Toyota Camry Hybrid: Wonderfully Boring
People don’t buy the Camry for wild-eyed acceleration. They buy it because it feels comfortable, safe, and sweetly refined, shrewdly lacking in stimulation

DAN NEIL/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Jan. 9, 2015 1:24 p.m. ET


I NOMINATE “granularity” as the business-speak cliché of 2014, joining the annoying ranks of “hack” and “innovate,” especially as bare transitive verbs, e.g., “innovate the sector.” Man, I hate it when people start spouting that bilge.

Recently, a reader wrote to demand more granularity in this column, and I thank him, even if he does sound like the office parrot. Yes, what of the grains themselves, so to speak, the thousand minute encounters with the machine comprising the automotive experience? I’m not talking about peak horsepower, cornering grip or braking distance. For all the blood on the floor over 0-60 times and lateral G-force, consumers are far more likely to ditch their cars because of aching backs or because the touch screens are fidgety.

Granularity emerges over time. Is the stitching pattern on a sewn-leather steering wheel agreeable to your grip, for instance? Is the timbre and audibility of the turn signals to your liking? (And why are the audiovisual alerts of turn signals not more programmable, more personal, more musical? Gummint regulations? Human factors’ workload? Bilge bilge bilge.)...