Rear-seat space, however, is very good; three adults can sit across with very little pushing and shoving. Trunk space, at 425 litres, is also excellent.

Rear-seat and trunk space are very good. (Photo: Matthieu Lambert/Auto123.com)

I also wish you could get Bluetooth without having to opt for the Leather and Moonroof Package. Oh, you can get a dealer-installed BLU Logic module, but it doesn’t include wheel-mounted buttons. The sound system USB port is also something that would be nice to have outside of a $3,130 option group.

Under the hood is Toyota’s recently-introduced 16-valve, 2.5-litre inline-4 that develops 179 horsepower (10 more than in LE and XLE versions) and 171 pound-feet of torque. A 6-speed automatic with manual mode is also included, since a manual gearbox is no longer offered in Canada.

Zero to 100 km/h takes 9.2 seconds, which isn’t bad, and one of the quickest in our recent  mid-size sedan comparison test. It doesn’t feel that quick during spirited driving, though, because the 6-speed automatic is slow to react, even in sport mode, for the sake of fuel economy. The traction control system will probably hibernate all summer long, as it will probably never be called upon when there’s no snow on the ground.

Speaking of fuel economy, the week-long test is resulting in an average of 9.1 L/100 km, which is more than acceptable.

At wide-open throttle, the engine gets somewhat noisy, but under more sedate driving, the Camry’s cabin is very quiet. The car’s ride is quite comfortable, obviously, and the SE’s so-called sport suspension surprised us somewhat; not by its stiffness but by the way it makes the car much more pleasant to drive. Note that we didn’t say “more exciting to drive”, as the steering still lacks the on-center feel that would entice us to go twisty-road hunting.

Our test car gave us an average of 9.1 L/100 km. (Photo: Matthieu Lambert/Auto123.com)