2005 Toyota Camry LE Engine, Handling, Interior

Maybe our fourth-place Camry LE test car was just having a bad car day. Or maybe the pedestal America's best-selling sedan has been preening itself on isn't as lofty as we've thought. At low speeds, its five-speed automatic lurched on downshifts. The concrete-induced tire-whirr decibels were two settings higher than any of us remembered, and its stopping feel recalled the heyday of cable braking. Demerits against a car that otherwise gives vanilla a good name, being erstwhile quiet as a librarian with laryngitis, comforpedic riding, and as solid as a poured-concrete foundation.

But the vanilla can get a bit thick. Road-test editor Neil Chirico calls it the teddy bear of the group. Senior tester Chris Walton claims the steering is light, almost electrical boost-like (confirmed around our 200-foot skidpad where the Camry required a group low 3.8 pounds of effort at 0.5 g cornering rate). And the aforementioned tardy reply to the brake pedal results in a continuous state of high-alert in dense traffic. While our LE's track-site stopping distance bettered the Accord's dismal 149 feet by five, its sleepy reactions are far more consequential (at 65 mph, you're covering 95 feet per second; do the math).

The 190 horsepower (per the SAE's latest guidelines) available from the 3.0-liter DOHC V-6 is up to most chores, and, in the car's 2005 LE incarnation, is otherwise freshened by a modestly redesigned grille, headlamps, taillights, chrome shifter base, and interior door handles. Ensconcing yourself within the Camry's belly is like opening a textbook titled "Ergonomics Done Right." with chapters on clearly marked gauges, rotary dials for ventilation tuning, and useable doodad binnery. Only the audio system's "mode" control, located where the radio's tuner customarily resides, fractures the perfection.

A car like the Camry needs to be measured against the expectations of its typical owners, who, for the most part desire a midprice, well-crafted, reliable, and limousine-like experience. And here it is.

Remember the moment when you somberly noticed that Japanese products were no longer inept carbon copies of American designs? We suspect Japan's citizenry is getting that same clammy feeling about now because our third-place Hyundai Sonata is one accurate Camry facsimile. Get out the micrometers. Length: Camry, 189.2 inches; Sonata, 188.9 inches. Wheelbase: Camry, 107.1 inches; Sonata, 107.4 inches. Nod along with me here. Um-hum, Hyundai came up with this car on its own. Now you tell one.