Top-selling Toyota Camry goes under the knife

Chances are good that one of your neighbors owns a Toyota Camry. Over 400,000 Camrys a year hit the streets, making it the top-selling car in America. That suggests that Toyota's doing something right. So why would Toyota make a bunch of changes for a 2015 update?

Logic played a part. After all, the key players in this hypercompetitive segment don't stay still. Even though many people think the Camry is Consumer Reports' favorite car, several sedans top it in our Ratings. Arguably, the quiet and plush-riding Chevrolet Malibu and new-for-2015 Hyundai Sonata are nipping at its heels, with those automakers trying to splice some Camry DNA into the models.

But many of the midcycle Camry changes deal with emotions. Toyota's sensitive to criticism about the Camry being "bland" or "vanilla," and it wants to lower the average age of buyers. Add in the constant sniping from the automotive press and online car enthusiasts about the car being an "appliance," and you wind up with a slate of changes for 2015.

The biggest change: Toyota worked to add curb appeal. In the car world, updates in the middle of a car's model run usually don't go beyond a tweak of a taillight or a new grille. Instead, Toyota changed every body panel on the Camry except the roof. Gone is the slab-sided 2012-2014 styling, with a strong contour line now running along the side of the car. Of course, the front and rear of the car has changed, too. The changes will be eye-catching—for about three months, until you see the updated Camry on every corner.

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Perhaps to appease complaining enthusiasts, Toyota claims big improvements in how the Camry feels to drive, working to make it more controlled and less "floaty." All of this sounds like Toyota's confessing to a crime that they didn't really admit. The outgoing car drove pretty well. Sure, you wouldn't swap a BMW 3 Series for a Camry, but it was certainly competitive. Hype aside, the driving difference from the update is in degrees, with a bit more steering effort and a touch stiffer ride in the XLE V6 we tried.

More emphasis is also being placed on the sportier SE model, with a new XSE trim level that goes for sporty and fancy. We had complained that previous SE's had a rather stiff ride that seemed really out of place. The firmness has been thankfully dialed back and the ride made more compliant.

Other criticisms have been addressed, too. While the Camry has a reputation for being quiet and cosseting, it lost some of that after the 2012 redesign. Additional noise insulation helps recover some calm. Structural updates, from the fast-tracked 2014.5 revision to improve performance in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's small-overlap front crash test, continue in the 2015 with more welds to increase stiffness.

Inside, things stayed mostly the same. Tweaks to the touch-screen audio system simplify some commonly used functions. We do wish Toyota would label a hard button "Nav" rather than hiding navigation beneath the "Apps" button.

Things stayed the same under the hood. All of the powertrains—a 2.5-liter, 178-hp four-cylinder, the optional 3.5-liter, 268-hp V6, and the 200-hp four-cylinder hybrid—carry over from the previous Camry. While Camry Hybrid and V6 models are very competitive fuel-economy-wise, we wonder about the wisdom of leaving the base four-cylinder untouched. The 27 mpg overall that it returned in our previous tests was a lot more impressive back in 2011 than it is now, thanks to the Honda Accord, Mazda6, and Nissan Altima all getting 30 or more. Of course, sticking with the current slate of engines will help keep the Camry among the most reliable midsized sedans.

So maybe Toyota tried to be more emotional with this Camry, but it sure didn't throw logic out the window. The updated Camry feels comfortably familiar. If you liked the Camry before, you'll still like it—and maybe a few buyers who thought the old car was frumpy will be won over.

—Tom Mutchler