It’s no secret that cars are now frighteningly expensive. If you feel like $50,000 is the new $40,000, that’s because it is. Data from the analysts at Cox Automotive spells it out plain as day, with average transaction prices up nearly $9,000 since 2019. So what if you’re going car shopping with 2026 expectations and a 2019 budget? You might want to skip that base-model crossover SUV in the window and go look at a mid-range all-wheel-drive Toyota Camry.
Okay, so it’s not a crossover, but dig a little deeper, and it ticks heaps of boxes. Hybrid economy and available all-wheel drive usually aren’t things that go together in a midsize sedan, and a nicely spec’d Camry SE or Nightshade isn’t much more expensive than the cheapest trim of RAV4. Like, skip that Chipotle slop bowl twice a month and you’re there. So, what’s it like to live with? I spent a full week with one to find out.
[Full disclosure: Toyota Canada let me borrow this Camry for a week so long as I kept the shiny side up, returned it with a full tank of fuel, and reviewed it.]
The Basics
Engine: 2.5-liter Atkinson-cycle naturally aspirated 16-valve inline-four.
Battery pack: 251.6-volt, 1.04 kWh lithium-ion.
Transmission: Power-split eCVT, single-speed rear drive unit on all-wheel-drive models.
Drive: Front-wheel-drive standard in the U.S., through-the-road all-wheel-drive with an electric motor on the rear axle standard in Canada and optional in the U.S.
Output: 225 horsepower on front-wheel-drive models, 232 horsepower on all-wheel-drive models.
Fuel Economy:
- 52 MPG city, 49 MPG highway, 51 MPG combined on the base LE model
- 50 MPG city, 49 MPG highway, 50 MPG combined on the LE with AWD
- 47 MPG city, 45 MPG highway, 46 MPG combined for front-wheel-drive SE, Nightshade, XLE, and XSE models
- 46 MPG city, 46 MPG highway, 46 MPG combined for all-wheel-drive SE, Nightshade, and XLE models
- 43 MPG city, 43 MPG highway, 43 MPG combined for the all-wheel-drive XSE.
(Deep breath)
- 5.0 L/100km city, highway, and combined for Canadian-market SE FWD models
- 5.1 L/100km city, 5.2 L/100km highway, 5.1 L/100km combined for Canadian SE and XLE AWD models
- 5.5 L/100km city, highway, and combined for Canadian XSE AWD models.
Base Price: $30,295 including freight ($36,535 in Canada).
Price as-tested: $37,765 including freight ($42,147 in Canada).
Why Does It Exist?
Baseball. Bloomin’ onions. Black Friday-related assault and battery charges. The midsize sedan. We’re talking about American institutions that are revered, if not quite as popular as they used to be. These days, everything’s a crossover. The default family car? A crossover. The hit television event of the summer? A crossover. The reason your home hi-fi now makes every song sound like “Ocean Man” by Ween? Probably the crossover. Still, there’s merit to the traditional midsize sedan beyond slobbering, incoherent chants of “Return!” and the Camry is one of four still carrying the torch.
How Does It Look?
Most of the time, the latest Camry looks positively normal. A blend of modest, up-to-the-minute styling cues, from the tall rear bumper trim taking the edge off an even taller rump to the tasteful flaring of the lower body sides. It’s only when you catch it head-on that you realize it has a mouth like a moderately disheartened baleen whale, but then you forget about that five seconds later. Have I simply been blinded by a glowing hue of red? Perhaps, but while we’re on the subject, Toyota’s Supersonic Red is absolutely worth the premium color charge. Really though, Toyota’s done a solid job of cloaking a familiar platform in a new tracksuit.
What About The Interior?
Modern, minimalist cabins generally look sleek in photos, but can be more austere than a cinderblock outhouse in person. The cockpit of the Camry is the complete opposite. Okay, the giant slab of shiny black plastic smeared across the dashboard looks and feels like the homogenized carcasses of LG’s 2011 mobile phone lineup, but the rest of the materials in here range from fine to fabulous. The dashtop and door cards are adequately soft, the armrests are plush enough not to tire out even the boniest of elbows after several hours in the saddle, and I’m a big fan of the almost-corduroy fabric clothing the lower swoosh of the dashboard.
