First: Please ignore this post if you are 1) not interested in towing and 2) intend to just comment that the US owners manual says not to tow things and Oh the warranty. We can only speculate pointlessly on this forum (but please don't) why Toyota would claim the 2025 Camry cannot tow like a Rav4 hybrid even though they have the same drivetrain, similar curb weight and brakes, plus the Camry has a longer wheelbase and lower center of gravity. Note that overseas, the Camry hybrid is tow rated for 1000 lbs, still low, but at least its "official". I have occasionally towed my motorcycles with all my sedans over the years and never had an issue.
Summary: My Camry XSE awd handily towed ~1000 lbs of motorcycles and trailer using a Curt class 1 hitch from etrailer on a round trip of 1800 miles from Massachusetts to North Carolina. It had plenty of power for highway speeds of up to 80 mph and for long uphill travel, and it was stable and well behaved for the whole trip. The XSE's stiffer struts helped damp the vertical motions from the 100ish lbs of tongue weight. The brakes were adequate but required extra care in downhill mountain curves, with some assist from the transmission "gears" to hold the speed down. If I were regularly towing this size load in hilly areas I would invest in electric brakes for the trailer to be safer.
Caveat: Gas mileage dropped to about 20mpg, similar to some videos I watched about towing with a the Rav4 hybrid. With the 13 gallon tank, the resulting range is not great, so plan to carry an emergency gas can if you are venturing into the hinterlands. We played around with different cruising speeds from 68 to 80 mph, but it didn't make much of a difference. It seemed to help gas mileage to turn cruise control off for the long uphills and let the speed slowly decrease, and then let the speed build back up on the downhills, similar to how the 18-wheelers run.
The LTA in cruise control behaved a bit differently with the trailer. It required a bit more steering wheel input to keep convincing the self-drive nanny that your hands were on the wheel. It worked fine, though.
The regular Camry light controller on etrailer does not work with the XSE's LED taillights, the plugs are different. Unfortunately the Tekonsha ZCI signal-sensing universal controller they recommended instead also did not work that well, even though its fairly easy to install with the battery and wiring all in the same rear corner of the car. It does not consistently turn off and keep off the trailer taillights when the car is parked and locked, and the blinker function was iffy. Etrailer had made some recommendations to troubleshoot the issue, but they don't fix the phantom-turn-ons issue. I plan to discuss this with etrailer and return the Tekonsha if they can't think of anything else to fix it. I would rather hard-wire a controller than risk having one that drains the battery on its own.
I got flashed a couple of times in the dark due to the angle of the headlights with the weight in the back. It would be nice to have a light levelling controller in the cabin like my 2009 Mazda 6 had (that might have been required by law for xenon lights).
Summary: My Camry XSE awd handily towed ~1000 lbs of motorcycles and trailer using a Curt class 1 hitch from etrailer on a round trip of 1800 miles from Massachusetts to North Carolina. It had plenty of power for highway speeds of up to 80 mph and for long uphill travel, and it was stable and well behaved for the whole trip. The XSE's stiffer struts helped damp the vertical motions from the 100ish lbs of tongue weight. The brakes were adequate but required extra care in downhill mountain curves, with some assist from the transmission "gears" to hold the speed down. If I were regularly towing this size load in hilly areas I would invest in electric brakes for the trailer to be safer.
Caveat: Gas mileage dropped to about 20mpg, similar to some videos I watched about towing with a the Rav4 hybrid. With the 13 gallon tank, the resulting range is not great, so plan to carry an emergency gas can if you are venturing into the hinterlands. We played around with different cruising speeds from 68 to 80 mph, but it didn't make much of a difference. It seemed to help gas mileage to turn cruise control off for the long uphills and let the speed slowly decrease, and then let the speed build back up on the downhills, similar to how the 18-wheelers run.
The LTA in cruise control behaved a bit differently with the trailer. It required a bit more steering wheel input to keep convincing the self-drive nanny that your hands were on the wheel. It worked fine, though.
The regular Camry light controller on etrailer does not work with the XSE's LED taillights, the plugs are different. Unfortunately the Tekonsha ZCI signal-sensing universal controller they recommended instead also did not work that well, even though its fairly easy to install with the battery and wiring all in the same rear corner of the car. It does not consistently turn off and keep off the trailer taillights when the car is parked and locked, and the blinker function was iffy. Etrailer had made some recommendations to troubleshoot the issue, but they don't fix the phantom-turn-ons issue. I plan to discuss this with etrailer and return the Tekonsha if they can't think of anything else to fix it. I would rather hard-wire a controller than risk having one that drains the battery on its own.
I got flashed a couple of times in the dark due to the angle of the headlights with the weight in the back. It would be nice to have a light levelling controller in the cabin like my 2009 Mazda 6 had (that might have been required by law for xenon lights).
