 A cutaway view of a Toyota Camry, showing its hybrid synergy drive, was on display during the 2006 New York International Auto Show in April. The Camry is the 12th hybrid model that’s available to US car buyers. |  |
Still waiting for a Prius? Camry's now a hybrid, too
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Teri Wiss says she's neither a car person nor a computer person. Yet her new car, a 2007
``It's almost more of a computer than a car. Everything about this car is different than what I'm used to."
Wiss, an occupational therapist, was one of the first drivers in Silicon Valley to get the keys to a hybrid version of the Camry, the best-selling passenger car in the United States for eight of the last nine years.
The Camry Hybrid gets 40 miles per gallon in city driving and 38 mpg on the highway, according to its government fuel-economy label. It has a suggested starting price of $25,900.
Its arrival, at a time when gas prices exceed $3 a gallon, is a watershed moment in the history of the hybrid.
When the first gasoline-electric hybrid, the two-seat
``The Camry makes hybrid a mainstream concept," said Jim Lentz, executive vice president at Toyota Motor Sales USA.
The Camry becomes the 12th hybrid model available to US car buyers. That list includes higher-mileage versions of such popular vehicles as the Honda Accord and Civic sedans and
The Toyota Prius, which doesn't come in a gas-only version, remains the iconic symbol of the hybrid generation. It has been the best-selling hybrid since it went on sale in 2000, and became the first hybrid to top 100,000 annual sales, in 2005.
Honda, which sells three hybrid models, sold 25,865 Civic Hybrids in 2005.
Honda said this week that it would discontinue the slow-selling Insight this year but would add a five-seat hybrid by 2009 that will be smaller and cheaper than the Civic.
Federal tax credits also make the Prius a popular choice.
At Toyota of Sunnyvale in California, about 300 people are on a waiting list to get a Prius. That's a four- to six-month wait, said owner Adam Simms. Only about 40 are on the list for a Camry Hybrid, a two- to three-month wait.
At Piercey Toyota in San Jose, several customers on the Prius waiting list have moved over to the Camry.
Brian Ressler, the dealership's general sales manager, said he's uncertain why, but ``a five-month wait for the Prius vs. nearly nothing for the Camry Hybrid" is probably one factor.
The only other gas-electric vehicle that requires a stint on a waiting list is the Honda Civic Hybrid.
``The whole Civic lineup is selling like crazy," said Sage Marie, a Honda spokesman, adding that waiting lists vary by dealer.
Lee Cai, sales manager at Anderson Honda in Palo Alto, said 25 to 30 people are on the list for a Civic Hybrid at his dealership, about a six-week wait.
Toni Jette, a Kaiser Permanente pharmacist who lives in Milpitas, was getting ready to turn in her leased Toyota Solara, and she knew she wanted a hybrid. ``I do a lot of driving for my job, and gas prices are just crazy," she said.
``Our country has to start facing facts," Jette said. ``We've got to cut down on the consumption of oil. This is my first step in doing that."
She joined a Prius waiting list but said she was not thrilled with the car after taking a drive in a friend's model. Then an employee at Piercey mentioned that Toyota was bringing out a hybrid version of the Camry.
``I'm much more pleased with it," she said after a week behind the wheel of a blue Camry Hybrid. ``It drives nicer. It's classier."
Plus, it's easier for her 83-year-old mother to get in and out of it, she said.
Wiss said environmental concerns prompted her decision to buy a Camry Hybrid, too. ``I've always been environmentally conscious," she said, ``but when the Prius came out, it just seemed too small."
In her first week of driving a Camry Hybrid, Wiss said she's been getting about 32 miles per gallon.
Jette has been pleased with the 40 to 41 m.p.g. she's been getting in her car as she drives back and forth to her job in Pleasanton.
Lentz said Toyota expects to sell 30,000 Camry Hybrids in 2006, and 40,000 to 45,000 a year after that.
The first cars are being made in Japan, but Toyota's Camry plant in Kentucky will add the hybrid to its assembly line in October.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
