Hello everyone! Just got my 2011 Camry SE with the 6 speed manual transmission, had to put a special order for it, it took a little over 4 moths to get it... I was driving 98 Camry automatic before and only had minor issues other than regular maintenance with it so I hope to keep the good record with the new one. Now that I have the long waited manual though I can see the pros/cons about having automatic/manual. Where I come from I loved the manual with all the hills and stuff, here in Virginia though the auto has its advantages... Anyway, the car is great, my worries about the 4 cylinder not having enough power to match the SE's sporty appearance were futile - it's by no means a sports car, however it has more than enough power...

 

Welcome to the forum and congrats for the new car.Do post some pics of it.would love to see.have a nice stay.

 

Hey bglfgd! Yeah I'm new as well. I got the same thing (pretty much): Camry BASE model stick shift. Some things I noticed about it though... its the hardest stickshift car I've ever had to drive... well I'll put it on par with my 1998 TDI Jetta. Almost every time I shift I get shift-shock. I'm just now starting to get the hang of it and I've owned the car since early October. I think two things that negatively affect it are the rev hang between shifts and the bad throttle response. Maybe the throttle servo just can't move fast enough?

I digress... Otherwise, I love the car. It got me from Florida to NJ in 19 hours straight and about 18 hours back down in comfort which put my total mileage to about 6k.

What did you pay for your Camry? I paid 17400 out the door with a $1200 trade in (Ford Crown Vic with destroyed rear diff).

 

2011 se white stick

there arent too many stick SE's...mine was a floor model at a dealer in MD, apparently the only one within 300 miles. No one likes sticks around here.

To answer limpninja...i got mine for 22500 out the door with bluetooth...u would think the price would be cheaper for a manual but they said because it was the only one around...they wouldnt make it cheaper than the autos.

I posted elsewhere that my sister-in-law just bought an accord 2011...i gotta say the suspension seems better on the accord...still like my car though...

 

I gotta say I got hammered with the price, decided to get the 100K warranty + 60K maintenance plan which cost me an arm and a leg, total of nearly 27000. The car definitely takes some time to get used to, I've driven manuals all my life and this one is by far the hardest to drive smoothly. I've already put 10K miles on it and my only complaint would probably be the not so top quality interior. There are some irritating squeaks here in there, especially when it's hot outside - since almost everything inside is plastic, some of those noises get really unpleasant. Performance wise I am satisfied, car sticks to the road quite good. The engine is definitely not the smoothest Toyota engine I've seen, it sometimes actually vibrates quite noticeable while idling. It has enough power for my driving needs, it's pretty responsive even at higher speeds if you keep it in the 3-4K rpm range. The best MPG I've gotten out of it was nearly 32.5 mpg with 4 people in the car and a full trunk, average speed range 75-85 MPH. I'm pretty sure if I keep it at 70 MPH on cruise it will probably get near the 34 MPG range. So yes, overall I'm happy with the car, I drove the exact same vehicle but automatic and I shall assure you that you cannot take the same performance out of the engine as you can with the manual. I'm hoping that down the road Toyota may come up with software update to resolve the rough idling - not that it is a deal braker but it sure irritates me.
How do you find your vehicles after driving them for awhile?

 

i am also a proud original owner of a 98 and 01 camry manual , bought my 2010 expecting similar results . waited a long time as well for the 6 speed manual but could not get the SE , they are very rare as a manual. am very dissapointed about the driveability of the 6 speed manual . it is the hardest stickshift car i have driven too. i cannot get used to the rev hang between shifts and the lag in throttle response. i e-mailed toyota corp in california and had several responses from them , even had a toyota representative drive the car with me and his conclusion was that the car was designed this way and there was nothing wrong with it. the rev hang and lag in throttle response is an emission issue. any one thinking about buying a manual should drive it first , i do not recommend the manual , the auto is the best buy , there are other better manuals available.

 

Good points macz100. I gotta say I still prefer the manual crappy or not...automatics just dont do it for me. After you mentioned the rev hang and lag in the throttle as an emissions issue...i did a little research and crazy yeah...supposed to burn the excess fuel by keeping the rev going. It is pretty annoying. I'm getting decent at shifting smoothly on the camry but I used to have a vr6 which was way more fun and way less reliable. I also read about this same kind of issues in the lexus IS250 http://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-s...box-noise.html

It may not be the same thing but anyway...wish there was a way to fix...mod...whatever would make the camry way cooler.