So far, so good, but what about comfort? Well, there are acres of space in both rows, and every seat strikes a nice balance between comfort and support. Maybe don’t try your best Jimmie Johnson impression around an on-ramp because the modest bolstering could lead to some unexpected intimacy between rear seat passengers, but come on. The only thing a real Camry shares with its NASCAR sibling is a visual resemblance. I do wish the telescoping steering column telescoped out a hair more, and a proper handle to close the trunk would be a welcome addition, but neither of these are dealbreakers for the money.
How Does It Drive?
The first thing you need to know about the latest all-wheel-drive Camry is that it’s not slow. Line it up against the Japanese sport compact cars of 20 years ago, and this sensible hybrid will genuinely kick some of them in the ‘nads and steal their lunch money. Figure zero-to-60 mph in under seven seconds and just enough passing power to encourage optimistic overtakes. In short, this is a 46 MPG car that can keep up with an eight-generation Honda Civic Si. So what’s the caveat? Well, it isn’t the well-tuned planetary gearset that helps send engine power to the road. Toyota might call it an eCVT, but it’s far more civilized than any belt-type CVT on the market. No, the real asterisk lies in this car’s through-the-road all-wheel-drive system with a tiny little 64-horsepower electric motor on the rear axle. Enough to get you out of a snow drift, but not enough to really rotate the car or take a huge load off the front axle. It’s good enough for most people’s needs, but those seeking the full traditional all-wheel-drive experience won’t find it here.
Beyond the unexpectedly reasonable straight-line performance, the Camry is born to soothe, yet not born to bore. It feels quieter and more composed than a Honda Accord Hybrid, swiftly dispatching with post-apocalyptic tarmac without sending huge reverberations through the floor. There’s a composed confidence to the ride quality, and the nicely weighted steering is night-and-day from the helm in the previous-generation model. Simply put, this is the best-driving Camry in decades.
Does It Have The Electronic Crap I Want?
Does it ever. Dual-zone automatic climate control, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a digital instrument cluster, a powered driver’s seat, loads of USB-C charging ports, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Canadian-market Camry Nightshade comes as standard with a moonroof, heated seats and steering wheel, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, and keyless entry, but you’ll need to add $1,970 in options to an American car to reach the same spec. Speaking of electronics, shoutout to having loads of physical controls. There are rocker switches for the dual-zone climate control, dedicated buttons for drive modes and seat heating and map light operation, and a flurry of real things to press on the steering wheel. In fact, as-equipped with the heated steering wheel and heated seats and stuff, I only found one blanked-out button inside the Camry Nightshade. And this isn’t even a fully-loaded model.
So, this Camry is comprehensively equipped, but how does it all work? Brilliantly, as it turns out. There’s heaps of configurability to the gauge cluster, wireless Apple CarPlay functioned flawlessly, the heated seats get to roasting chestnuts after about ten minutes on high, none of the driver assistance functions are intrusive, and even the six-speaker stereo sounds far better than you’d expect. You can drive a suitably equipped mid-range Camry and, unless you must have ventilated seats or a 360-degree camera system, never have a desire to jump up to the top trim.
Three Things To Know About The 2026 Toyota Camry Nightshade
- There’s only one blanked-out button in the entire interior.
- It features the same sort of all-wheel-drive system as the RAV4 crossover.
- The SE does away with the black accents, but is otherwise identically equipped and less expensive.
Does The 2026 Toyota Camry Nightshade Fulfil Its Purpose?
Strip away the blacked-out accents by going with a similarly equipped all-wheel-drive SE trim, and you get a car that’s less than two grand more than a base all-wheel-drive RAV4, better-equipped, more efficient, nicer to drive, more comfortable, quieter, quicker, features the same sort of hybrid powertrain, the same sort of all-wheel-drive system, and even has the same badge on the nose. The only catch is that you can’t put a labradog in the cargo area. I mean, you could, but that would be cruel. So, if all-wheel drive is a must but you don’t strictly need the tall, square cargo space of a crossover, a new mid-range Camry might be the move. It certainly shows how far your dollar can go.
