Originally Posted By: Spazdog
My metric might be a little off. I drove my Mazda 6 for nearly ten years. Drive a Mazda6 back to back with a similar year Camry. The Camry is slow steering and isolated by comparison. I've spent quite a bit of time behind the wheel of a 2005 Camry SE 4cyl. Compared to my Mazda, it was very quiet, very smooth, and not very engaging. The Mazda does everything very precisely. It practically begs to be pushed harder into a corner. The Camry probably generates as much lateral grip as the Mazda but it does not feel the same. In the Camry's favor, the Mazda's eagerness to be pitched into a corner can make it feel "twitchy". My wife often complained, "you just move the steering wheel a little bit and it darts off in that direction."
To be fair, I feel that the 2008+ Malibu is as close as you can get to a Camry without actually getting a Camry. The Sonata I mentioned does that too but does it in a more Asian-car like fashion. In that aspect, the Camry is pretty much the benchmark for the class.
Mazda is kind of the exception though, because they seem to put extra effort into making their cars more fun to drive than the competition. Compared to the other mid-sizers though, I don't feel the Camry is particularly bland to drive (right now, as opposed to 10 to 15 years ago). If anything I think that maybe the stereotype has developed because it has been such a high selling car that's more or less come to represent the entire segment.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure that the SE model Camry for the 5th generation was just an appearance package. Starting at the 6th gen the SE model got some suspension and chassis upgrades over the other models.
With back-to-back test drive experience I can say that there is a difference between the 6th gen SE model and the non-SE models. I was actually pretty entertained by the 2009 V-6 SE I test drove; it made the right noises, and cornered better than you'd think a Camry should. I'd still rather have a Mazda 6, but the 6-cyl SE was my top pick in the segment if I wanted the bigger engine, even compared to the Accord.
Jack Baruth has also written a few articles on TTAC where he's taken 7th gen 4-cyl SE rentals to track days and has gone against the grain regarding how the car handles in such an environment, as in he was surprised that it was pretty decent.