Used 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid Consumer Reviews
Used Camry Hybrid for sale
I love it and you will too, except for...
A. Simpson, 01/24/2018
updated 07/29/2019
2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid LE 4dr Sedan (2.5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)
25 of 29 people found this review helpful
UPDATE 7-26-18: Have driven 12,800 miles since it was new. All the comments below given for my original review still stand. This is a great car!! ORIGINAL REVIEW: This Camry is the best ever built, in my opinion. I have owned a 2012, and two Avalons since then. All great cars for reasonably low prices. The 2018 Camry is a fine, comfortable, economical 4 door sedan - and I think it’s the best looking Camry, too. So far I am averaging around 50 mpg, but on country drives it can reach 60 mpg when my speed averages 45-55 mph. I do drive conservatively, rarely goosing it or speeding. Still, on one 180 mile interstate trip when I averaged 65 mph, I got 56 mpg. Not bragging here - but just to show that your mpg can exceed the 52 mpg calculated by the EPA (or whichever government agency does the testing). I have noticed that when I do a lot of short trips (say 1-5 miles each), the mpg drops to around 45 mpg. Still a great SAFE car. The Blind Spot Monitor system has literally saved me a few times already! Also love the Adaptive Cruise Control, which keeps you a set distance behind the vehicle in front of you. OK — there is one fault that every reviewer before me has mentioned. It seems to be unanimous that Toyota did not test use its crappy GPS navigation system. It works poorly, is hard to stay connected to cell network (which is required to use it), eats data like crazy, and is so bad and hard to use that it is extremely annoying. A Garmin hand held unit is fabulous compared to Toyota’s nav system used in the base Camry LE hybrid model. The wife and I recently took the factory tour of the Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY and were very impressed with the technology used in making the Camrys and how they make it their absolute priority to get every car right before it leaves the factory. Whoever designed the nav system, however, really needs to hear all our unhappy comments and redesign it ASAP! Otherwise, this Camry LE is a fine car that I truly enjoy driving. PS - If you wonder if my review is too glowing, I have no connection with Toyota, but sure would like some of their stock! UPDATE 7-26-19: My Camry still does everything well. Still getting 46 mpg in winter and 50 mpg in Summer. To solve the GPS problem stated above, I bought a new 7” Garmin GPS unit ($219) that I attach to the infotainment screen with the usual suction cup mount. It is super, even announces every street name for all turns! Makes it easier to navigate without needing to stare at the screen. The Camry itself is still a great car, with its smooth ride, CVT transmission that also shifts smoothly, and its great hybrid gas/electric economy. You almost can’t tell when the electric motor is on at all. I will buy another one in a year or two, unless there is some newer tech hybrid or total electric one available. Highly recommend the Camry LE model with the lithium ion battery. The other Camry models have the older technology nickel metal hydride batteries that will only get you 44-46 mpg.
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Great car, if you can live with quirky navigation
Jammy, 02/09/2018
2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid LE 4dr Sedan (2.5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)
7 of 7 people found this review helpful
I own this car for almost a month. Pros: 1) fuel economy is great. Although it is a small gas tank, I had to fill the tank only twice so far in a month. MPG is around 48. 2) Car drives very smooth and handles the curves very well 3) pre-collision warning, LDA, BSM, Rear traffic alerts work fairly well. Cons: 1) Upgrades are pricey, I added sunroof with additional features, it quickly added up a lot to the total 2) Navigation is a pain to setup. I somehow managed to make it work. The maps are outdated. It doesn't show my house address, which is 3 years old.
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Hybrid Camry XLE
mthopper, 10/11/2018
2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE 4dr Sedan (2.5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)
7 of 7 people found this review helpful
Toyota tends to discriminate against hybrid buyers, when it comes to features and car style. I traded a 2013 Prius, which had more functionality than the 2018 Camry Hybrid. The dealership did not tell me that a new cell phone was required to operate the GPS in the dash until after I signed the paperwork, requiring me to go out and buy a new one, adding another $1000 to the price of the car. Apparently, gas models have built in GPS, but hybrids require a cell phone. The GPS in my 2013 didn't require a phone; it just worked well as a supplement when my cell phone GPS lost cell signal. Now, I don't have that back up in rural areas. The "Scout" app needed for the GPS tracks you everywhere you go, a privacy concern, and it burns up your phone battery. I am not happy that Toyota has cheapened its technology. I actually wanted the SLE body style, but that didn't come in a hybrid. On the flip side, the safety features and intuitive headlights are great. The charcoal-colored leather seats are beautiful and comfortable. The dashboard style is unimaginative. The glove box is too small. The flat, cell charging station does not charge very fast. I'm getting 40 MPG, while I expected to get closer to the 45-47 promised. If I had it to do over, I would just keep the 2013 Prius and forget this car.
