Ahoy mates! Bought my 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid (TCH) LE on April 14, 2012 from Power Toyota of Buena Park, California (SoCal near Knotts Berry Farm).

It has been about two weeks now with about 1.2 stops at a gas station. Nice. Notably so because I used to own a gas guzzling behemoth, a 2002 Chevrolet Suburban 4x4 that gets me about 8-10mpg on the 5.3L V8 engine with some aftermarket air filter. I would get about 300 miles on a tank full costing me about $100 or so to fill up with gas prices at about $4.10/gal. So it was only obvious that I trade it in for a hybrid model.

Did some calculations and I was to pay a little over $400/mo on a hybrid camry LE plus gas. Conservatively, I was to shell out about $500/month for gas and car monthly payments plus any possible insurance increases so it only made sense to trade my truck in, thus hibreeder was born!!!

Now on 2 weeks after purchase, this is what I can tell you.

- 2012 White TCH LE cost me about $26,000 +
- $2600 Lowest extended warranty that covers my usual 30/60/90 mile checkups plus extends my warranty - I think I got swindled on this
- about $350 up in my insurance because of this new car purchase
- 1.79% finance rate from my credit union for 60 months
- 33-34mpg on combined city/hwy driving
- EV mode disengages too fast to benefit from it
- battery for hybrid isn't what its cracked up to be as it seems to drain quite quickly for me to take advantage of the EV mode which I leave 100% of my driving to
- even at moderate driving speeds with no load, no passengers, no jackrabbits, pulsating runs, and the occasional drafting from the big rigs, still don't get no more than 34mpg on an 89 octane gas at my local Sam's club gas station.

What gives? The epa ratings are at 43 city/ 39 hwy and 41 combined as the sticker shouts. But the reality is that it is about 5-6 mpg less in real driving!

Now I have to check to see if I can hyperinflate my tires a little bit to see if the mpg goes up a little.

With regards to the car itself? The way that I can summarize this is wow!!! I love the quietness of the cabin! I love the roominess that this hybrid can offer! I love that it looks like a regular car and not spaceship one! I like the decent trunk space! I like the ergonomics! I am ok with the handling but the steering wheel could use a slight stiffening so that I don't drift a little. I love the complexity and the simplicity of it all! In short, I would buy another, if they can fix the mpg to be true!

I have to go but please chime in to what you have experienced! Any tips or tricks!

- PEACE!

 

See https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...ty-soon-26988/ for info on getting a better price on your extended warranty as you really OVERPAID. I think you can cancel your current warranty and then add the cheap one. I don't have my details handy, but I got mine in 2006 for under $900 when my dealer wanted $2200!

 

$900 for tch extended warranty that included the regular factory maintenance? That $900 was in 2006? Do you think I can still find that price? Where though? Another dealer?

 

Ha-ha-ha. I own 07 TCH and 2000 Silverado with 5.3 Vortec. Something was really wrong with your Burban, as we share engines, and mine is closing on 16mpg.
lemmy tell you 2 things.
1. I rotate cars daily, to cut on mileage put on them. NOTHING in ANY TCH will replace that roaring power of pushrod GM V8, especially going uphill. It's just totally DIFFERENT car and feel. Or, the **** safety of huge steel box you are hidden in, and raised position.
2. why don't you put first 50 000 miles on your TCH and THEN come back, and we'll talk about how it chirps out THEN?

 

Hi. I bought my 2012 TCH LE 2 weeks earlier than you, up here in Quebec City Canada. During the first 2 weeks I averaged 37 MPG. I then put in practice most of the tips this found here:

http://www.opentravelinfo.com/area/t...er-58-mpg.html

Applying those tips do make a difference, especially when you learn how to put the car in EV mode by accelerating to 40 then taking the foot off the gas and immediately feather it lightly. As of today I am averaging 41 mpg with some city trips at 46 (my record being a 10-mile drive at 55 mpg). On a flat higway at speeds around 60 I average 44 mpg. My own personnal tricks:

-Always use ECO mode.
-Wait till the end of your trip to manually engage the EV mode and keep your speed low and accelerate slowly to remain in EV.
- Except for emergency braking make sure you never use mechanical breaking, only regenerative breaking. If the energy needle remains in the "charging" zone without touching the bottom of the scale, you are doing fine!

Good luck!

