What You Ask For; Toyota's fifth-generation Camry delivers as promised.(Brief Article)(Evaluation)

Well, you asked for it, and you got it. Toyota Camry owners who wrote to us say they went shopping for an economical, dependable sedan and got exactly what they were looking for.

Toyota's fifth-generation Camry impressed us on both the track and the road. At the track, the Camry SE V6 we tested turned in a solid 0-to-60-mph time of 8.50 seconds, although significantly slower than the Nissan Altima we recently tested (AW, May 20) at 6.32 seconds. But the Camry's braking performance blew us away, stopping the 3351-pound car from 60 mph in just 118 feet, putting it smack in the midst of sports car territory. In fact, the Porsche GT2 (AW, July 15) went from 60 to 0 in just four fewer feet.

The Camry felt nicely balanced, although the power steering didn't seem to keep up with the quick steering inputs required of our slalom test. And although we turned the traction control off during slalom testing, we felt the brakes stabbing as we reached the final cone. The Camry V6 is equipped with Vehicle Skid Control with Brake Assist, designed to ``help the driver maintain control in adverse driving conditions,'' and it cannot be turned off.

On the freeway, we found the Camry-not surprisingly-to be very quiet, with excellent road-noise isolation even over the roughest pavement. It had an impressive feeling of quality and solidity, a very big-car feel. In fact, in terms of ride refinement our tester said it was ``the most Mercedes-like ...