Career change for Camry?
Posted by Richard Bosselman for Autos - Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:24
THE king of the corporate carpark takeover is set to get a real life beyond the workplace - or, at least, that's how Toyota sees it.
They believe the latest edition is better positioned to be chosen for after-hours fun because it abets all the type's traditional strengths with an element bean counters assuredly never figure into their number-crunching: Emotional appeal.
While accepting that the 2012 range, launching on March 1 in six-speed automatic 2.5-litre petrol (GL, Atara S and SX) and six-stage CVT 2.5-litre hybrid (standard, top-of-the line i-Tech) form will primarily continue to sell to the company carpark, it hopes this car won’t be derided as mere fleet fodder.
They believe the car that long been the benchmark for business buyers – it’s the number one medium sedan for fleet, government and rental customers by some margin - also has enhanced family appeal and will even find friends with a whole new crowd, genuine driving enthusiasts.
To reinforce this impression, they gave the term ‘rep racer’ a literal meaning, allowing the sportiest edition, the Atara, to run free on Manfeild circuit – the place where Toyota used to develop its road cars and also home of the New Zealand Grand Prix, last contested by Toyota Racing Series just a week ago.
It’s clearly a stretch to foresee any kind of competition future for Camry, but developing a more rakish and racy image is broadly in line with new expectation for a car that, in its NZ market lifespan, has so far found an incredible 45,000 owners.
In a briefing yesterday, TNZ said while the outgoing model was a good champion for Toyota’s brand strengths the replacement allows opportunity to “reset” the image by making it more desirable, including on an emotional level.”
“Camry had started to score poorly in terms of its dynamic performance – in terms of braking, handling, fuel consumption and NVH (noise, vibration, harshness),” general manager of sales and operations Steve Prangnell told Yahoo! Autos.
“We’re very confident the car we’re launching today is going to address those issues.”
The mission of Toyota’s sales team was clear. “We’ve got to reset the image and the desirability of this new Camry … we think it’s a stunning car. We’re confident the car can meet all the demands asked of it because, if it does,then it will deliver more volume for us.”
Camry has already been a good seller, of course. The current model was easily NZ’s most popular medium four-cylinder sedan – 1200 registrations last year was more than double the count for the next-placed Hyundai i40 – and, in the total medium four segment (which counts hatches and wagons), was just 15 units short of the first-placed Mazda6.
The sales target for 2012 is 1640 units, a 34 percent increase, with basically half being the base GL and Camry Atara and Camry Hybrid equal sharing the remaining count.
Improved performance for the petrol-electric is a big step up, but the brand believes the new Hybrid’s improved performance and parsimony will gain it new friends. They intend to promote how well Camry Hybrid measures up against diesel. TNZ research shows Camry produces less CO2, has lower whole-of-life running costs and is cheaper to service. They also reckon fleet managers are saying Road User Charges are a nightmare to cope with.
More sales growth for Camry is predicted; 2020 cars next year – another 23 percent hike – and 2314, another 7.5 percent, in 2014. “So, for the first three years of its life, we have quite a challenging sales target,” says Prangnell.
Of course, it so often all comes down to price. Toyota is keeping this under wraps for a dealer conference on Friday, but expectation is that the car will remain slotted in the low $40,000 to mid 50k band, with the usual potential for flexibility if the order is big enough. Perhaps that level of largesse has been demonstrated in an already settled sale of 100 cars to a national rental operator.
TNZ makes no bones that it has discounted its way into some very impressive deals in the past, and doesn’t deny that this tactic will continue to be used going forward. It simply adds that it is hardly alone is presenting special prices to special customers. “Everybody is discounting these days,” Prangnell says flatly.
However, strong dollar value only goes so far, apparently. According to TNZ yesterday, the Camry now is aspiring to lose any impression that it’s not much more than the automotive equivalent of a pocket pen protector.
To a degree this drive could trace right back to head office. Having finally identified that it has lost its youth appeal, Toyota Japan is now identifying it needs to build cars that touch the soul. The edict primarily has green-lighted a host of forthcoming interesting and genuinely involving models like the new GT-86 sports coupe, coming here around June, and even the more imminent Prius C, a wee hybrid aimed at young user-choosers.
But it also appears to have meant a rethink about how to produce and present some of the brand’s famous ‘whiteware’, notably the Corolla – which is replaced later this year - and the Camry, regardless that it was signed off when Toyota was thinking less about the need to have fun. These also apparently need to be more invigorating.
