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While one can acknowledge with awe, the technological accomplishment of a hybrid car such as the new Camry hybrid, you also have to wonder if hybrids aren't just desperate attempts to maintain an excessive, unsustainable lifestyle, while only briefly delaying the day of reckoning with a finite supply of oil and the environment. Should we put hybrid cars over in the column with E85 fuels and electrics? Or will they keep us going long enough to last until we have hydrogen fuelled cars? Your guess is as good as ours. In the meantime, the Camry hybrid allows you a way to enjoy the drive to Armageddon.

There are two schools of thought regarding the look of hybrid cars. One holds that gas-electric powered vehicles should look as different from mainstream motors as possible, so that their owners can receive recognition for their efforts to relieve America's energy independence and reduce so-called greenhouse gasses. The other says they should be invisible, a "no questions asked" alternative to "normal" cars. If any vehicle can resolve this issue, it's the Toyota Camry hybrid (TCH).

Unless you clock the TCH's badges and slotted front grill, there's no quick way to distinguish the hybrid-engined model from its gas-only equivalent. Which leaves us with a sedate sedan whose sides arch up and out like a racing yacht's hull, and indent around the arches like Chris Bangle's Bimmers. The new Camry's truncated front end gives it a purposeful look-- provided adding interest to a bland Euro-shape is its purpose. The TCH's headlights and the front grille look like one of those old arching eyebrow masks. In "Barcelona Red Metallic" (a light Candy Red with a sprinkle of gold metal-flake), it's a ballroom dancer looking for a rave. 

Once inside, you rest upon silkworm cocoon treated cloth seats with all the allure of an old fogy's bathrobe. The dashboard's configured into two levels, with the top portion moved towards the front of the car. The layout gives you the [oh what a] feeling that you're ensconced in a traditional Yank Tank (think vintage Buick). The instrument panel's easy-to-read white-on-black alpha numerology adds to the gerontology motif. In his later years, aviator Howard Hughes would have approved of the TCH's HVAC system, which uses "plasma cluster" ionization to reduce airborne mold spores, microbes, fungi, odors, germs and bacteria inside the cabin.

And so to the meat of the matter: the TCH's max mileage meter. The gauge replaces the traditional tachometer to show TCH driver's the money (that they aren't spending at the pump). Depending on your speed, your need for speed and the angle of the roadway, the needle swings within a broad arc to reveal your instantaneous gas mileage. The display ranges from O-to-60 mpg, and beyond! In "beyond" mode, there's nothing pushing the TCH but an electric motor.

While the Camry's electric motor and battery pack get all the attention (even here), Toyota's all-purpose four-cylinder gas burner continues to evolve from high-tech marvel to really high-tech marvel. Thanks to improved air-cleaner shapes, intake ducts and intake manifold, and cylinder head intake ports, the TCH's power plant breathes better than a Sherpa at sea level. At the same time, it blows cleaner than wind on the water (due to the catalytic converters being incorporated into the exhaust manifolds).

The numbers powers the TCH powered by a 2.4-liter gas burning in-line four-cylinder engine with double-overhead camshafts and 16 valves; working in conjunction with an AC permanent magnet electric motor. The former produces 147hp and 138 ft-lbs. of torque. The latter stumps-up 45hp (limited by the 150 pound, nickel metal hydride battery set-up). Put it together and what have you got? How about this: 192hp of thrust and 199 ft.-lbs. of twist. Hooked-up to a continuously variable transmission, there are enough beans in the soup to take the 3640 pound hybrid from a standing starting to 60 mph in 7.7 seconds.

Not bad, considering that a Prius makes the same journey in 9.8 seconds. Of course, once they've built up a lick of speed, even mileage conscious TCH drivers may want to do something with it. Like all Camry's, the hybrid is a front-driver bolstered by MacPherson struts (front) and a dual-link strut system (rear). You under steer as much as Chevrolet's Impala, but with better correction, out of the turn.

Unlike most cars, the mileage is better in the city: 40 mpg. A freeway run showed 40 mpg at 70 mph according to the "Eco Drive Level" on the instrument panel.

With the Toyota Camry, the hybrid has finally hit the mainstream. If seeing how many miles you can drive in town on just electric power in a car that won't brand you a dweeb, or proclaim your PC proclivities, is your thing, your ride has arrived.

Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price: $25,900.00