The 2025 Camry LE Might Be the BEST Daily Driver in Its Class!

This is the 2025 Toyota Camry LE. The LE is the only trim I would consider and in this review I'm going to walk through why. I think it's the perfect commuter vehicle and I would get this over just about any EV on the market. Now I do like the styling of this vehicle. It's quite nice. My daughter really likes it. The refreshed taillights compared to the 2018 and this is a good shot of those rims. She actually wants the cooler looking rims but you'll see this height of the tire that's really what gives you that ride quality and a little skinnier tire. So she did end up adding tint. It was about $299 from a local shop. You usually get a better film, better warranty, and it just looks a little bit better than the factory tint. A color is Ocean Gem which it actually does look extremely nice in the sun. It has a has a really nice sparkle to it. Hopefully that gives you an idea. There is no moonroof on the LE model. All right I like starting out reviews with an actual test drive just to get into the meat of the vehicle and actually why we like this vehicle. The short version is my daughter got into an accident. She got hit by somebody. Totaled her 2018 Camry. This is a 2025 and a replacement for her 2018. Now the big reason I would choose the LE, this low trim model, there are a couple huge reasons. Number one is we got this for about I think it was $28,700 plus tax. That's it. As you can see we're in EV mode now. It's super quiet. It does have acoustic glass on the front which does quiet it down a lot. If you go to the upper trims they've got a close acoustic glass on the sides as well. But this road, I wanted to take you on this road specifically because this road has a ton of expansions or joints. I'm not going to take you to a road that's curated for reviews that sounds quiet. This is the worst road in probably four or five different states that I've been on as far as just pavement roads and expansion joints and this thing's just dead silent because it's got on the LE trim you have 16 inch wheels. They're taller. They're not low profile. Maybe they don't look as cool but man this car rides perfectly on the worst roads and that's really I think one of the biggest reasons why you'd buy this car. It's price. I is one of the best buys you can get as far as residual value. Now you buy this car for let's say you can pick it up for $28,628 plus tax. The big the big win there is it's not going to depreciate like an electric vehicle. So you can go get cooler vehicles, faster vehicles, EVs, spend $40,000, $50,000. You'll spend more on insurance and you'll also really not get that much more for your money. You'll get a more powerful vehicle. Another big reason why I would choose this vehicle is the range. It is absolutely ridiculous. We've got about 1,867 miles on this and my daughter says she gets routinely over 600 miles on a tank. As you can see on the dash there and this is a 20 year old girl that generally drives this car and it's averaging 51.3 and it actually when you calculate the mileage at the pump it's a little bit better than that. It is really easy with mixed driving. She does mixed driving in the city, on the highway, on the interstate. Mostly it's just mixed between I'd say 20-30 miles an hour up to 75 miles an hour. So she's everywhere in between when she's not trying to hypermile it she's just in normal mode. That was another thing we found out about this car. In eco mode it actually seems to get worse mileage for whatever reason but in normal or sport mode seems to get a little better mileage. But the big win of the LE. I actually like these materials here. I'll show you here in a moment in the cap. These materials on the dash I actually like these better than the upper trims. The upper trims are like a corduroy here and it just looks completely out of place. The LE actually matches this a little bit better. You still have dual climate control on the LE. Everything works as it should. This is this is sort of the this is why this car is so popular. You're not going to find insane deals on them but I think for 2025 spending you know 28,000 something plus tax on this vehicle I think you're getting a lot for your money. The hybrid system has a so it's a 10-year 150,000 mile warranty on the battery and the hybrid inverter and hybrid motor. I believe they are 96 months and 100,000 miles so a little bit less on the inverter. But the batteries are generally what has issues on on any EV and to have a 10-year 150,000 mile warranty on this it is lithium-ion. That is pretty cool. Did you see that car? That car was awesome. I would love one of those old you know 30s or 40s vehicles. Anyway side side note we'll do a quick 0 to 60 just to show you what this thing can do. It actually so compared to the 2018 Camry this thing moves a lot quicker than that just the base four-cylinder. You have the 134 horsepower hybrid motor in addition to a four-cylinder in this so they can both hit at the same time and deliver power to the wheels at the same time. I do find it a lot quicker my daughter said she noticed that between the old 2018 and this of course electric motors at our elevation 5,000 feet they're going to move the car out a lot better than just a naturally aspirated engine. So we'll get up here into the 60 mile an hour zone do a quick 0 to 60. I'm not going to draggy it because that's not really what this car's for it's just to give you an idea of the quickness of this versus the old model and we'll punch it and 60. That's you know for for a base sedan just this basic four-door sedan super quiet it handles really well this doesn't have the sport tune suspension in the LE. It's another big reason why I would actually buy it over the SE and all the other trims the SE, XSE, XLE all those trims give you wider wheels with shorter sidewalls and they give you firmer suspension springs and firmer shocks. I don't like that in my day-to-day driving now if you're wanting to just rip around corners all the time and tear your tires off great go for the upper trims it's plenty of power for anyone day-to-day driving like how many times are you going out and just racing most of the time as you can see in this traffic to my left you're in you're in a lot of traffic you're not going to be punching these Teslas and these EVs for very long you got two seconds of runway and then you're you're into the car next to you or in front of you. It has a lot of EV characteristics so if you've ever driven a Tesla or anything like that they're super nice to drive really easy to drive just smooth quiet this is a lot like that it's very smooth very quiet the engine isn't I don't think it's as loud as the old engine uh the 2018 because it was you always have the engine noise in the old version this one goes into EV mode a lot and the the mannerisms really you know when you're when you're just dipping in and out of corners like this I'm going you know almost 50 miles an hour and there's very little body roll I was surprised in the LE even though it doesn't have the firmer suspension I would say go test drive the LE versus the SE and