TNZ general manager of product planning Neeraj Lala reckons the new car can be compared to a Swiss Army knife. “It’s got all the tools required during the work day, plus it’s got the flexibility to tick the boxes for use in your private life as well.”
“There is a real opportunity for us to attract more user-chooser and private buyers to Camry. That’s the market we believe Camry Atara will do well in.”
Toyota acknowledges even Atara isn’t expected to lose the collar and tie completely. It has still been ultimately tailored to continue to dominate the medium-large sector, and for obvious reason: That’s where the serious money is.
Though our tastes for small-medium and medium sedans have waned over the past two decades – the latter slumping from 21 percent of the sector in 1990 to 11 percent in 2011 - the categories still accounted for just over 25,000 sales last year out of a total of 80,330 passenger vehicles. And eight in every 10 on those car purchases went onto company accounts.
Camry and its larger six-cylinder spin-off, the Aurion (which again shares the same platform and chassis), are outsold in the medium-large sector by Ford Falcon and Mondeo and Holden’s Commodore. But with big sixes on the wane (just five percent of 2011 registrations) Toyota can sense opportunity to assume market dominance within three years.
While GL will carry the big load, the more overt Atara is set to win more attention, through adoption of sportier touches affecting the styling, the suspension and the transmission (paddle shifters).
To test its mettle, after first pitching the model along some reasonably interesting Manawatu country roads, we took to Manfeild, just 20 minutes from TNZ headquarters in Palmerston North.
The circuit work initially comprised exercises through coned areas to demonstrate how good the stability control and antiskid systems are and how much tighter the handling has become. We wrapped up with a full-circuit blast.
The improvements were easily determined because, handily, Toyota had us start in the outgoing model before stepping up into the comparable editions in the new lineup: GL versus GL; Sportivo versus Atara SX.
The workout didn’t reinforce to me that the Camry has the makings of a circuit racing star. For one, the brakes were losing feel and started to smoke after just a few laps. But it did show that TNZ’s comments are not without foundation: The 2012 cars are quicker off the mark, have sharper steering, corner more flatly and stop more assertively.
With the firmest suspension and the best (17-inch) wheel and tyre combo, the Atara SX naturally asserted best, if only to a point. It’s a world away from the sharpest-handling, fastest Camry I’ve ever driven – the Amon-fettled manual V6 of more than 10 years ago – but it is a step up from the old Sportivo.
How it fares beyond the forum of a family reunion will require further investigation. Though the SX’s settings provide a more tied-down feel that translates to slightly better control, even in this tune comfort still clearly ranks foremost, so maybe its agility and finer responses won’t seem quite so special when measured against other well-considered category rivals like the Mondeo.
Even on the drive back from the track, I had cause to reconsider my positivity about the steering. Toyota has worked hard on improving the feel from going to a sharper-geared rack and implementing more heaviness. Yet the incisiveness I sensed through the slalom seemed to degrade on the road. Not sure why …
Perhaps it’s not surprising. For all that it has changed, this Camry is not an entirely fresh start so much as a comprehensive revision. It retains the old platform but has become bigger and more adventurous in look. Many of the body adornments were the work of Toyota’s styling studio in Melbourne.
The new drivetrain is worth sitting behind. Power is up by 16kW to 133kW (or 135kW in the Atara, thanks to its dual exhaust) and torque climbs to 231/235Nm. The new gear set is not only a smooth shifter but also a fuel burn stretcher; it and other fuel-eking changes (electric power steering, more advanced fuel metering) allows claimed fuel use to drop from the old car's 8.8 litres per 100km to 7.8. Even more impressive is the yet-to-show Hybrid Camry, which drops 17 percent to 5.0L/100km.
Camry’s interior benefits from a total redesign. Stitching on the dashboard and darker plastics create a more upmarket feel, and some faux metals and carbon fibre liven things up. Space is no issue, with a big lift in rear legroom, while the driving position offers better flexibility now, with rake and reach adjust on the steering wheel and better-shaped seats. There's also generous storage, from the door pockets in each door, cup-holders, large centre console and enormous glovebox. That's in part because there's no traditional handbrake, just a clunky foot-operated one. Not a positive.
All Camrys have full electrics, air conditioning and Bluetooth, but those seeking genuinely new technology in this Toyota need restrict their spending to the i-Tech. It is the only edition here to take the new-to-Toyota items of a blind spot warning system and an automated high-beam system that dips the headlights for oncoming vehicles. These items are also on the Aus-market Grande petrol flagship, but that’s not being brought here.
We’ll see the Camry Hybrid in April. Also along about then is an updated Aurion, which also refreshes for styling and seems likely to present with chassis and drivetrain improvements, though the 3.5-litre V6 continues on.
