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Fat Baby Driver's avatar

More cats in cars pictures please.

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G. K.'s avatar

I have not driven the latest Sonata and Optima sister, but I will say that the current Camry with the base 2.5-liter is the second-most miserable experience I've ever had in a modern vehicle (the first-most was a 2022 Tesla Model 3). I rented a 2022 Camry SE last year, and it was terrible. First and foremost, the 2.5-liter could not keep up with Baltimore traffic, and made that known with a series of sudden and disconcerting downshifts. Second, everything about it sucked: the infotainment, the seats, the fabric...all of it. I was particularly disappointed to see that Toyota deleted the electronic parking brake, probably due to COVID shortages; instead, it had a foot-operated parking brake.

The Camry gave me the impression of a 1996 Buick Century or Oldsmobile Ciera, a vehicle that's perfectly adequate and quite reliable, but absolutely insipid and built to the lowest price point.

I can't imagine the Optima being worse than that Camry. It's probably worse in the long term, but I bet the Optima makes for a better experience in the near term.

As for rental fleets keeping their cars longer than usual, that's certainly true. I recently had that 2022 Model 3 with 64,000 miles (and it felt like it, too), and a 2022 Equinox LT with 50,000-ish miles that felt fine. And this morning, I dropped my car off at the BMW dealer and received a 2019 X5 with 55,000 miles, and that appears to have been in service as a loaner for the entirety of its life.

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