just see the quality of the riding the LE for the majority of roads that I'm going to be on or my daughter's going to be on that's where this has a huge win for us I just think this is the sweet spot for the Camry and you don't you don't get upcharged overall here I'll punch it again just to show you I mean it just chirped the tires I don't know about you but the last Camry she had it wouldn't chirp the tires having this dual the hybrid plus the engine in there another big win for this is compared to EVs I've had EVs look charging them at home is it's okay but the range is always annoying for her when she drives a lot getting 600 miles on a tank not having to charge not having to think about if she's charged or not or when she's going to charge I think this is a much better buy for most people you you don't have to think about it she loves the range on this she's like man I I can't remember the last time I filled my tank now here we're on a blacktop road so I mean it's just super quiet it is whisper quiet in the cab the ambient noise is just almost nothing again skinnier tires helps with your noise got acoustic glass in the front and it is just a super well-mannered car one of the funny downsides that we have to this vehicle this is her old key from her 2018 Camry it is super heavy dense it feels like super high quality these new Toyota keys does say Camry on the back but it's uh it's much bigger in your pocket and it's about I don't know it feels like a third less weight to the key so doesn't feel the new key just doesn't feel quite as high quality and that's sort of a theme throughout all Toyota vehicles in 2025 and really anything after 2020 a lot of the plastics a lot of the doors everything they feel like they they went a little bit cheaper on everything and my theory about this is look when you're still in 2025 they're one of the only companies still selling good sedans that are reliable uh top rated safety picks and actually enjoyable to drive decent size not just pieces of junk that'll fail you at a hundred thousand miles so I think what Toyota's trying to do is look wages have gone up we have to be honest about everything right the the these are built in America a lot of the parts are sourced from Japan so you you you're only going to get so many really high quality parts on a vehicle like this and and still keep your price at 28,000 if they want to keep that price the same but we have massive inflation with parts we have material inflation copper aluminum all these things have gone way up in price Toyota has to do something right they have to cut corners so things like this you know when they're cutting corners on the key fob I'm not as I'm not I don't care about that that much it's like oh you you notice it and and it's kind of everywhere it's with the key fob it's with the hood struts that don't exist anymore another perfect example I'll show you in a minute is this seat it doesn't have a power seat in the driver's seat it's a manual seat you know it the the 2018 had a power seat things that my daughter noticed as well but they weren't deal breakers because you're still getting an extremely reliable car now what you'll notice on the inside you do get these nice you still get the Toyota Safety Sense on the LE model you're going to get the blind spot indicators handles feel pretty solid they feel just like the 2018 again there's not a lot of difference I do feel like they these materials right here so in the LE I like this material better that you find on the dash and all the way across there in the upper models it is actually a terrible like corduroy material and this one and the LE actually looks much nicer the steering wheel is a pretty standard layout very easy to find all your functions again all these modern cars nowadays have so many buttons it's getting a little bit crazy these seats they do feel uh I'd say a little bit cheaper than the 2018 model they're they're still comfortable very soft material they feel like they will hold up they're just cloth seats so what do you expect in an LE and when you don't have leather you don't necessarily need that heated and cooled function I do like the layout of this console area though nice cup holders got the little springy I wish it was they were a little bit bigger you can only fit like typical like soda cans in here does have your wireless charger has a little keeper here so your phone stays when you go around corners that's nice got usb c's usb a typical things you're going to find in modern cars you do have eco normal sport again I set it on the drive eco mode I wouldn't use it I don't see a need for it it actually doesn't get as good a mileage as normal or sport in our testing I'm six foot one so I have pretty good headroom here about this much room and I haven't moved the seat my daughter's super short so she actually moves the seat up I could probably move the seat down just a little bit nicer seating position it's a little bit up off the ground so it doesn't feel terrible to get in and out of but steering wheel is all adjustable and uh really easy easy car to drive for tall people and we'll get into the back seat here where I'm sitting this is how much room I have with you know my seat I'm six one so this is set up for me in front and got plenty of room here again lots of headroom this is a you know it's a mid-sized sedan so plenty big for adults it's not like something like your Corolla or something a little bit smaller got your typical vents usb-c usb-a but overall fairly basic now this did come with these rubber mats as you can see a full set of rubber mats they're like Toyota's WeatherTech mats go to the trunk here you do get a poppable trunk it's a little bit slower than the last version which I kind of like the 2018 model would hit you in the head it does have a nice rubber mat set as well you do have the the jack set and a spare tire down there it's a little donut but at least they give it to you a lot of evs nowadays because of the because of the battery space that you know takes up battery underneath here they just cut into all the features like a spare tire that you might actually want and as far as the interior it is a typical push button the dash is pretty customizable really we didn't customize it much because the default layout was just fine for us it does take a little bit longer to boot than I'd like I wish Toyota would kind of fix that a little bit just make it make it boot almost instantly it's not bad most of the time you're going to get in your car press the button you know put your seat belt on and you're good to go the camera is pretty high definition again this is a this is an 8-inch screen the upgraded models have a 12-inch screen I think this is fine you can reach everything on this screen you can reach all these buttons very easy from the driver's seat so yeah overall the layout's good awesome car great commuter it is kind of no frills that's just that's just how this is no frills and uh everything you need nothing you don't it's like the old Xterra mentality right you're going to get a good reliable car with physical buttons pretty safe and awesome gas mileage