I'm also not a car techy so I dont know all the ins and outs of a manual transmission...however i do know that this one is not like the rest.

 

Yeah... MACZ I feel your pain. I just traded in my '11 Camry for an '05 Corolla (Auto). Its a bit buzzy but I was tired of the laggy throttle response. I really think the Camry was designed around the automatic tranny, but they just wanted a lower MSRP so they shoved a manual in it and barely test drove it before they called it good. Heck, if one of the lead engineers tried to test drive this thing I don't know how they would be able to call it good! I tried a Ford Focus (Which I consider to be a competitor) and it has a muuuch nicer throttle response and the tranny is the smoothest thing in the world to shift. Camry had a solid "Clunk" feeling when you pushed the shift **** around while the Focus was just a lightweight, sporty "click". Not saying Ford is Jesus and Toyota is the devil, I just wish I had test driven a few more cars before I settled with the Camry.

BGLFGD, I agree: performance for the 4 cylinder though was pretty awesome! Any car thats as big as the Camry and gets that much gas mileage should not be able to putt around that quickly. It was actually a smooth power delivery too!

I think that the basic theory behind the rev hang is this: when you let off the gas while the engine is at a few thousand revs with a cable operated throttle, the decreased manifold pressure somehow increases oil vaporization (and thus burning).

The TBW (throttle by wire) system puts a computer in place that retards this rapid rpm drop thus maintaining manifold pressure at a level that reduces the aforementioned oil consumption. It's basically just an EPA deal to reduce pollution in my eyes. Good on paper, bad in practice. Yes, I assume it will burn a small amount of gas to do this but I figure that can be measured in drops rather than gallons between fill-ups; negligible.

Another, easier theory to swallow is that it helps prevent unburnt fuel from being tossed to the catalytic converters. When you slam the throttle body closed so quickly, it richens the mixture a bit which causes a bunch of unburnt fuel to reach, and eventually deteriorate, the cats. Obviously deteriorated cats are a bad thing in our environmentally conscious America.

I think both of these theories are valid, but its all hearsay from the interweb, so choose your path wisely.

I know that Honda does this, Toyota obviously does this, Mitsubishi, a few others and there are complaints all over the web about how much it truly, legitimately sucks.

That being said, I have owned about 8 cars, 6 of which were "old" (more than 10 years)... I have only had one of them (1988 isuzu pickup) lose a quantifiable amount of oil, which I added once a month. What I find ironic is that after all this TBW nonsense Toyota says it's ok if the Camry loses up to 1.1 quarts per 600 miles. No, I'm not missing 0's... Six HUNDRED miles! That has been a point of a number of threads, so I'd be a stickler on that oil dipstick if I were you, BGLFGD !! I checked mine after the few months of ownership and it didn't go anywhere, and 99% of the cars they make probably won't. Its just something I look out for.

As for the cats, yeah, they could use a little love. My Crown Vic had 220,000 miles before the rear end bit the dust. It had 4 cats, one of which was clogged. It still ran well, but I wanted nothing to do with the several thousand dollar replacement costs if I had to replace all 4 of em!

 

i follow formula one and was surprised that the toyota team was unable to win during the few years they competed and finally dropped out and all this despite the largest R&d and budget . now i know why.... toyota being the largest auto comapany and most profitable in the world can't make a pleasing manual transmission...!! their focus is on a client that does not include the manual transmission just profit. i test drove a 2010 , BMW and VW and AUDI and all did not have the issues that toyota has.... that said , this is not an emmision issue just that cannot be corrected. the toyota rep said off the record that the solution is simply reprogramming the ECM to their desired specifications except for the large flywheel. i even asked the representative if i could increase the idle rpm to about 900 to improve drivability and he said that that would also require ECM reprograming , it cannot be done manually.. i have learned to TAP on the accelerator prior to starting in first gear and i have neutralized the lag in throttle response.. the toyota rep said that the european "camry" does not have any of these drivability issues...