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Inferior Navigation System
Mary Lu Anderson, 01/24/2018
2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE 4dr Sedan (2.5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)
15 of 17 people found this review helpful
We have owned Toyota products for many years. Our previous car was a Toyota Camry. It had a reliable navigation system that worked consistently and was accurate. It never occurred to us when purchasing a new Toyota Camry that we would not have an even better navigation system. But Toyota installed an inferior product called Scout that relies on the customer having a certain type of cell phone. The phone needs to actually be plugged in for a map to show on the screen. When my i phone updated recently, the entire GPS system ceased to work. Toyota seems to want to blame Apple for this disaster. I depend on my GPS extensively and am devastated to be stuck with this car for the next several years. My dealership says that Toyota's new 2019 models will not have this defective system. However Toyota has made no effort to recall and install a reliable system. The response from Toyota is that perhaps the Apple update will eventually synch with their Scout GPS system. How shameful! I have had Toyota products for our last five vehicles and expect better quality and service.
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Entune Broke the Camry!
J Tregre, 08/08/2018
2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE 4dr Sedan (2.5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)
22 of 26 people found this review helpful
I abhor the "navigation system" in the 2018 Camry! It RUINS the Toyota experience! If I had known how bad that system and the Entune 3.0 was, I WOULD NOT HAVE BOUGHT THIS CAR! First, upon linking to the system, it downloaded almost ONE Gigabit of Data! I don't use my phone for data, and that cost me another $15 on top of my phone bill! The Scout GPS system takes FOREVER to load, and will not show a map when you are driving around. You HAVE to put in a destination! I tried - really, tried very hard - to learn the system and give it a fair shake, but the hare-brained good-idea fairy that came up with the Entune and Scout GPS should be FIRED! In my small town, I live a whole 4 miles from the park where the farmers' market is held. I have a choice - take a two lane state highway, or take the two-lane roads through the city. I told the scout GPS to rout me home. The highway is a little longer with a 45mph speed limit. The through-town is 35mph and shorter. With the old Toyota system, if I chose to NOT go the way the GPS directed, it would quickly recalculate and map the short route. NOT the Scout GPS! That stupidly designed, illogical subroutine tried to route me back to the State Route at *every* left turn I could have possibly made! It would not stop until I was within a mile of my home! The route it was recommending was NOT shorter NOR quicker, but it would not give up. Every second you are in the car, it wants to use your data plan. Furthermore, it does not want to navigate unless you PLUG IN THE PHONE WITH A WIRE! What kind of convoluted, half-brained, inconvenience is that? To enter in your destination takes darned near ten minutes! To add insult to injury, you are completely out of luck if you are in a rural area, where the mountains cut off cell service regularly!. You completely lose all navigation. Unlike Google maps, where you can download a local map to your phone, you simply are lost without help with the Scout GPS. I **ordered** this car specially - I BEGGED the dealer to get me the upgraded built in navigation system, but Toyota DOES NOT OFFER IT ON THE top-of-the-line Camry. How could you do this to your loyal customer base, Toyota? Prior to this, I would not even shop for a different make, but all bets are off. You blew it. Oh, yeah - after three years, you LOSE your subscription and have to pay for Scout! I would not give two red cents for this mangled excuse for a navigation system. This system is the most illogical, DANGEROUS, instantiation of "Infotainment" I've ever run into - and since I traveled for work and rented a lot of cars, I have a lot to compare it to! First, I had a 2006 Camry Hybrid, then the Avalon 2016. I compare to those. If I had a text message come in, I would simply tap in the vicinity of the notification in the center of the screen. I didn't have to take my eyes off the road. Tap, and the message is read to me. No problem. With the Entune 3.0, the bell tolls, and the message receipt flashes so fast you almost cannot see it. Then you have to press "Phone", then "messages", then the message in the list. Yes, you have to take your eyes off the road and traffic to do so! The hare-brained good-idea fairy engineer and the approving bosses that came up with the Entune 3.0 should be FIRED! In spite of the home screen, you really cannot easily change the mode or channels from the steering wheel as you could in the older models. For example, in XM, the menu keeps defaulting to the XM "replay" instead of the presets. Yes, you take your eyes off the road to go to press Audio, select the XM presets, and then the channel you have preset. Why in God's Name would ANYONE want to drive and try to control their car with a smart phone or a convoluted reverse-logic UNSAFE system like the Entune 3.0? Just how long should one be comfortable taking their eyes off the road to run down the rabbit hole of menus? Furthermore, the Entune wants you to download countless apps that are quite happy on your phone, thank you so very much! Yelp? Seriously, I do not want people on the road using Yelp for *anything*. "Hang up and Drive!" Furthermore, all of these attention-grabbing (you know, taking your attention from the road) 'features' cost you in your data plan. If you are in a big city, you might have it a little easier, but those of us that go Toyota because of its [former] safety and reliability because we drive long distances in desert, rural areas, will not enjoy that luxury. However, the Camry is a lot sportier, and handles wonderfully. The radar cruise control is messed up, compared to the 2016 Avalon, because a curve in the road makes the Camry respond with hard braking if there is an adjacent car. Also, if a car ahead pulls into a right turn lane, the Camry brakes hard as if you were going to run into them. I don't use the radar cruise control for this reason. I am really saddened by what Toyota has done.
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