Rental Car Reviews Episode 1 - 2021 Toyota Camry

I travel on a fairly regular basis for work, and when I do travel I often need to obtain a rental car. In recent years I have been traveling enough that I have attained Executive status with National Rental Car. It is a high honor to even be considered for membership in such a prestigious program, so to actually be accepted into it was something I never thought possible. No longer would I be just another nobody in the faceless mob of emerald aisle members for whom membership requires only visiting the National website, filling in some personal information, and then hitting submit. I always knew someday I would be an executive and thanks to National Rental car that dream has finally come true.

I have always very much enjoyed the rental car experience mostly because driving rental cars is the only opportunity I ever have to get behind the wheel of anything other than a POS or mom car. Its been true my entire life up to and including the present day where I drive a literal mom car, a 2015 Honda Fit gifted to me by my mom in 2019 for Christmas. My parents are not wealthy, and such a gift was way beyond the typical so I am truly grateful for it. That said, I am basically stuck with it because I don't want to disappoint her by getting rid of the car she gave me. In case you were wondering what I got her for Christmas that year, it was a ball of yarn. I kid you not. Ouch. Was that ever awkward. My wife drives a 2017 Toyota Camry and we also own a 2001 Nissan Xterra currently sitting at close to 300K miles and on its second engine and third transmission. The 2017 Camry is the closest thing to a "nice" car I have ever (c0)owned and everything about it from concept to execution baffles me. To give just two examples. First, the car has two (usable) cupholders in the front, and ten in the back. That's right, the perfect car for the family with some seriously, seriously thirsty kids, and parents who live at the edge of dehydration at all times. Second, the car is as wide as two normal cars and as heavy as an M1-Tank. I mean the thing is ridiculously wide. I am convinced part of the car hangs over the middle of the road markings when driving perfectly centered down a standard two lane highway, and the car is so bulky and heavy you can feel the pull of gravity from the center of the earth as you drive. The one thing the 2017 Camry does have going for it is that it is well powered. The V-6 engine which comes standard is responsive when you accelerate which is impressive for a car of its size and weight. This stands in great contrast to the 2021 Toyota Camry I had selected as my rental car, which is more akin to my 2015 Fit in terms of acceleration and power.

I had been curious how the re-designed Camry compared to my 2017 model from the first time I saw one on the road. The car does look very nice. The industrial design team at Toyota deserves credit for delivering on what must have seemed an impossible task; transform the 4 door, boring, family sedan into basically what looks like a street racing ready sports car, and oh yeah, keep all the 4 door sedan features that moms the world over have come to love, and dads the world over have grumbled about getting stuck with. Unfortunately, everything else about the car is a total disaster, including the retention of only 2 usable cup holders in the front, but now featuring far fewer in the back. The car is absolutely, ludicrously, ridiculously underpowered for its size and weight. And, no doubt it is as wide and heavy as it predecessors, but feels like it has about half the horsepower. The first time I had it on the highway I punched the pedal expecting that satisfying pressure pushing me down against the seat, instead, nothing at first, and then slowly, a gradual acceleration that actually made me kind of angry. My anger doubled after I put the car in "sport" mode and saw almost zero improvement in power. The cars brakes and handling are not much better and I was actually kind of glad the car was so slow because I would not have felt safe at high speeds. I cannot imagine what the engineers at Toyota must have been thinking. The whole thing just boggles my mind. It's like a bizarro world reversal. Overpowered, boring, family sedan transforms into massively underpowered, exciting (looking), sports sedan. Remaining constant throughout the transformation, shitty cupholder choices, 4 doors, and the Camry name. Toyota managed something here that was almost worse than getting your mom a ball of yarn for Christmas the year she gets you a car. Almost.