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2021 Toyota Camry AWD vs. midsize all-wheel-drive sedans | How they compare on paper

Just as crossovers have become the dominant body style in the car market, the all-wheel drive they frequently feature has become more popular. In fact, all-wheel drive is so popular that automakers are increasingly putting it in traditional cars. The latest car to add driven wheels is the 2021 Toyota Camry. It will offer all-wheel drive on most of its trim levels, though only with the four-cylinder engine. It isn't alone in this market, though. So we've compiled the Camry's specifications, along with those of a couple of its competitors for comparison. For the purposes of this analysis, we're sticking with the AWD veteran 2020 Subaru Legacy equipped with a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter engine and the relative newcomer 2020 Nissan Altima. Both are similar in pricing and power to Camry. We've skipped the turbocharged Legacy and the turbocharged Ford Fusion with all-wheel drive as both have higher base prices and significantly more power. We'll take a look at these three sedans engine output, fuel economy, pricing and space. Below is a chart with all the raw numbers, and below that is more in-depth discussion of the cars. Performance and Fuel Economy These sedans are very closely matched, but one area where a clear winner emerges is in output. The Camry has a solid 21 horsepower and roughly 10 pound-feet of torque over the Subaru and Nissan. This, despite all of the engines having the same displacement. That power should make it quicker than the approximately 50-pound-heavier Subaru, though the Nissan Altima may stay with it thanks to its curb weight being about 100 pounds less than the Toyota. Also worth noting is that only the Toyota offers a traditional automatic transmission, whereas the Subaru and Nissan rely on CVTs. Subaru and Nissan have both dramatically improved their CVTs to the point they're quite unobtrusive, but if you strongly prefer the feel of softly shifting gears, the Toyota is your choice. In our experience, all three of these sedans are pleasant to drive with suspension and handling clearly tuned in favor of comfort over quickness. Fuel economy is close to a dead heat. Toyota hasn't announced official fuel economy numbers for the all-wheel-drive model, but we can estimate that, as with most all-wheel-drive variants, mileage will be slightly lower than normal models. We're betting it will only about 1 mpg worse than front-drive variants. That puts it in the same 29 to 30 mpg overall range as the Subaru and Nissan.

Junkyard Gem: 1982 Subaru GL 4WD Wagon

As a junkyard aficionado living in Denver, I get regular opportunities to study the history of the Pleiades-badged brand every time I hit the IMPORTS section at one of my local yards. You won't find any Subaru 360s in U-Wrench yards these days (I haven't seen a discarded 360 since the early 1980s), but I still find plenty of Malaise-Era Subarus from the period during which they were mocked for their small size in novelty songs. Here's a seriously loaded (by early-1980s standards) 1982 Subaru Leone four-wheel-drive wagon, found last fall in a yard just south of Denver. Back in those days, Subaru USA just called this car "the Subaru" and used the trim levels as confusing model names. There was the base model with no name, the mid-grade DL, and the high-end GL.  Four-wheel-drive was optional on Subarus at this point, though nearly all Colorado buyers paid for this feature. Unlike later all-wheel-drive systems with center differentials, this setup was true four-wheel-drive, which would tear up your tires (or worse) if you drove for too long on dry pavement with 4WD engaged. This proved very confusing for many owners of these cars (as well as those with four-wheel-drive-equipped Toyota Tercels and Honda Civics, a bit later in the decade). Check out the controls for the extremely rare dealer-installed air conditioning! This car has everything. By far the coolest optional feature on this car is the rare "third eye" center-mounted driving light, which lives behind this flip-up panel in the center of the grille and was actuated via a dash-mounted switch. You're more likely to find one of these lights in a BRAT, which was the truck version of the Leone, and I've found a few third-eye-equipped BRATs over the years. Did I buy the entire grille and third-eye assembly, for installation as a ceiling-mounted work light in my garage? You bet I did! With just over 180,000 miles on the clock, this car appears to have been very well cared-for during its life. There's a bit of rust in the usual spots, but nothing too severe by the standards of a near-40-year-old Japanese car. Plaid seat fabric became fashionable on cars like this during the early 1980s, as you'll see on many a Toyota Tercel 4WD Wagon. The 1.8-liter boxer-four in this car generated 82 horsepower when new, and it got the job done (if you were patient). This underhood sticker shows that this Subaru's original sale almost certainly took place in Colorado (or maybe Wyoming).

2015 Subaru Legacy is fresh-faced and more frugal

While Subaru posted its best sales year ever in the United States in 2013, over half of its sales came from the success of the new Forester and popularity of the Outback. Its midsize Legacy sedan, on the other hand, saw sales tumble 10.3 percent. The company known for its all-wheel drive models hopes to right that trajectory with the 2015 Legacy. The all-new sedan sees a slight bump in fuel economy and a commitment to giving buyers a better product to compete against segment stalwarts like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.
The refreshed sedan wears Subaru's new design language, which was teased by the Legacy Concept at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show. However, the production version takes the hard, crisp lines down several notches, and it is bordering on boring at first glance. The best detail of the new design is the new hexagonal shield grille at the front that lends a little upscale panache over the current car's simple, rectangular front end. The coupe-like roofline has also been toned down from the concept, but it does smooth out the rear better than the current gen.
The Legacy's engines are carried over almost identically from last year's car. However both flavors of manual transmission are finally bowing out; all models now come with Subaru's Lineartronic CVT. Output from the 2.5-liter boxer four-cylinder sees a slight bump to 175 horsepower (2 hp more than last year's model) and 174 pound-feet of torque. The 3.6-liter boxer six-cylinder is unchanged at 256 hp and 247 lb-ft. Fuel economy benefits from the new platform with the 2.5-liter model rated at an estimated 26/36/30 miles per gallon city/highway/combined, a boost of 2/4/3 mpg, respectively, over the previous generation. The 3.6-liter also sees a modest rise to 20/28/23 mpg, 2/3/3 mpg better respectively. Fairly impressive figures for an all-wheel-drive, midsize sedan.