IF YOU ARE DRIVING A 2007 CAMRY WITH A FOUR CYLINDER, 5-SPEED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION, AND ARE EXPERIENCING SERIOUS HESITATION AND POWER LAG, PARTICULARLY FROM A STANDING START AND/OR AT LOWER SPEEDS, I URGE YOU TO READ THIS POST CAREFULLY, AND TO RESPOND IMMEDIATELY BY CALLING TOYOTA AT THEIR TOLL-FREE NUMBER, AND FILE A COMPLAINT.
My wife and I are six-time Toyota owners. Five of the six Toyotas that we have purchased were Camrys, and all but one was brand new. All but one were purchased from the same dealership since 1986. Until now, we have not encountered a single problem with any of them. We recently purchased a gorgeous metallic red
2007 Camry SE (4 cylinder) with a 5-speed automatic, and the
hesitation problems we are experiencing have been an extreme nuisance from day one. I believe that this problem is unique to the 2007 Camry, and that the problem may pose a
considerable safety hazard. The car, put quite simply, cannot get out of its own way. I only had mine for a week when I realized that the hesitation problems could become
dangerous. I took it back to the dealership before I had owned it a week, and the service department said they had not yet heard of any such problems, as the car is an entirely new model in its first year. That seemed reasonable enough, as we were one of the first to buy a 2007 CAMRY SE in our locality. My sales associate and I agreed that the car's computer system may still have been "learning" my driving habits, and that it would resolve the problem over time. But nothing changed over the next two weeks. I recently took it back to my dealership with around 1500 miles on it, after a couple of very frustrating and nerve wracking weeks.
Both my sales associate and the service manager offered to take a ride with me to witness and to assess the problem. I let the service manager do the driving on the first test run, and right away, he noticed both the "two-second lag" in performance shifting from first through third gear. Even though the car is running, it feels as though it just doesn't want to go. He also agreed that this lack of performance was both
unacceptable and quite unusual. The car hits second gear, and then...
nothing! It doesn't stall, but it falls flat on its face for about two full seconds before it gets up and goes.
This is not a car that I would even think of calling a call a "Sports Edition" in its current state. After our little incident with the test ride, my sales associate, the service manager and I decided it would be wise to
test drive another brand new Camry with the same engine and transmission for a "second opinion". Guess what??? Same exact problems and worse! We took it up my sister's steep paved driveway (as I did with my own the week before), and as before, the brand new test car could not get up the hill. But this time, it slowed to a crawl going up the drive, (with the pedal depressed to the floor) and then nearly stalled, rolling backwards! The brakes had to be thrown on to keep us from slipping right back down the driveway.
My wife and I believe that our
2007 Camry SE is a potentially dangerous vehicle. By potentially dangerous, I do not mean that the car is dangerous at all times, but that the EXTREME hesitation may present a hazard in traffic where snap decisions are unavoidable, and more aggressive acceleration is needed. If you drove this car just once, you would never dare to pull into traffic in a hurry. The car just dies when you try to accelerate. If you round a hard corner slowly enough for the car shift back into first gear, there will be nearly two seconds of
"huh?" before it shifts up to second. If you have someone following close behind you, which you more than likely will, it is quite possible that you will get rear-ended. Rightly so, because no driver would ever anticipate your car slowing down after rounding a corner, or anticipate anything as ridiculous as a vehicle that slows down before it decides to pass a vehicle.
My service manager's hands are tied; there is not yet a fix for this problem. I have to wait until a fix becomes available. For all we know, there may not be one for the life of the car. We were, up until now, a big Toyota Camry family. That all may change real soon, depending on whether or not Toyota recognizes the danger and finds a fix. I called the toll-free number at Toyota and they were very polite and acted quickly to get me a case number. But there is no fix available as of the writing of this post, nor has Toyota acknowledged that this is in fact a problem at all.
THERE IS A PROBLEM HERE, A VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM. DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU DIFFERENT.
I cannot believe that we may actually have to drive this car in its current state until "X" amount of similar complaints are filed by Camry owners. And even then, will Toyota find a quick fix, a computer re-map, or issue a recall? Will someone get broad-sided in an intersection before we see a fix?
I cannot imagine what winter is going to be like in this car...we live in New Hampshire, where life is a hill, and the winters are brutal to say the least. I'm guessing the
hesitation will more than likely cause severe traction problems and possibly
loss of control. I'm not talking about a a noisy door panel, a loose body side molding, or a dashboard rattle. This is a serious and dangerous flaw that has been overlooked by Toyota, and I for one, refuse to become a statistic just to get Toyota to find, or NOT find a fix for this horrific problem. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of; a car that can't even make it up a driveway without slowing to a stop and rolling backwards. It is intolerable, and I aim to take the steps necessary to change it before it either drives us out of our minds or gets SOMEONE KILLED.
LET ME END BY SAYING THAT OUR TOYOTA DEALERSHIP HAS BEEN COURTEOUS, HELPFUL, AND RESPONSIVE TO OUR COMPLAINTS THUS FAR. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS PROBLEM APPEARS TO BE OUT OF THEIR HANDS UNTIL A FIX IS FOUND, OR A PROBLEM RECOGNIZED BY TOYOTA.
BEFORE A FIX CAN BE FOUND, PEOPLE NEED TO MAKE THEIR PROBLEMS KNOWN.
WE ARE DISAPPOINTED IN THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS NEW VEHICLE, AND APPREHENSIVE EVERY TIME WE GET BEHIND THE WHEEL. IT REALLY FEELS AWFUL GETTING INTO AN ATTRACTIVE, SPORTY CAR LIKE THIS, KNOWING THAT IT JUST DOESN'T PERFORM. IF YOU ARE HAVING SIMILAR PROBLEMS WITH YOUR 2007 CAMRY, GET TO YOUR DEALER AND CALL TOYOTA NOW, PLEASE!!!!
2007 Camry SE Hesitation...Danger!
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