Does anyone know of specific reliability issues with the 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid?
(Other than normal small defects)
The Camry, Fusion & Sonata hybrids have all proven to be very well made & reliable vehicles. Drive all 3 & buy the one you like the best.
The Camry Hybrid was remodled in 12, so history is not a good guide.
If you leave off the recent recalls, Toyota has a very low warranty cost; just a little higher than Honda’s and on par with Ford’s. Also, Toyota has a very short development cycle. They don’t bring a car to market with many defects. Car makers with longer development cycles are forced to wring out the bugs with customer complaints.
Only negative with this car is that I cannot afford to buy one.
Within the past 6 months Consumer’s Reports had an article on the reliability record of it’s cousin, the Toyota Prius. They found a 10 year old Prius, reviewed it’s repair history, and the state of it’s battery at 10 years. CR said the reliablity of the car and the life remaining on the battery was better than they expected, and in fact the battery performance remained almost as good as when it was new. That was encouranging when I read it, as I expected they’d say that the battery – which is likely very expensive to replace – would be near the end of its life. I’m guessing from this that the same is true of the Camry hybrid. I can’t remember the CR issue date, but if you go to your local public library, they’ll have all the back issues there and you can find it in the index. Best of luck.
Probably be okay although hard to judge due to lack of history. That said, you can never go wrong with a Toyota
It has an incredible history. And even better a Toyota badge if it turns out to be a dud and easily sold in used private market for top dollar.
I cannot see how you could go wrong.
The mentioned Fusion and Sonata are more difficult to sell used and top dollar. Also they are completely unproven vehicles is the 5yr+ range.
I doubt any hybrid, in good working condition, would be difficult to sell; save, maybe, for the ginormous Chevy truck/SUV hybrids.
All hyrids have been reliable from all the manufacturers. Toyota has the most experience, the most models, and has never released a hybrid with any problems.
No reason to think it’ll be anything but as reliable as the prior model. New Camry in a development of the prior model, not major changes.
I see no reason to avoid one in terms of reliability (performance may be another issue)…
But a few comments above aren’t entirely accurate. You can go wrong with a Toyota, unlike what @kadams has claimed. They’ve had some lemons and some reliability issues on some models, though overall your odds do tend to be very good. But you have to look model-to-model. Some simply aren’t that great. The Camry, in terms of reliability, is pretty good, though.
As @GeorgeSanJose points out, battery life shouldn’t be a major concern with a Toyota hybrid. Idaho National Labs tested batteries out to 180k miles in first and second generation hybrids. They found that battery capacity dropped in every model, some by significant amounts. But hybrids only use a small % of battery capacity (they aren’t designed to fully charge and discharge), so fuel economy changes were negligible. And that’s the important thing. However, I WOULD think twice about Honda hybrids - I’ve seen no issues from other manufacturers, but Honda did have premature failure issues with the 2006+ Honda Civic Hybrid. Their fix was to reprogram the vehicle rather than fix the battery, and owners say that mpg plummets after the reprogramming. Owners won their class action lawsuit but got next to nothing, though one owner won a lot more holding out and going after Honda herself. A lot of people think its a case where some drivers simply failed to be able to drive in a manner to get EPA listed fuel economy (and think the EPA is to blame) and miss the entire point that what Honda was accused of was testing a vehicle one way, then substantially altering the vehicle after the sale such that if the vehicle was tested again by the EPA in the altered form, it never would have been able to reach that mpg mark. It would be like buying a Boss 302 for its 444 HP and then having Ford reprogram it to only get 305 HP at the first service visit because they found a flaw in the engine that would go away if they simply used the engine less, and that was cheaper than actually fixing the flaw. You would have paid for the higher performance over the base model, but they would have essentially given you nothing but false advertisements and promises…
As for the Fusion or Sonata - @raj claims that they won’t go for top dollar… but that’s thinking stuck in the past - they’re holding their values extremely well. The cheapest Fusion at the neighborhood Toyota dealer here is listed at $15k - and that’s a 2009 low-end trim with 100k on the odometer. The closest Camry LEs on their lot are certified 2009s with less than 1/3 the mileage for $18.5k or the 2007 with about the same mileage for $13.5k. (and the Camry was generally more expensive than a Fusion to begin with). ALG, probably the leading source for predicting residual values and depreciation for fleet owners, says that the Camry and the Fusion have about the same depreciation rating, with the Sonata a tick further back.
Also, claiming the Fusion is completely unproven in the 5+ year range is false - it has been on the market for 6.5 years, and can trace its heritage back to the first Mazda6 (they had the same platform and powertrain), which rolled out almost a decade ago.
Yes, the Fusion is one of the most reliable cars out there, including the Camry. If @melott could wait, the new Fusion hybrid will be out this fall, it might be better than the Camry hybrid. I like mine.
Autoblog is claiming 47/44 will be the rating on the 2013 Fusion hybrid, compared to 43/39 on the Camry hybrid.
To me, that difference is just noise - not worth worrying about… but then with my driving habits, that difference would only result in $158 or so per year higher fuel costs on the Camry hybrid… assuming gas was $10 per gallon, which it isn’t. I would base my decision ENTIRELY on which one I felt was more fun to drive or a better bargain, and forget about the mpg difference altogether.
I bought a 2007 Camry Hybrid three months ago from the company I worked for. The cars had 168K miles on it. I checked the company records on the car. They have not done anything beside oil changes and tire replacement.
Since then I have put about 8k miles myslef. So far running great with about 38 to 42 miles per galon depending upon the driving habit. I think the car is great. I hope the hybrid battery will last longer.
shawn