They believe the latest edition is better positioned to be chosen for after-hours fun because it abets all the type's traditional strengths with an element bean counters assuredly never figure into their number-crunching: Emotional appeal.
While accepting that the 2012 range, launching on March 1 in six-speed automatic 2.5-litre petrol (GL, Atara S and SX) and six-stage CVT 2.5-litre hybrid (standard, top-of-the line i-Tech) form will primarily continue to sell to the company carpark, it hopes this car won’t be derided as mere fleet fodder.
They believe the car that long been the benchmark for business buyers – it’s the number one medium sedan for fleet, government and rental customers by some margin - also has enhanced family appeal and will even find friends with a whole new crowd, genuine driving enthusiasts.
To reinforce this impression, they gave the term ‘rep racer’ a literal meaning, allowing the sportiest edition, the Atara, to run free on Manfeild circuit – the place where Toyota used to develop its road cars and also home of the New Zealand Grand Prix, last contested by Toyota Racing Series just a week ago.
It’s clearly a stretch to foresee any kind of competition future for Camry, but developing a more rakish and racy image is broadly in line with new expectation for a car that, in its NZ market lifespan, has so far found an incredible 45,000 owners.
In a briefing yesterday, TNZ said while the outgoing model was a good champion for Toyota’s brand strengths the replacement allows opportunity to “reset” the image by making it more desirable, including on an emotional level.”
“Camry had started to score poorly in terms of its dynamic performance – in terms of braking, handling, fuel consumption and NVH (noise, vibration, harshness),” general manager of sales and operations Steve Prangnell told Yahoo! Autos.
“We’re very confident the car we’re launching today is going to address those issues.”
The mission of Toyota’s sales team was clear. “We’ve got to reset the image and the desirability of this new Camry … we think it’s a stunning car. We’re confident the car can meet all the demands asked of it because, if it does,then it will deliver more volume for us.”
Camry has already been a good seller, of course. The current model was easily NZ’s most popular medium four-cylinder sedan – 1200 registrations last year was more than double the count for the next-placed Hyundai i40 – and, in the total medium four segment (which counts hatches and wagons), was just 15 units short of the first-placed Mazda6.
The sales target for 2012 is 1640 units, a 34 percent increase, with basically half being the base GL and Camry Atara and Camry Hybrid equal sharing the remaining count.
Improved performance for the petrol-electric is a big step up, but the brand believes the new Hybrid’s improved performance and parsimony will gain it new friends. They intend to promote how well Camry Hybrid measures up against diesel. TNZ research shows Camry produces less CO2, has lower whole-of-life running costs and is cheaper to service. They also reckon fleet managers are saying Road User Charges are a nightmare to cope with.
More sales growth for Camry is predicted; 2020 cars next year – another 23 percent hike – and 2314, another 7.5 percent, in 2014. “So, for the first three years of its life, we have quite a challenging sales target,” says Prangnell.
Of course, it so often all comes down to price. Toyota is keeping this under wraps for a dealer conference on Friday, but expectation is that the car will remain slotted in the low $40,000 to mid 50k band, with the usual potential for flexibility if the order is big enough. Perhaps that level of largesse has been demonstrated in an already settled sale of 100 cars to a national rental operator.
TNZ makes no bones that it has discounted its way into some very impressive deals in the past, and doesn’t deny that this tactic will continue to be used going forward. It simply adds that it is hardly alone is presenting special prices to special customers. “Everybody is discounting these days,” Prangnell says flatly.
However, strong dollar value only goes so far, apparently. According to TNZ yesterday, the Camry now is aspiring to lose any impression that it’s not much more than the automotive equivalent of a pocket pen protector.
To a degree this drive could trace right back to head office. Having finally identified that it has lost its youth appeal, Toyota Japan is now identifying it needs to build cars that touch the soul. The edict primarily has green-lighted a host of forthcoming interesting and genuinely involving models like the new GT-86 sports coupe, coming here around June, and even the more imminent Prius C, a wee hybrid aimed at young user-choosers.
But it also appears to have meant a rethink about how to produce and present some of the brand’s famous ‘whiteware’, notably the Corolla – which is replaced later this year - and the Camry, regardless that it was signed off when Toyota was thinking less about the need to have fun. These also apparently need to be more invigorating.
TNZ general manager of product planning Neeraj Lala reckons the new car can be compared to a Swiss Army knife. “It’s got all the tools required during the work day, plus it’s got the flexibility to tick the boxes for use in your private life as well.”
