Review: The 2025 Toyota Camry Distills Its Strengths Into A More Attractive Package

Six years after its introduction, Toyota is providing a major refresh for the eighth-generation Camry. Included with it is a new exterior design, a huge revamp of the cabin, and the demise of any engine from the 2024 model year that wasn’t electrified – including the V6. Each of those updates is important on its own merit.

Collectively, they form a seriously overhauled Camry lineup. For its part, Toyota must be quite confident about its changes seeing as the Camry is responsible for selling nearly 300k units a year in the States alone. It has been the best-selling passenger car in the US for the 22nd consecutive year and the most purchased vehicle in the region that wasn’t an SUV or a pickup truck.

To say that it’s popular is an understatement.Review: The 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser Is The 4-Runner For Grown UpsIf it’s going to keep that kind of sterling sales reputation though it needs to be significantly better, not just a flashier version of its previous self. After six years of production, Toyota appears to have distilled the Camry ethos and come to the market with a more focused product. To find out just how it was in the real world, we drove it for two days in both urban and rural areas of California.

Here’s what we learned. An Electrified LineupLast year, the Toyota Camry Hybrid made up just 12.2 percent of all Camry sales. For the 2024 model year that figure will be 100 percent since every Camry now comes with the same hybrid engine and the same continuously variable transmission (CVT).

All Camry hybrids are now available with front or all-wheel drive too.The power plant consists of a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine that makes 225 horsepower (167 kW) on 87 octane fuel in front-wheel drive models and 232 hp (170 kW) in AWD variants. Notably, Toyota says that the FWD version will get up to 51 mpg combined. Those horsepower and fuel economy figures are the ones that Toyota is leaning heavily on when it comes to the success of this updated Camry.