Solara vrs. Camry

[solaraboy]

^^^I agee..enough has been said

[Black Bob]

This thread still gives me night terrors. I'm still having nightmares of a 2-door Arctic Frost Pearl Pontiac Aztek with front spoilers ("fangs"), variable valve timing, bolstered seats and a high ownership rating parked in my garage.

[onefiend]

I currently own 08 camry hybrid and 06 solara. I kind of disagree with whoever says camry is better than solara.
Here is my experience with both:
1. interior: solara has way better interior materials than camry (more soft touch materials, better fit and finish). The camry has way more rattles especially when it is cold out there. There is no competition between the 2.
2. seats: camry has nice seats for long trip but literally no side support and the bottom cushion is too short. I prefer solara's seat.
3. noise: camry has less wind noise but has more tire noise than the solara. engine noise is more pronounced in solara.
4. handling: camry handles like school bus (fast corner = big no no) but I don't know about the SE though.

Both cars are mechanically perfect (both has over 30K miles and no single trouble) which is expected from toyota.

overall, I like solara way better than camry. I can say gen 6 camry is a big downgrade compared to solara.

You got the Hybrid, what do you expect? You should have bought a Camry SE with the 2GR-FE, with JBL and sport leather seats

[laphan]

I have the fully loaded hybrid with all the available upgrades (includes JBL, plasmacluster, navi, sunroofs, leather, smart key, name any options, I have it).
But the thing that I hate about the camry is not the seats or the handling but the interior quality. For car that has $34K sticker price, this is unacceptable.

Interior materials are HORRIBLE compared to solara. hollow feel/flimsy plastic, less soft touch materials, leather seats that feels like vinyl (don't even ask the cloth quality), misaligned panels, rattles galore when cold. seems like they use recycled plastic for interior panels (there is recycle logo on the bottom of door panel that justify this horrible quality plastic).

The camry seems like a car build by GM or Chrysler but with toyota bulletproof powertrain. I see no point on buying camry other tan buying for toyota reliability. toyota screwed up badly on designing this camry.

I drove the SE before went with the hybrid, the 2GR is powerful but the 6 speed tranny is the one that scares me (flare). The SE handling is very similar to my solara, so that's not selling point to me. I just don't want another solara with 4 doors.

[onefiend]

The SE handling is very similar to my solara, so that's not selling point to me.

I highly doubt that your Solara handles anywhere close to my SE. I think your biggest problem is that you might have over paid for your Hybrid. Buyers remorse? If I spent 34K on a Camry, I'd be complaining about the interior materials and rattles too.

[Black Bob]

They use recycled raw materials to make some of the parts on the Camry Hybrid now? Man that makes me wanna pee in every lake and stream just to balance out the environment.

[laphan]

onefiend, have you driven a solara before?
And do you know that the suspension components of solara are exactly the same as camry gen 6??
I lowered my hybrid by using my solara spring (and put TRD springs on my solara).
I did it my self and all the balljoint, engine cradle, tie rod, strut mount, sway bar are exactly the same between the 2. I checked the camry SE spring has same part number with solara SE. that was the reason I put the solara spring to my camry. The only difference in the suspension is camry SE has rear reinforcement bar that makes your rear seat does not fold.
If I want a sporty sedan, I don't think camry is a good option. May be mazda6 would be a better choice.

And I paid $25.5K on fully loaded hybrid (sticker was $33980). That was April 2008. I don't know how toyota can justify $9K under sticker price, that was the reason I bought the camry. They offered me $24.8K for V6 SE fully loaded with navi and TRD wheels at the time (but transmission flare and not recommended rating from consumer reports turned me down).

I paid my solara for $19.2K ($23.2K sticker) in Feb 06. And my 19K solara has way better interior materials and fit/finish compared to my 25K hybrid. may be the rear 2 doors cost toyota so much until they have to put recycled plastic in the interior.

camry interior is junk even for $25K. I think those interior should be in corolla, not camry. My 40K miles solara has almost 0 rattles but the camry, oh man...... squeekkk.. tap tap tap... creaakkkkk........ I even brought it back for interior squeak/rattles TSB, rattles stopped for 2 weeks and worse than before after that.
oh, after I put the solara spring in the front (rear will sag if I put solara or TRD spring due to battery weight), the car rattles even worse. I can't imagine how the SE owners can withstand the rattles their car makes.

[onefiend]

My SE is flare and rattle free, so I wouldn't know

Even if you did all that to your Solara, you're still missing the V-brace, under-floor brace and firmer dampers, and your still riding on the older Gen5 Camry chassis.

I never owned a Gen2, but I have driven it many times, the interior is nice, but it's still just a 2door Gen5 Camry... I did own a beautiful Gen1, but sold it to get my SE V6

[PXLpainter]

haha but camry and solara have the same engine!

Wrong. At least not with Gen 2 they aren't.