2014.5 Toyota Camry Hybrid SE Limited Edition

Had I waited, this car might have been a viable (and cheaper) alternative to my Avalon Hybrid.

 

Too many posts to reply individually, so I'll just pile my thoughts into one:

- A high compression Otto engine is a high compression Otto engine. For example Nissan recently released an Otto with 14:1 compression ratio..... still not at Atkinson. It doesn't use the principles of Atkinson.

- A hybrid with efficient Otto would be called a Honda Civic or Insight or CRZ or Accord G1 Hybrid..... all of these use Otto engines (no Atkinson principles).

- Nonhybrid cars are borrowing ideas from the hybrids like under sheeting, low Cd bodies, air inlets that close at highway, aluminum bodies/engines, very high overdrive gears, and so on. Trickle down ideas put in hybrids in ~2000 are "trickling down" to the standard cars.

 

The Mazda SkyActiv-G is 14:1 in the rest of the world. Still not an Atkinson, but improvements in valve control are reaching the point where a, likely DI, engine will be able to switch between full Otto and full Atkinsonized cycles in a consumer car. The path of valve control started in order to have an engine that can provide power when needed and conserve fuel when the power wasn't needed.

Atkinsonized engines are just Otto engines with different valve timing.

 

But the current generation Camry Hybrid drives a lot better than a Prius.

 

why this, and not the hycam xle?

 

Didn't like the leather interior, the ride was a little stiff and the Avalon well, I drove them both back to back and as cheap as I am (and I am cheap) I had to have the Avalon. If I remember the SE had a better leather interior than the XLE, but I could be mistaken…anyway too late now and I do like what I have.
P.S. I was coming from a gen III Prius.