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The Camry TRD has unique features that demonstrate its athleticism, and it offers a ride quality that put its rivals to shame.
Renowned for its reliability, fun-to-drive capability, spacious cabin, and good mileage, the Toyota Camry is among the best-selling sedans in the world. Its amazing crash scores further demonstrate the Toyota Camry’s capabilities as a family sedan.
This popular sedan not only provides comfortable seating and decent tech features, but also has a good driving capability that you can’t find anywhere among its competition, which, for the 2022 model year, include the Nissan Altima, the Kia K5, and of course, its lead competitor, the Honda Accord.
But gearheads looking for the Camry’s great attributes, but with a more immersive driving experience and a sportier appeal, will especially appreciate the exciting Camry TRD model.
The Camry TRD joined the most durable and long-lasting Camry family as the performance-oriented model. After its introduction in 2020, the Camry TRD became Toyota’s flagship Camry, and the best decision the brand ever made. The TRD badge, short for Toyota Racing Development adds a sportier appeal and a more thrilling driving experience that you can’t get from a standard Camry.
The Camry TRD will put a smile on any gearhead’s face, with unique features that demonstrate its athleticism and a ride quality that put its rivals to shame. Here’s why you should buy the 2022 Toyota Camry TRD.
With its previous basic design, the Toyota Camry earned the nickname Plain Jane. But thanks to its most recent makeovers, that has changed. Now, the 2022 Toyota Camry flaunts a sleek and stylish exterior design that sets it apart from the rest of the Camry family. With the base model getting a revamp in the form of LED exterior lights, the SE trim gains a sportier appeal, with unique front and rear-end designs that are also shared with the XSE and TRD trims.
Thanks to its aggressive body kit, the TRD is certainly the coolest and sportiest-looking Camry ever made. Its unique exterior styling features are the Calvary Blue color. Up top is an extra-budget-priced metallic black roof – which is shared with the XSE - matching the TRD’s new metallic black rear spoiler. The neatly-designed bi-LED headlights and LED daytime running lights that flank the unique gloss black TRD grille with a sporty mesh insert.
In addition to the black rear spoiler, the TRD’s rear end design features an exclusive TRD badging and LED combo taillights. As if that’s not sporty enough, it also gets a high-performance TRD black dual exhaust system with a sporty exhaust note. For more exclusivity, the 19-inch TRD black matte wheels come with the TRD center logos fitted to summer tires. We also love the brake calipers, which come in a sporty red shade, matching the aero kit with red pin-striping and color-keyed rocker panels, mutually boosting the Camry TRD’s profile.
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The gas-propelled Camry offers two engines, a four-cylinder, and a 3.5-liter V6. The TRD trim level is equipped with the latter, which churns out up to 301 horsepower and 267 lb.-ft. of torque. The TRD’s V6 motor pairs with an 8-speed automatic gearbox, which comes with paddle shifters.
Compared to the 204 horsepower four-cylinder counterpart, the V6 is incredibly punchy and gives the sedan a cool 60-mph sprint in just under 5.8 seconds. On the other hand, while the four-cylinder models deliver 28 MPG in the city and 39 MPG on the highway, the TRD versions, which only come with front-wheel drive, give you a decent gas mileage of 22 MPG in the city and about 32 MPG on the highway.
And thanks to the tuned TRD modifications made to the front and rear suspension system, the chassis, and the shock absorbers, along with the larger brakes, the TRD guarantees an enhanced track-tuned ride quality, providing more authority and the best handling that any gearhead would ask for.
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Like the exterior, the 2022 Toyota Camry has also received special interior touches. The TRD’s roomy cabin looks elegant, with a black interior shade and bold red accents, and some stitching. Most of the materials match its siblings, featuring a blend of patterned metal trim, soft-touch materials, and silver door handles. The special TRD seats also come with bold red accent trim, with TRD logos on the headrests.
With the TRD trim level, you also get an upgraded entertainment system, which substitutes the 7-inch screen available on the rest of the trims, for a bigger and crispier-looking 9-inch screen. Also, the TRD package drops the standard 6-speaker sound system and adopts the advanced JBL 9- speaker sound system. The infotainment system comes standard with Bluetooth, Android Auto, Amazon Alexa as well as Apple CarPlay. The most convenient tech feature, however, is the voice command system, which works like a charm. The multimedia system is also equipped with a backup camera.
The safety and convenience technology list has also been updated. With the standard Toyota Safety Sense 2.5+ suite, you have features like the automatic high beams, pre-collision with pedestrian detection, lane departure alert with steering assist, dynamic radar cruise control, and road sign assistance. And for the first time, the TRD trim level comes with Rear Cross Traffic Alert and a Blind Spot Monitoring system.
Wilfred Nkhwazi is a screenwriter, actor, and sports car enthusiast from Blantyre, Malawi. He has written 2 feature films and a thriller trilogy. Wilfred is pursuing an Electric Car Technology program and spends a lot of his time writing for hotcars.com, penning down fast whips, celebrity collections, and everything else in-between. When he isn't writing, he loves to take long drives around the city, make music, and drink hot chocolate.