Around two in the afternoon on a recent Fall day, we were sitting at our desk doing what most people were probably also doing: working. It was a Monday, a typical start to the work week, and we had already made it past our favorite part of the day: lunch. Seated in front of our computer, we were settling into the autopilot, the automatic performance of our daily tasks, a gentle lull of headphones and emails, tapping away at our keyboard, mouse clicking away at links and spreadsheets.
Curiously, a colleague popped his head in the door.
“Do you have time to drive the new Camry?”
“Right now?”
“Yes right now. The launch party is this Friday; we want something written before then.”
The party is indeed Friday. Leith Toyota Scion is pumped about the new version of the Camry and is pulling out all the stops for a post-work day entry into the weekend: food, music, games, prizes, raffles, test drives. It’s all centered around the new Camry and offers a departure from our usual routine of ordering pizza and scanning Netflix for something to watch, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Of course then they would want something written. If you want to interest people in a party, you have to send them an appetizer. One lesson we’ve learned is that when someone offers you a new car to drive for a few hours, you take it. We closed our laptop lid, grabbed our jacket and headed out to the lot with Sedric Parker, one of our talented sales managers.
“This one okay?”
It was a dark blue—officially Parisian Night Pearl—2015 Toyota Camry XLE, which is to say the very top of the line. Yes, this one will do nicely.
We didn’t have photos of the Parisian Night Pearl color; sorry!
Key in pocket, we closed the door and pressed the start button as Sedric headed back inside and we had the Camry to ourselves. An unfamiliarly aggressive V6 engine thrummed to life. Toyota makes very fine and efficient four-cylinder engines the norm for most of their cars—you usually have to be in a truck for an engine of this size. Sedric has our back.
Parisian is an interesting choice for a color. Paris is the city of romance, of throwing caution to the wind, of 25th anniversary wedding trips and where you have to go when you really, truly want a break from your life. A pearl is likewise the symbol of affection, of deep fondness, of something that took so long to make that it had to be rescued from the very depths of the sea. And Paris and pearls are both best appreciated at night.
As we rolled away from the dealership up Capital Hills Drive, one thing became quickly apparent: this car has power. Lots of it. So much that we were frequently getting way more than we expected when pressing down on the pedal. This being a spur of the moment drive, we didn’t even know where we were headed, and yet we already had a pony who was clearly dying to play. This is the type of engine that loves to climb hills, that lives to bite down with its wheels and let you floor it upwards and onwards.
Chuckling, we had to appreciate that in a market of safe, tame, highly efficient four-cylinder engines—of which Toyota makes the best, of course. This V6 is a marker of a different time, of 15 years ago probably, of when gas prices were even lower and Americans were more unabashed in our desire for big, throaty engines that delivered plenty of power, fuel consumption notwithstanding. It’s good to be back.
But where to go? We had no destination in mind, so we pulled up the navigation map on the 7-inch touchscreen and selected the first state park we saw: Forest Ridge Park up just west of Wake Forest. Destination set, we now had an opportunity to play with some of the toys while we drove. Bluetooth wireless technology means that we can connect our phone to the Camry and stream music and phone calls over the JBL audio system.
JBL is Toyota’s partner for stereos, and has created a lot of cool features that make hearing your radio, phone and music strong and clear. GreenEdge, for example, means that the car creates better sound without increasing power or heat use. The ASL, or automatic sound levelizer, constantly adjusts the volume so that it’s never too loud or too quiet—noises from the road, wind and tires don’t get in the way. And with 10 speakers in the car, everyone receives a clear experience.
We put this to the test when we 1) made a phone call, 2) while listening to music streaming from our phone, 3) while the Camry’s built-in navigation gave us directions to Forest Ridge Park. The touchscreen divided into three sections so we could easily manage each action. We called our mom to ask about a friend from years ago, and the music dropped away completely, pausing itself until we finished. The navigation chimed in occasionally with minimal intrusion to our conversation.
Satisfied with our bit of multi-tasking, we rang off and sat back to be still for a moment. The leather in our seats was quite comfortable, and they felt good. The leather covered most of the doors, too, and we liked how the darker paneling of the dashboard and door tops mimicked the look of the seats. It made a smooth transition, as if each were connected to the other, and looked very well.
Similarly, we noticed little things about the car itself as we drove: the way the navigation system would chime a second before it had to give us a direction. Most cars just blurt out, “In a quarter-mile, turn left at the next turn.” The Camry’s chime was an almost perceptible cue to listen up, that a direction was forthcoming. It’s a subtle conditioning that gives your brain a second to process what’s happening and basically trains you to hear the directions better. We appreciate that.
One thing we wished we could try was the Qi wireless phone charging. Although there are USB and auxiliary jacks to charge your phone, Qi is a special technology that some phones have. You simply lay it on the non-skid rubber mat, and the phone charges itself, no wires required. Sadly, our phone doesn’t have this capability. We tossed it out the window in a fit of anger (just kidding). Still, it’s nice to know at least some phones can do this.
As we got deeper into Wake Forest, we had to appreciate how beautiful a fall day it was. Leaves of all dying colors lined the trees and the roads, and we hummed merrily down old highway 98 toward our park.
Right into a dead end. A barred gate informed us that there was no park, only the possibility of a park, something that the state or county hadn’t yet decided to do. Google Maps, it seems, was a tad overly optimistic. Somewhat despondent, we pulled off a K-turn, and headed back up the way we came on our dead-end street, and stopped off at an old convenience store for a bottle of water. We were thirsty.
It was an old store. Bits of the covering for the gas pumps were missing, and large sections of the shelves were bare, too. Some of the usual items—beef jerky, candy, maps, sunglasses, beer—were for sale, but others sat piled in boxes, as if the owners were either moving in or moving out. We pulled our bottle of water from the fridge and set it on the counter. A dollar twenty five.
“How long has this store been here?”
The old man at the register had us repeat this, then answered immediately.
“Since 1931. My family’s had it ever since. We’re not closing.”
Looking out the window, we could see that the road was named Keith’s Store, and this was the store. It turns out that the main road had been closed off some years ago, which gave fewer people a reason to pass by. Now the store’s family hopes that the park will be opened one day, so that more people will stop by, buy some snacks, buy some gas.
The old man winked in a friendly way, good-naturedly telling us that they could use any clout we had. We winked back, wishing we had some. As we opened the car door, barely noticing how it unlocked itself as we touched the door handle, we thought it a shame that a store with so much history should be tucked away in the woods like this, where few people find it. But maybe that’s where it belongs, right where Keith first put it, where people can stumble across it.
We drove back to Leith Toyota Scion and handed the key back. It’s a terrific car and gave us a good story when we thought we were merely getting away from our desk for an afternoon. We suppose that the 2015 Camry is a car that can make even a Monday achieve some significance. Our party for it this Friday should be loads of fun, and we’d love to see you there, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. You can even test drive a Camry for yourself, and if you’re lucky you’ll get this one to find stories of your own.
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