Hi, I bought a 2010 Camry LE with 50,000 miles on it. I have owned 4 Camrys. My last car was a 1999 Camry LE. I bought this car expecting a better ride than my last car. But it is NOT. It reacts to all sorts of bumps and imperfections in the road. It is also boaty. It is very uncomfortable to me. All the reviews said that it has good ride. It came with new Mastercraft 440 tires, which I have been told are less than standard. I don’t know what the problem is. Do I need better tires? Do I need new struts already at 50,000 miles? Or is is this just the way these cars are?
Did you have it inspected? Have you had a mechanic go over the front and rear suspension? Have you checked your tire pressure? I’d be surprised if you need shocks/struts at 50k, but it could happen.
That’s not rude, it’s relevant. This stuff should have come out on the test drive, which forces us to wonder if one was conducted. If it was, did the bad ride start after you bought it?
Let’s start with the simplest and least expensive remedy:. Are the tires inflated to the recommended pressure displayed on the label on the door pillar? This is the proper pressure. If the tires are inflated to the maximum allowed listed on the sidewall, the tires are overinflated.
That’s a fact.
Have it all checked out and aligned and put some decent tires on it. Mastercraft tires are the cheapo way to pass inspection, but not noted for their ride or handling.
My subjective opinion is, yes, Toyotas and Hondas (and others) have progressively stiffened their suspensions over the years…maybe for younger drivers.
How long have you had this thing ? Sometimes the selling dealer will let you trade for another vehicle for just a mileage fee , the key word is ’ sometimes '. As for the tires , I seriously doubt they are the problem .
I do have trouble with the vehicle being bumpy and floaty at the same time.
Both my friend and I own a Corolla. Hers is newer than mine, and has a noticeably stiffer ride. So newer Camry’s are probably just designed that way too. You should gain better handling during turns, so one idea, focus on that rather than the more bumpy ride. I presume by “boating” you mean it feels like the car is sort of wiggling under you. I installed new tires on my Corolla recently and immediately encountered that effect too, so consider the tires as a likely source. Mis-alignment is another possibility. If I had this problem & wanted to do the most I could to improve the ride, I’d install 4 Michelin Defenders and have a 4 wheel alignment done. I’d also do the “bounce” test on all four corners of the car as a way to judge if the struts are doing their job properly.
I always liked the rides of my prior Toyotas, but in 2005 I bought a new Corolla and the ride and seats were so hard I had to trade it after only two months. It was crippling me. The rides and the seats on these cars have gotten far worse over the years. I noticed them changing immediately after they began designing and building them in the U.S.
Ironically, I traded it for a 2005 Scion tC, a Toyota product still at that time made 100% in Japan, but no longer made at all… and have loved the ride ever since.
I don’t claim to understand these things… but can only testify to them.
i had a 2010 camry LE. i still remember looking at identical car (different color) next to it at the dealer which had nicer michelin tires. i think ours were bridgestone el400? i was going to ask dealer to swap them as both were on steel rims, plastic hubcaps, but did not. the car rode fine but had zero snow traction. we used to get stuck at the end of our driveway. on city street.
It’s the tires most likely, but as others have noted in their comments, newer cars do seem more firm. That is not an accident. Read any big-name car magazine. They all have comparisons each month. And each month, the stiffest riding vehicle is the “winner” and the cars that offer comfort and other things real car buyers value are the “losers.” That’s because most of the guys writing at these outlets (and I can’t think of a single woman), are boy-racers. They are not normal automobile consumers aznd their thinking is skewed towards believing that a car must be the fastest and “best handling” in its segment to be the best for its target audience. That is just not true of family cars and daily drivers. Automakers want to win those comparisons badly and the resulting “Car of the Year” headlines. So they have adapted.
Tires are also changing, and not for the better. I just tested a 2018 Accord and a 2017 Civic. Both wear 40-series ultra-low profile tires. It hurts the ride no matter how soft the springs and dampers are made. Why did Honda put these super-aggressive tires on mainstream family cars? Because Honda wants to remain a “Ten-Best” winner. We owners of these mainstream passenger cars become the losers.
One more philosophical observation. As we get older, we all want more comfort in our daily drivers. At least in my case, I have come to value the real-life aspects of driving rather than the imaginary benefits of what are basically track tires on a family car. I live in a small New England town where we name the potholes because they never go away. I need a car that is usable in that world and 40-series tires are just not compatible.
What is the exact size tire on your Camry? If these are aftermarket rims, or if they factory option large wheels with extra low profile tires, they’ll ride rough, in addition to being (apparently) cheaper tires. But you said “It is also boaty.” What does that mean, exactly?
i had a 2001 accord ex with avg quality tires this spring and it rode like a dreamboat. very smooth/soft ride. i would say it was softer than the 2010 camry was when it was new.
The absolute WORST tires I have ever had were a set of Mastercraft tires. It seemed like the car’s suspension system had issues but turned out to be the tires’ terrible quality.
Mastercraft is just like all tire companies , they have several grades of tires to meet different criteria . I had one set of Michelin that I did not like and one set that were excellent.
Riding quality is a subjective thing. I prefer a firmer ride. Even more important to me are comfortable seats. The seats and ride of our 2003 4Runner suits me just fine. The seats are firm and support my back very well.
We had 1993 Oldsmobile 88 which had almost every possible option. The ride and seats were too soft. On long trips we found our 1990 Ford Aerostar more comfortable, so we took the Aerostar and left the Oldsmobile at home.
When I was a kid, my brother and I and I had a problem with car sickness. Our problem came on suddenly and several years later, disappeared. My parents thought we had outgrown the problem. Some years later I came across an old Consumer Bulletin. In a road test of the 1949 Dodge, the publication reported that the Dodge had a swaying ride, particularly in the back seat and should be avoided by people prone to motion sickness. After I thought about it, my car sickness problem started when we got the Dodge and disappeared when the Dodge was replaced. Even as a kid I could not understand why I could ride on long field trips in the rear of a school bus and not get sick, but even after 50 miles in the Dodge I would be nauseated.
I found a way to make my 1965 Rambler ride more smoothly-- I would ride around in my 1950 Chevrolet 3800 one ton pickup for an hour. When. I would then get into the Rambler it rode like a dream. To improve the ride of my one ton 1950 Chevy pickup, I would take the 1939 Farmall F-12 with the sickle bar and mow the field for couple of hours. I could get into the pickup and it seemed as though I was riding in a Rolls Royce.