 

Check the link I gave in my post or do a search, because I'm not sure how things might have changed in 6 years.

I looked it up and I paid $695 to Toyota of Greenfield about 2 months after I bought my car locally. My Toyota Platinum warranty did NOT include regular maintenance, but I have found my regular maintenance costs to be the lowest of any car I've owned. My quick records check shows I've paid $1074 to my dealer since I bought the car.

Of course, if I add those two figures, that's $1769, so maybe your $2600 isn't as high as it seems initially.

Not sure if I helped you or muddied the waters.

 

Can someone with a 2012 Hybrid LE & Hybrid XLE tell me what is on the placard in your car that states, "The combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed XXX kg or XXX lbs." I can't find the actual values on Toyota's site. Since I at times have to carry 5 adults and a truck full of luggage, I *really* want to know these values!

 

I drove my new XLE hybrid to El Paso and back about 150 mile round trip not including all the city miles added to that. I had about 85 miles on the car when I headed to El Paso. When I shut off the engine the multi information display read 54 mpg. I varied my speed with the new engine, but tried to average 50 to 55 mph on the highway. City driving was a madhouse Friday with many on the service roads due to construction, some red lights, stop and go due to people changing lanes.

My guess is the miles driven beat out the 10 or 15 miles driven in the city. I am a hypermiler and found when stopped at a red light I can release the ECO button and press the EV button down. I can then accelerate at a pretty good pace up to 25 mph, then you will hear a beep as the car cancels the EV and switches it to ECO all by itself.

Once clear of traffic I will manually release the EV and press the ECO down. Coming home they were times leaving the city were I was driving at 50 on a very slight downgrade. I looked at the battery/engine/wheels in the main display. The connection was between the battery and wheels showing it was charging the traction battery and this lasted maybe a half mile before the engine engaged again. Love that you can't even feel when it changes back and forth.

My trip was to swap out the new bridgestone tires. I don't like their whine and seems noisy on the pavement. I bought a set of michelin primacy mxv4 93V_TOY tires, made for the new '12 Camry with the 17" wheels. These are LRR tires and have the tiny green-X symbol on them. I did not look at the LE with the 16" wheels, but i'm sure michelin makes one that size also. I saw some LE's on the dealers lot that already had the michelin energy-saver tires on them.

I called 6 discount tire stores and most would give me $45 to $55 for my pull-off tires. I asked one that I had talked to a week earlier. If he would go $60 per tire if I bought the new set of michelins. He agreed and ended up costing was like $531 difference. Now the car rides smoother and oh so much quieter. No more whine at any speed. Even my wife was the first one to mention the improvement.

The toyota dealer where I bought the car offered to put nitrogen back in these new tires. The car came with nitrogen which suppose to help the ride, but will help the tires last longer. My theory on that is that you only have to add a 2 or 3 pounds of nitrogen annually. The tire pressure on the navigation display shows they had 36 nitrogen and discount tried to match that with their air. Both the nitrogen and air grew to 39 psi once I was a ways out on the hot highway shown on the nav display.

I like the sensitivity of the improved ECO mode. Look for the indication ECO in the upper left of you instrument panel, if the ECO button is pressed. If you don't see either lit, then you engine is set for power.

I will now start my almost daily 33 mile loop to town and back. I can compare the new '12 to that the '07s mpg. Seems this '12 engine is already broke in earlier compared to the '07 which took 8000 miles before I got high mpg out of it.

 

Might try calling Toyota's Help Line. (customer service)

http://www.toyota.com/help/contactus.html

 

A few days after the El Paso trip, I found it's best to keep the ECO button on all the time. I noticed the car accelerating nicely in the EV mode chosen by the ECU. I can accelerate moderately to around 38 mph then the engine kicks in. With the ECO on, the EV kicks in lots more often than with the '07 I had.

Uses for the EV button for me is when climbing a short grade. For me it's when we turn off the main highway, I can now use the EV (25 mph) the whole 1.6 miles to our house.

Update: After a few nights of doing this same 1.6 miles to the house. I left the ECO button as is, pressed down. I left the EV button alone. I found I can drive at 25 or even 30 mph on this rather round paved country road. This car stayed in EV at those speeds if the battery is half charged or more. I even had the cruise control on. The 2007 TCH I had would never stay in EV using the cruise over this same country road. That's a nice improvement for the 2012 hybrid.