Assembled In: Georgetown, Kentucky.

Model Line Up: Toyota Camry CE ($18,570); LE ($20,025); SE ($21,240); LE V6 ($23,640); SE V6 ($24,915); XLE ($25,000); Hybrid ($25,200); XLE V6 ($28,120).

Model Tested: Toyota Camry LE V6 VVTi.

Options Tested: vehicle stability control with traction control ($650); tilt/slide power sunroof ($940); 16-inch alloy wheels ($410).

Neither a rocket scientist nor a car critic is needed to figure out why the Toyota Camry has been America's best-selling car nine of the past 10 years. This mid-size sedan does just about everything well, and it's supported by Toyota's well-earned reputation for quality, reliability and value retention.

One year after a wheels-up redesign, the 2008 Toyota Camry changes not at all.

The Camry benefited from a complete overhaul for 2007, starting with a new, airy interior and continuing with more powerful engines, more transmission choices and increased fuel efficiency. Yet the hallmark of this sixth-generation Camry is Toyota's effort to shake the stodgy, plain reputation the car had developed in some circles. The Camry's aerodynamic styling shows more vitality than we've come to expect from a car many have labeled, and not necessarily in unkind fashion, as Japan's Buick.

Wash-and-wear, no-worries reliability is not a bad thing. Owners depend on the Camry, and they're seldom disappointed. This four-door sedan seats five in reasonable comfort, yet it's relatively compact and easy to park. It's smooth and quiet, but it can accelerate with vigor. Its cabin is attractive, functional and as refined as anything in its class. The Camry is thrilling in no respect, and no particular aspect of its performance is outstanding. Yet it's good in nearly every respect, bad in almost none, and it has a steady, set-and-forget quality that many drivers appreciate. It's pleasant to drive in all circumstances. In SE trim, with the manual transmission, it approaches fun.

Models range from the surprisingly well-equipped Camry CE to the near-luxury Camry XLE, with nearly all the bells and whistles. In between are the popular LE, a modest step up from the base CE and available with the V6, and the SE, decked out with suspension, tires and trim to please the sporty crowd. Toyota's four-cylinder engine is not the strongest, but it's more than adequate with the manual transmission. The smooth V6 is one of the most powerful in the class.

The Camry Hybrid features a combination electric motor/gasoline engine powertrain and a super-efficient continuously variable transmission, or CVT. The Hybrid is a good performer and one of the most fuel-efficient mid-size vehicles anywhere. It's also a great statement for environmentally conscious buyers, though it's worth noting that all Camry models offer good EPA mileage ratings and low emissions in their respective categories.

Since its debut in the United States nearly 25 years ago, the Camry has earned a reputation for smart design, pleasing function, build quality and durability. It's not all hype. The 2008 Toyota Camry remains the benchmark by which its competitors are judged.

The 2008 Toyota Camry is a four-door, five-passenger sedan offered in five trim levels, including the gas-electric Camry Hybrid.

Camry CE ($18,570) features a 158-hp four-cylinder engine. It's equipped with cloth upholstery, air conditioning and pollen filter, cruise control, power windows and mirrors, manual tilt-and-telescope steering wheel, a multi-function information display with outside temperature, a 160-watt stereo with six speakers, single CD player and auxiliary jack for MP3 devices, a 60/40 split-folding rear seat and 16-inch steel wheels.

The CE comes standard with a manual transmission; a five-speed automatic transmission is optional ($1,000).

The Camry LE ($20,025) and LE V6 ($23,640) add an eight-way power driver's seat and remote keyless entry.

All Camry V6 models get a 268-horspower 3.5-liter engine and a six-speed automatic with manual shift feature.

The sporty Camry SE ($21,240) and SE V6 ($24,915) add a firmer, lowered suspension, flashy styling cues, unique interior trim, fog lights and P215/55R17 tires on 17-inch aluminum alloy wheels.

The high-zoot Camry XLE ($25,000) features glossy wood-grain interior trim and comes standard with the automatic. Leather comes standard on the XLE V6 ($28,120). The XLE models add dual-zone auto climate control with an electronic ion filter, a JBL audio upgrade with 440 watts, 6CD changer, Bluetooth wireless telephone interface, power passenger seat, power sunroof, split 40/20/40 reclining rear seat, rear reading lamps, manual rear window sunshade, 16-inch alloy wheels. An automatic comes standard on the XLE.

The Camry Hybrid ($25,200) has a 147-hp version of the four-cylinder engine, mated with a 40-horsepower electric motor and continuously variable (CVT) automatic transmission. The motor augments the gas engine's performance and captures energy that would otherwise be wasted as the car slows and brakes, so it can reduce fuel consumption substantially. The Hybrid is equipped comparably to the XLE four-cylinder, and adds Toyota's Smart Key pushbutton-start feature.