“There is a real opportunity for us to attract more user-chooser and private buyers to Camry. That’s the market we believe Camry Atara will do well in.”
Toyota acknowledges even Atara isn’t expected to lose the collar and tie completely. It has still been ultimately tailored to continue to dominate the medium-large sector, and for obvious reason: That’s where the serious money is.
Though our tastes for small-medium and medium sedans have waned over the past two decades – the latter slumping from 21 percent of the sector in 1990 to 11 percent in 2011 - the categories still accounted for just over 25,000 sales last year out of a total of 80,330 passenger vehicles. And eight in every 10 on those car purchases went onto company accounts.
Camry and its larger six-cylinder spin-off, the Aurion (which again shares the same platform and chassis), are outsold in the medium-large sector by Ford Falcon and Mondeo and Holden’s Commodore. But with big sixes on the wane (just five percent of 2011 registrations) Toyota can sense opportunity to assume market dominance within three years.
While GL will carry the big load, the more overt Atara is set to win more attention, through adoption of sportier touches affecting the styling, the suspension and the transmission (paddle shifters).
To test its mettle, after first pitching the model along some reasonably interesting Manawatu country roads, we took to Manfeild, just 20 minutes from TNZ headquarters in Palmerston North.
The circuit work initially comprised exercises through coned areas to demonstrate how good the stability control and antiskid systems are and how much tighter the handling has become. We wrapped up with a full-circuit blast.
The improvements were easily determined because, handily, Toyota had us start in the outgoing model before stepping up into the comparable editions in the new lineup: GL versus GL; Sportivo versus Atara SX.
The workout didn’t reinforce to me that the Camry has the makings of a circuit racing star. For one, the brakes were losing feel and started to smoke after just a few laps. But it did show that TNZ’s comments are not without foundation: The 2012 cars are quicker off the mark, have sharper steering, corner more flatly and stop more assertively.
With the firmest suspension and the best (17-inch) wheel and tyre combo, the Atara SX naturally asserted best, if only to a point. It’s a world away from the sharpest-handling, fastest Camry I’ve ever driven – the Amon-fettled manual V6 of more than 10 years ago – but it is a step up from the old Sportivo.
How it fares beyond the forum of a family reunion will require further investigation. Though the SX’s settings provide a more tied-down feel that translates to slightly better control, even in this tune comfort still clearly ranks foremost, so maybe its agility and finer responses won’t seem quite so special when measured against other well-considered category rivals like the Mondeo.
Even on the drive back from the track, I had cause to reconsider my positivity about the steering. Toyota has worked hard on improving the feel from going to a sharper-geared rack and implementing more heaviness. Yet the incisiveness I sensed through the slalom seemed to degrade on the road. Not sure why …
Perhaps it’s not surprising. For all that it has changed, this Camry is not an entirely fresh start so much as a comprehensive revision. It retains the old platform but has become bigger and more adventurous in look. Many of the body adornments were the work of Toyota’s styling studio in Melbourne.
The new drivetrain is worth sitting behind. Power is up by 16kW to 133kW (or 135kW in the Atara, thanks to its dual exhaust) and torque climbs to 231/235Nm. The new gear set is not only a smooth shifter but also a fuel burn stretcher; it and other fuel-eking changes (electric power steering, more advanced fuel metering) allows claimed fuel use to drop from the old car's 8.8 litres per 100km to 7.8. Even more impressive is the yet-to-show Hybrid Camry, which drops 17 percent to 5.0L/100km.
Camry’s interior benefits from a total redesign. Stitching on the dashboard and darker plastics create a more upmarket feel, and some faux metals and carbon fibre liven things up. Space is no issue, with a big lift in rear legroom, while the driving position offers better flexibility now, with rake and reach adjust on the steering wheel and better-shaped seats. There's also generous storage, from the door pockets in each door, cup-holders, large centre console and enormous glovebox. That's in part because there's no traditional handbrake, just a clunky foot-operated one. Not a positive.
All Camrys have full electrics, air conditioning and Bluetooth, but those seeking genuinely new technology in this Toyota need restrict their spending to the i-Tech. It is the only edition here to take the new-to-Toyota items of a blind spot warning system and an automated high-beam system that dips the headlights for oncoming vehicles. These items are also on the Aus-market Grande petrol flagship, but that’s not being brought here.
We’ll see the Camry Hybrid in April. Also along about then is an updated Aurion, which also refreshes for styling and seems likely to present with chassis and drivetrain improvements, though the 3.5-litre V6 continues on.
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