I bought my 2007 TCH in late July of 2007 and picked it up on August 7th. I paid 28,500 including the $650 tax credit. It is loaded with nav/leather and all the other common accessories that come with most TCH's. I am very happy with it and have been averaging over 40mpg for 80% of the time i have had it. Even if gas goes down to $3.00/gal.........and with another major hurricane baring down on the gulf coast and all those refineries .....it will still pay for itself in less than 2 years in gas savings. I'm glad i made the move to a hybrid when i did!!

 

I'm confused. How will it pay for itself over a 4 year period in gas savings? $28,500 is a lot of money to recoup in gas? Am I not seeing the whole picture?

Thank you,
Mike

 

Chris is talking about paying for the hybrid option. That's the additional extra $2000 - $2500 for the hybrid TCH over the Camry gas only version with the V6 engine.

With these high gas prices you can overcome the extra hybrid cost in a few years.

 

Got it. That makes sense.

Thank you,
Mike

 

This brings up another question. Is the TCH more comparable to the v6 than the 4 cylinder Camry? I just assumed the v6 had more power.

Mike

 

I don't have the exact numbers, but the 4cyl hybrid, with battery assist, when needed, performs in an equivalent fashion to the 6 cyl.

 

More like the previous gen 6 (actually, a mite quicker than the 3.0, especially the 4 speed auto, roughly equal to the 3.3 with the 4 speed). Quite a bit slower than the current gen (the 3.5 is VERY quick for the segment)

IAC, much as they RR (back in the days when it was British) would describe it, the power level is sufficient.

 

I think I am right about this:

08 and 09 TCH have power, torque and acceleration figures better than the 4 cyl but not as good as the V6. Note however that the V6 is significantly up in power from a few years ago, and the current TCH power is very similar to a V6 a few model years older. I think it is fair to say that the TCH has power more comparable to a V6 than a to a 4 cyl.

When I was car shopping last March, I considered the XLE V6 and the TCH. We went for the TCH considering that the significantly better city mileage was well worth the sacrifice of a little power.

Importantly, neither a base-equipped car nor a 4 cylinder would have met our criteria.

So, the comparison for us was between the TCH and a comparably equipped XLE V6.

Now, on a sticker price basis, The comparably equipped XLE V6 actually cost a few hundred $ more than the TCH.

I guess that means we "broke even" a few months BEFORE we even bought the car.

I have always wondered why the magazine writers always make these price comparisons between the TCH and a base 4-cyl Camry. A comparison between a loaded TCH and a similarly equipped V6 is actually a much, much, closer one.

 

I didn't think it was possible, but now I feel even better about my TCH purchase.

Thanks guys.

Mike

 

I compared the pricing between the Camry TCH and the 4 cyl LE with a touring package (Canadian specs, we have no 4 cyl XLE) the 2 cars were as closely equipped as was possible and the sticker price difference was 4K. The province gave me a 2K rebate which made the hybrid premium 2K.

I was comparing against the 4 cyl, because we were looking at having a fuel efficient vehicle. Since the lure of the TCH is fuel consumption, CR is looking at what is the closest mileage wise.