Are Camry Drivers Backed Into a Corner?

In literature, archetypes are used to categorize the kinds of typical characters all good stories need to carry out an interesting plot. The hero, the mother figure, the sage, the scapegoat, the villain. These ideas have been around for thousands of years, dating back to the ancient Greeks. Just as there are certain archetypes in stories, I am a strong believer that archetypes can be directly applied to a person and the car they drive. I like to call it, automotive archetypes.

We all know the 80 year old Buick drivers, the asshat BMW owners, the hippies living out of VW Microbuses, and the Corvette buyers suffering from a midlife crisis. Some may think of this as stereotyping, but maybe everyone is destined to drive a certain type of car from the day they entered this world. And there isn't one I am more fond of than the Toyota Camry; What kind of person drives a Toyota Camry? Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

Cleverly coined, the phrase "Camry Corners" can be described as an indentation on either corner of the rear bumper of a Toyota Camry. This originated from the Camry Corners Facebook Page founded in June of 2012, which receives daily submissions of Camry drivers doing Camry driver things. Submissions include pictures of anything that may fit into the Camry lifestyle, from the classic corners to extremely poor parking jobs. Other pages you can follow on Facebook includes Camrys with dented bumpers, Camrys Without Hubcaps, and It's Always a Fu#%ing Camry. If you haven't noticed them yet, brace yourself. They are everywhere. A Camry Corner is easy to overlook, because lots of people have Camrys, and lots of people run into stuff. But why is it most often a Camry sporting a dimple on it's rather large rump? It's just the Camry drivers playing their part in the storybook.

The Toyota Camry has existed as Toyota's midsize sedan since the early 1990s in the United States, and has locked out the title of best-selling passenger car of the 21st century almost entirely. Why? It's reasonably priced, gets decent fuel mileage, has plenty of space for the family, and provides great reliability. Clyde Caplan, one of the administrators of the Camry Corners Facebook page believes he knows why these drivers are attracted to the Camry:

"I think it's a combination of the sheer volume of Camrys on the road and the drivers they attract. The Camry is sold as an appliance and is designed to be as bland as possible. Driving isn't important to Camry Drivers, things related to driving aren't important to them. So they don't pay a lot of attention, back into things and even if they notice, they don't care."

It doesn't necessarily stop at Camrys either. Other members of the Toyota family often show similar symptoms of Camry drivers. After all, the spouse of any Camry driver has to drive something too. Camry Corners  has taken the liberty to name all of these variations:

-The Baby Camry

-The Camry SUV

-The Fancy Camry







-The Camry Minivan






With the only cool sports car the Japanese brand has to offer being the GT86, which hides itself under the Scion badge in America as the FR-S, Toyota has branded itself as the vanilla of all auto manufacturers. And please do not be that guy that says in the comments, "I actually like vanilla".

However, maybe avid corner catchers should be concerned, as the Camry Corner generation could be on its way out. As Toyota, and the rest of the world are attempting to make their economy cars cooler with sharp, contemporary edges, the bulbous Camry bumpers are no more. It is the 1991-2011 Camrys that have proven to be most prone to catching corners thus far, years after have been less common. Toyota is already trying to fight the stigma with their current slogan, "Demands respect at every corner", and only time will tell if it proves effective.

The question still remains, is one born a Camry driver, or is it a chain of events that morph you into a Camry driver over time? I turned to Mike Kline, who is perhaps one of the most successful corner catchers in the DC-Metropolitan area. Mike submits staggering amounts of Camry corners to the Facebook page, and is projected to have captured over 60 corners on various Toyota models by the end of the year.

"Sadly, I believe people are born with the Camry gene. It takes a certain desire to actually want to drive a Camry, and I don't think it's something that you develop over time."

With the quintessence of the Camry driver typically consisting of qualities such as lack of spacial awareness, poor parking skills, driving slowly in the left lane, and using their hazards in a moderate rain storm, I decided to go to my local body shops to see if they have noticed the trend. Most of them thought I was nuts for wasting my time on dented Camrys, but I was thankful that Greg from Twin Ridge Collision Center took interest in my search and provided me with valuable information. While he himself was unfamiliar with Camry corners, he did say that he gets more Lexus (Lexuses, Lexi?) than any other manufacturers rolling through the body shop. And then it hit me. Lexus, underneath the Toyota umbrella as its luxury division, sells cars to Camry drivers that can actually afford to fix them! Body shops don't see Camry Corners because they all stay out on the road for our enjoyment.

Camry drivers act as the antagonist to most other drivers, trying as hard as they can to make your driving experience as frustrating as theirs is. But what good is a story without obstacles (literally) that the protagonist must face in his journey? Camry Corners has given the world a reason to get excited when we come across a Toyota Camry, and I believe we would be at a loss without them.

Photo Credit: The Camry Corner Community