TRDFantasy

Honda, like Toyota offers an well rounded package in the Accord. It's generally a refined, somewhat sporty sedan, with a nice interior, nice features, and good fuel economy.

February 2007 sales for various midsize sedans were: 2,641 for the Passat, 30,370 for the Accord, 22,114 for the Altima, 5,559 for the Mazda6, 32,148 for the Camry, and 13,359 for the Fusion.

Accord sales have recently gone up due to an incentive-driven sales push by Honda. Passat sales are so low they are not even worth mentioning. Same with Mazda6 sales. Both are midsize sedans that are "engaging" to drive. Both also offer a lot less value than the competition. The Ford Fusion's sales aren't exactly spectacular, although they are decent. Altima sales are pretty good, but still pale in comparison to Accord and Camry sales.

I assume you are a car enthusiast that loves a sporty drive. The problem is you are a very small minority of the total car buying market.

You seem to have a lot of criticism of the new Camry, but you haven't mentioned anything really specific. The onus here is on you to explain your criticism of the Camry in a detailed manner.

Plus, it's arguable as to exactly how engaging the competition is to drive when compared to a Camry SE V6. That version of the Camry is quite sporty. The Camry offers a lot of choice, from the hybrid, to the sporty SE, to the very comfortable and very luxurious XLE. Same can't be said about the competition. A lot of the other midsize sedans in this segment make you compromise, or don't offer a total well rounded package. The new Camry is an improvement over the 5th gen in both ride and handling, simply because of physics. It's about the same length as the 5th gen, yet has an increased wheelbase, which means a more stable ride and better handling. It also improves on the rear seat area of the 5th gen. The new Camry is widely considered to have the best rear seating in it's segment.

Interior-wise, I've sat in several new Camrys, and driven a couple of them too. I looked at the interior closely, and the materials for the most part are on par with the 5th gen Camry. Fit and finish is generally pretty good too, and I haven't experienced any loose interior pieces. The ride of the new Camry was very refined and comfortable, yet there was stable and predictable handling. If you want to bring up the transmission issues, those were largely linked to several American suppliers. Toyota originally outsourced the 6 speed production because they had not yet ramped up their own in-house production. The suppliers that made those early 6 speeds didn't follow Toyota's blueprints properly. Toyota consequently was deeply dissapointed with those suppliers. The transmission issues, as well as any interior issues should be mostly solved.

As for the Camry's engine, it's arguably the "best" for reasons that MPLexus301 mentioned. No other engine in it's class offers the type of power, refinement, and fuel efficiency. No other V6 engine with a similar amount of power offers 22/31 EPA fuel efficiency. And only the new Altima exceeds the Camry V6 in HP, and only by 2HP.

TRDFantasy

I can count on 1 hand the amount of transmissions that have actually "exploded". Most of the transmission issues were slippage issues, or gear changing problems. As mentioned, those problems were mainly linked to several suppliers who initially produced the 6 speed transmissions.

Threxx

You continue to be obsessed with tire profile. It's like the #1 thing in your dictionary of things to talk about when talking about cars. I mean yeah it's certainly as aspect of how a car may drive and ride, but good grief, listening to you, you'd think tire profile was the one and only determinant of ride quality and handling.

Oh, and to me the Camry isn't even that quiet or smooth, either. Granted I don't have a whole heck of a lot of seat time with the new one, but the previous gen definitely didn't impress me anymore than the Accord did in terms of refinement or ride quality. In fact the engine refinement was markedly worse with both the 4cyl and 6cyl compared to the Accord 4 and 6.

Nah, the sheer number of people who buy this car proves that lots of people don't care about driving - they just want something that gets them there that they feel like they can depend on.