp (AWD)

Fuel Economy

53/50/51 mpg (best: LE FWD)

Curb Weight

3,450 – 3,682 lbs

Legrooom Front|Rear

42.1 in. | 38 in.

Headroom Front|Rear

38.3 in. | 37.6 in.

Cargo Space

15.1 ft³

Interior: Properly Plush

We drove out to check out the new Land Cruiser from our hotel in a Camry XSE, and the roomy cabin ensured three journalists were kept comfortable. The leather-trimmed interior, with what Toyota describes as “shooting blade” patterned perforations on both the side door trim and seating surfaces, is pretty, but seat comfort is outstanding. Toyota has clearly put a lot of work into improving the seats, and they’re more supportive while also being softer, and the headrests are more forward than the last generation.

The interior feels like the Camry we’re used to, just better; ‘familiarity improved’ seems like an apt description. The space is more than ample for four adults, the visibility is great, it’s ergonomically pleasing, and it’s so much more comfortable and quiet than before — at least in the XLE and XSE trims, as they feature front-side acoustic laminated glass.

Infotainment: A Step Ahead

A standard eight-inch touchscreen houses the Toyota Audio Multimedia system and comes standard with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, giving the new Camry one up on what could be a deal-breaker for those cross-shopping with the Camry’s main rival, the Honda Accord. The Accord only gets wireless smartphone integration at the top-end of the range. Wireless device charging is also standard in the new Camry, along five US ports through the car – a mix of USB-C and USB-A.

The XLE and XSE trims get a 12.3-inch multimedia screen and a well-thought-out 10-inch Head-Up Display. The infotainment system is comprehensive and intuitive to use, and it can be upgraded with a subscription to Wi-Fi Connect to fuel up to five devices with data.

Powertrain: Up To 232 Horsepower And 51 mpg

The Camry’s hybrid powertrain comprises a 2.5-liter, 4-cylinder engine, an electric motor for the rear wheels, and with a CVT distributing the engine’s power to the wheels. Front-wheel drive is standard, but AWD is available on all trims. Combined, the new Camry has 225 hp or 232 hp to play with, depending on the drivetrain with the AWD configuration getting the higher figure.

It gets off the line smartly, and there’s enough power there for comfortably joining a rapidly moving freeway. It’s a solid, business-like drivetrain backed up with excellent fuel economy – the base model with FWD boasts 51 mpg combined. At its worst, in the heaviest trim with AWD, fuel economy is still a mightily impressive 44 mpg.

The last Camry that claimed to be sporty was the eighth-gen TRD that came with a V6 and bespoke suspension and chassis settings. Here you get a hybrid under the hood, and a driving experience that feels unlike any Camry we’ve driven yet.

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On The Road: Smooth Like Butter

The Camry used to be easy to drive, and here there’s also just improvement. The new hybrid regeneration system is one of the smoothest we’ve come across, meaning the brakes don’t feel like they’re moving between mechanical brakes and using the electric motors to slow down. They feel natural to the point that if you’ve never used regenerative braking before, you won’t notice it working to replenish the battery.

The ride quality is nicely balanced for eating up bumps and jostles, and avoiding chassis lean in corners, and when we started to force the issue, we found Toyota’s claim that the new Camry has a more sporty attitude rung true in the XSE. It was fun to carve through San Diego’s back roads, with the AWD version being a little more eager to change direction.

Not many people will be pushing the Camry to its limits, even in the sportier trims, but there is a new sense of fun to driving the Camry. We didn’t need – or get – a lot of time to reach that conclusion. During the few hours we did have with it, we could find nothing to fault. In town, it’s easy to maneuver accurately, and on the freeway, it was smooth sailing all the way.

Conclusion: The Best Camry Yet

The Toyota Prius is still the mpg king of Toyota’s lineup, but the Camry is larger, more practical, more comfortable, and nicer to drive. Mixed with the Camry’s good manners, it’s easy to claim the new Camry is the best yet – at least in XSE form. Where this writer feels Honda has dropped the ball with the Accord’s sporty flavor, Toyota appears to have picked that up and, rather than continuing to ease into going all hybrid, has committed to it and now gives buyers more choice in terms of hybrid trims.

Whether the comfort trims are as committed to comfort as the sporty trim is to feeling sporty remains to be seen. We look forward to spending some time with a comfort-focused trim in the near future.