Options include premium JBL audio ($1,000) for the LE and SE; it can be packaged with a voice-activated navigation system in the SE ($2,200) or XLE ($1,200). Stand-alone options include power tilt/slide sunroof ($940), leather-trimmed interior ($1,040), heated front seats ($440), auto-dimming rearview mirror ($150), heated outside mirrors ($30), 16-inch alloy wheels ($410).

Safety features on all Camrys include a full complement of airbags: dual-stage front impact airbags, a driver's knee airbag, upper body-protecting side-impact airbags for front passengers, and head-protecting side air curtains for the front and rear seats. All models come with anti-lock brakes (ABS), which aid steering control during a panic stop. The ABS features Brake Assist, which applies the brakes more quickly and consistently when it senses the onset of a panic stop, and electronic brake-force distribution (EBD), which balances brake application front and rear for optimal stopping distance. A tire-pressure monitor is standard. Vehicle Stability Control and Traction Control are optional ($650) on the CE, LE, SE and XLE, and we strongly recommend getting it.

This latest Toyota Camry is as bold a statement as Toyota makes with its top-selling, bread-and-butter vehicles. The message in that statement? Reliability and consumer confidence do not necessarily require blandly conservative styling. A year after the current Camry was turned loosed on American roads, the 2008 model's visual impact has diminished only a little.

Yet if Toyota wanted to make a stronger fashion statement with the country's best selling car, it couldn't risk doing so at the expense of function. This sixth evolution of the Camry is the largest ever, though not by much. Its wheelbase is more than two inches longer than models built before 2007, and its track is a hint wider, with wheels pushed further toward the corners of the car. Yet, thanks to a shorter rear overhang, or that portion of the body that extends past the back wheels, this Camry maintains the same overall length as the previous generation. The result of this reconfiguration is more interior space, and particularly fore-aft length, with the same external footprint as before.

The flashy new styling (first introduced on the 2007 models) starts at the Camry's nose. The front end is fresh, and easily the boldest element of the new look, with sharp points, curving cut-lines and entertaining surface planes. The hood dips broadly through the middle, pushing visual heft out over the front fenders. The grille wears a Toyota emblem prominently above softly slanted, horizontal slats. The single-piece fascia blends all the diverse elements into a smooth aerodyanamic look that's several steps away from the pro forma, overly inoffensive, just-another-midsize-car-from-Japan look.

The side view is less fashionable and somewhat bulky looking, with a high beltline, symmetrical windows and square doors, graced with a barely discernible character line running through flush-mounted door handles. The wheel openings are circular, which on a car with a lower profile might suggest sporty intentions. On the Camry, they draw attention to the expanse of sheet metal between them, and instead whisper sedate. An odd but increasingly popular, miniaturized rip on the squared-off trunk lid of the BMW 7 Series finishes the side profile.

That bustle-like hump gives the trailing edge of the trunk a slight aero-lip that suggests it's there to reduce rear lift at high speeds. An oversize Toyota emblem perches atop the license plate recess. Proud taillight lenses mirror the outline of the headlights, angling down and inward across the trunk lid seam, closely tracing the pattern set by the headlights and grille. The bumper wraps around the back end, capping the corners beneath the taillights and sweeping into a soft, horizontal indentation that, on the V6-equipped models, finishes in cutouts for the chrome-tipped dual exhausts.

The sportier Camry SE is the easiest model to distinguish, and perhaps the boldest of all. The inference of aero treatment on the trunk lid is boosted on the SE with an honest spoiler. A black honeycomb-style grille sneers forward from smoked-tint headlamps, while a full body kit flares the lower edge of the car outward, emphasizing the sport model's lower ride height. Six-spoke, 17-inch aluminum wheels fill those circular wheel wells nicely.

There's also aerodynamic massaging that isn't obvious to the eye, particularly on the sport-tuned SE and the other specialty Camry, the Hybrid. Engineers focused on making the underbody as flat as possible to smooth airflow under the car and reduce noise. On the SE, they also tuned the flow to balance downforce, or the aerodynamic force that presses the car to the pavement, nearly equally over the front and rear tires.

With the Camry Hybrid, the aerodynamic focus was on efficiency. Unique wheel spats and underbelly pans reduce the coefficient of drag (Cd) to a low 0.27. This reduces the amount of energy required to move the Hybrid at a given speed, and in turn helps increa.

The Toyota Camry sedan is still fresh from a complete redesign for 2007. It does nearly everything well, and nothing badly, and it makes comfortable, pleasant, reliable transportation for up to five. There's a model for nearly every taste and budget. All are reasonably economical to operate, and the Camry Hybrid is one of the most fuel-efficient mid-size vehicles available. The styling and interior may surprise shoppers expecting another Japanese-brand Buick. As the no-brainer choice for a rock-steady, all-purpose sedan, the Camry is hard to beat and easy to understand.

NewCarTestDrive.com correspondent Tom Lankard reported from Ojai, California, with J.P. Vettraino in Detroit.