Toyota Camry

Ever since its 2018 redesign, the Toyota Camry has become one of my favorite sedans. Its design not only is more visually interesting than it has been in the past; the Camry actually has compelling driving characteristics that make it more engaging than previous generations and other everyday sedans.

Here in the midwest and other places where it gets cold and snowy, all-wheel drive vehicles generally outsell their front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive variants. While a good set of winter tires is always a help when driving on slick surfaces, being able to send power to all four wheels can be a big help in providing vehicle stability and control.

Toyota Racing Development (aka TRD) is charged with making the highest performance versions of Toyota’s production vehicles, though in recent years, their focus has been on trucks and SUVs. So what exactly happens when you let TRD tinker with a couple of family sedans?

A few months back, I spent a day or so driving the new Toyota Camry lineup, and overall was very impressed with the progress that Toyota has made in turning its trusty sedan into a truly desirable car.

Despite its wild popularity and success since first launching in 1982, the Toyota Camry has long been the car you go with if you want something safe, reliable, and… ordinary. But we live in an era where car buyers demand something more when it comes to styling and performance from their vehicles.

Toyota has done a lot in recent years to distance itself from the old stigma that it only makes bland automobiles. Hell, even Akio Toyoda publicly announced that they weren’t going to be building boring cars under his watch, a bold claim for a company that has long benefited from the perks of designing safe, unassuming vehicles.

There were plenty of cars on display at this week’s NAIAS show in Detroit, but perhaps none more anticipated than the newly redesigned 2018 Toyota Camry. Seriously, the reveal of the car was possibly the well-attended event of the entire show.

Toyota has offered up a teaser image ahead of the official unveil of the all-new 2018 Camry. As with most teaser shots you can’t see much in the way of detail. What you can see looks surprisingly attractive though.

Loading myself into a Toyota Camry is not the sort of thing I had imagined when taking on the glamorous occupation of being an auto journalist, but, even non-car enthusiasts buy cars. When they do, this one seems like a popular choice.