PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – It’s coming, and for those locked down in the frigid winter weather, it can’t get here soon enough: summer heat, the kind that puts sweat glands into overdrive and makes life a damp, day-to-day grind.

But it sure beats scraping ice off a windshield.
At least on the hot days to come, you can escape the blazing sun with treats that take your mind off the slow burn. Nothing beats vanilla ice cream for chasing the blues away on a hot, sweaty day. But order that sundae with multiple flavors and it runs together into a big, tasteless melting blob of color – the frozen dessert equivalent of sensory overload. Consider, too, all the things you can do with vanilla – and the ice cream will actually accentuate your creativity.

Mmmm.
Just like a cone of vanilla on a sweltering summer day, there are few cars out there that refresh quite like the Toyota Camry. It’s big enough, powerful enough, priced right, stays in one piece, rarely gives its owners any trouble, and the good taste hangs around for a nice long time. Changing such a successful recipe is a dicey game to play, so when Toyota went about redesigning the 2007 Toyota Camry, it did so with a surgical touch. The result is a better version of vanilla, and now there’s even a hybrid flavor – which is like getting all the taste of the best vanilla ice cream but with half the calories. Few people can say no to something like that, and Toyota is ready to prove it with a 2007 Camry Hybrid that represents the next stage of this burgeoning technology.

First, there was the Honda Insight, a nice little car that used gasoline like a debutante sips lemonade. Then the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic came along, proving that people would pay more for the technology. A strange experiment with V6 engines was next up, one that left most of us cold. Now it’s the Camry’s turn, and we’re getting warm fuzzies.

The 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid is a compelling combination that matches the treats found in America’s best-selling car with our growing need for fuel economy and our lust for power – at least enough to make us feel alive on the road. At an average of about 38 miles per gallon in combined city and highway travels, a virtually transparent driving experience and a combined horsepower rating of 192, the 2007 Camry Hybrid puts it all together. It’s the car with the right answers to most of our motoring questions, except, perhaps this sticky remaining query: will the Average Joe be able to afford one?