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Midsize Sedan Comparison | Honda Accord vs. Toyota Camry vs. Mazda6

The rumors of the midsize sedan's death have been greatly exaggerated. The 2018 Honda Accord and 2018 Toyota Camry together moved more than 262,000 units through May of this year, which is still a ton of cars. Then again, both are down year-over-year despite being completely, and quite impressively, redesigned for 2018. So yes, the midsize sedan's grip on family transportation is weakening. Ford certainly thinks so, yet this change in consumer preferences comes at a time when the current crop of sedans is sensational. They're bigger and more powerful, yet also more efficient. Safety scores are impeccable. They even look better than ever. So before running out to score one of the bajillion little SUVs flooding the market, why not ponder this trio of midsize sedan all-stars that might actually work better? Over the course of three consecutive weeks we tested the 2018 Camry XSE V6, 2018 Accord Touring 2.0T and the perennial critical-darling 2018 Mazda6 Signature. The latter was thoroughly overhauled and, perhaps as such, bucked the segment trend by actually selling more in June this year. Each was a range-topping trim level with all the bells and whistles, plus the most powerful engine available. Really, you couldn't find cars closer in power, price and feature content. View 57 Photos Performance and fuel economy Toyota bucked the turbocharged trend by sticking with naturally aspirated engines for the 2018 Camry, and when it comes to its 3.5-liter V6, it's sure hard to argue with that decision. For starters, it produces 301 horsepower. Let that sink in for a moment. A 301-hp Toyota Camry. That crushes the others, while its 267 pound-feet of torque is only 6 less than the Accord. This is a strong, smooth engine that only gets better when you realize it matches the 26-mpg combined fuel economy of the others. Honda, meanwhile, followed the masses by switching to a turbocharged four-cylinder for the Accord's engine upgrade (and its base engine, for that matter). Though its 252 hp is considerably down on the Camry and its 271 lb-ft is only a smidgen more, the Accord's torque arrives earlier in the rev range without feeling overtly turbocharged. It also has 143 fewer pounds to contend with. When wrung out, this new 2.0-liter belts out a beautiful, typically Honda song made possible by the smart 10-speed automatic (the base 1.5-liter is paired to a CVT that results in more drone than mechanical music) that thankfully doesn't draw much attention to itself.

How to fix a $4,000 hybrid battery problem with vinegar and baking soda

This is one of those 'Don't try this at home if you don't know what you're doing' DIY tales. Two weeks after imgur user "scoodidabop" bought a used Toyota Camry Hybrid with no warranty, he got the Christmas Tree dash display with warnings like "Check VSC System," "Check Hybrid System," and the Check Engine light. After some Internet sleuthing he figured it could be a faulty brake actuator, assuming the hybrid system warning was a false alarm. But it wasn't the actuator, it was the battery, a Toyota dealer telling him that his battery had "gone bad," and he'd need $4,457 to replace it. Then he had a brainstorm: it could be one of the cells that's gone bad, not the whole battery. Scoodidabop has some experience as an electrician, so he figured he could test it and replace any bad cells for about $45 apiece. He removed the battery unit from the trunk and over the course of two hours tested all 68 cells four times. He found nothing wrong. So he devised another type of test and checked every cell again. He couldn't find a problem with any of them. Turns out the problem wasn't in the cells, but with the dirty and corroded copper connectors at the ends of the high-voltage cables. He pulled the 34 connectors and their steel nuts, soaked them in vinegar, gave them a light steel wool scrub, soaked them in baking soda and water to counteract the vinegar, applied an anticorrosive and reinstalled them. That took an hour. When he replaced the battery, the warning lights had all gone out and the battery worked perfectly. Skill level: experience. Cost: less than $10. Perhaps it's time for hybrids to be able to test their own cells individually. Dealers, too.

2015 Toyota Camry set to circle NASCAR track near you

Toyota recently introduced the all-new 2015 Camry for the street, so it follows that it should want to promote its new bread-and-butter sedan by putting it out on the racetrack as well. And that's just what it's done here with the release of the new Toyota Camry for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
The new Camry represents the first reskin of the standard stock car chassis since the Gen-6 model was introduced in 2012. Toyota's Calty Design studio worked closely with series organizers to determine which parts could be redesigned to more closely resemble the new production model, and what you see here is the result. Since it is based on the same control chassis as all the others, the Camry's skin is applied over a steel tube frame and powered by an old-school 5.86-liter pushrod V8 mated to a four-speed manual gearbox.
Although the idea of a Japanese automaker in American stock car racing didn't initially get the warmest reception from some of the good ol' boys when it first entered the series back in 2007, it has by now become a staple of the NASCAR circuit. After all, it's hard for even the most patriotic of racing fans to argue with the US-built Camry's ranking as one of the most American cars by content on the market.