What’s The Punctum Of The 2026 Toyota Camry Nightshade?
It’s so much car for the money, you almost feel like you’re getting away with something.
Top graphic image: Thomas Hundal
Good car is good.
I hate that Toyota chickened out and started making the huge grill section out of black plastic. On some models, the main grill section is painted to match the rest of the car, a common thing on newer Toyotas, and I think it looks much more refined and handsome than the “Grr I’m a Racecar” aesthetic
CX-50 Hybrid Preferred AWD.
The end.
I really wish ventilated seats would find their way down to being an option on lower trim levels. IMO any company could gain some traction in hotter states by being the ones to makes that happen first and with an ad campaign that makes people aware of it.
Amen to that. I can take or leave heated seats, but would go out of my way to get ventilated ones. (and I live in new england!)
This updated Camry seemed so great on paper, and looks-wise it was the first Toyota sedan in generations that I would not be embarrassed to be seen in. But examining one in person at the auto show revealed the same old Toyota shortcomings: The doors went clang! when I shut them, and the interior (while an improvement) has not kept up with the competition. Even the rear seat accessibility (door opening, pillar angle, etc.) was the least impressive of all of the midsize sedans I looked at.
The amazing mileage is a neat trick, but it’s still the Camry’s only trick. I genuinely wanted to like this car, but I need more than one reason to like it.
Not just the gas mileage, but longevity mileage: Toyota’s other trick is that it will last a long long time with no problems 🙂
This particular Toyota powertrain should last a good long time, it’s true. So then I would be suffering for that much longer inside a tinny ride with an ugly interior.
I’ve put just under 25,000 miles on my 2025 LE and it has been great so far. When the weather isn’t so damn cold I regularly see 50-60 mpg (closer to 40 mpg with the heater running all the time b/c (again) so damn cold). The quality of the interior and exterior materials could use a boost back to where Toyota was twenty years ago and an almost $30,000 car shouldn’t have luggage-crushing hinges on the trunklid, but overall it’s a solid transportation appliance.
At my local auto show last month they had a base Camry sitting next to a 4Runner TRD Pro. Sitting in them back to back I was struck by how much more spacious and comfortable that 30k Camry seemed compared to the $60k 4Runner.
I get that those are two very different vehicles, but man it made that Camry seem like a hell of a bargain. More space, more comfort, twice the mileage, half the price.
Oh how I wish they still made a wagon version 🙁
Had an AWD SE rental a few months ago and it was alarming how good it was. I was already pretty impressed with just how good the Camry was in almost every regard, but I genuinely couldn’t believe how good the low trim was. Quite literally my only complaint was that the driver’s seat lacked low-bacl support after a few hours in the car, but the near 50mpg I averaged (hand calculated) made up for it. If my Kia Niro gets wrecked today, high odds a Camry would be in my driveway tomorrow.
I didn’t realize the Rav4 had the same e-AWD system. That seems to take out any off-road pretension from it! Not that it really matters
Haven’t driven the AWD but the regular FWD Hybrid is my new favorite rental car. I’d get an XSE FWD in Ocean Blue myself.
This is why Subaru is killing the Legacy! No one would ever buy a Subaru if someone better offers decent AWD 😀
Paying an extra $3500 USD for black trim & spoilers and lower mileage is not a smart choice.
And rather than AWD, a nice set of snow tires plus a set of Vredestein All-Weather tires will be a better use of the $1600 premium.
If I was forced to go with a new Camry (I’d rather slit my wrists in a warm bath – or get a CPO E Class – or a new Mazda3) I’d choose a Camry LE.
Should be a good reliable efficient used car to buy in 5 years or so. Shame it’s not a liftback or wagon.
Just rented an SE version in the Denver area this past week. Averaged 51mpg all week even going up to the mountains and back. The torque of the hybrid motors really help at elevation. Overall, this is a solid car. I’d actually go for an SE version for the smaller wheels with taller sidewalls.
Correction LE trim ( still had AWD, heated seats and steering)
Yes, yes, make it a wagon and start selling it again in my side of the pond. Also offer it with similar PHEV drivetrain as Rav4.