New-look Toyota Camry revealed

April, 28, 2015

Toyota Australia has unveiled its new-look Camry at its Altona manufacturing plant near Melbourne, representing the last ever update to the mid-sized sedan.

Like the locally-built Holden Commodore, the new Camry will be manufactured at a rate of around 420 vehicles per day until the end of 2017, roughly another two and a half years.

Motoring.com.au is present at the event and will have a further report on the significance of the final Aussie-built Camry, the termination of which will result in significant job losses – around 2400 in total.

As it stands the new exterior styling appears almost identical to the US Camry design revealed 12 months ago at the 2014 New York motor show.

Featuring a more prominent grille that flows downward into a large and sportier front fascia, the overall design is bolder than before. New brake lights and subtle styling changes are in evidence at the rear and the new model also gets an updated interior.

Aussie Camrys will have a suspension tune unique to Australia but it's not clear whether the new model will get all the technological upgrades of the US Camry, such as LED high and low beam headlights, adaptive cruise control, lane departure alert and a pre-collision system.

"We're extremely proud to launch the new-look Camry," Mr Buttner said.

"It's the culmination of almost four years' hard work and is the biggest mid-cycle update we've ever embarked on," he said.

"Although this will be the last car we build in Australia, we have vowed that it will be the best. That means we are aiming to achieve the best safety, quality and efficiency results when compared to other Camry-manufacturing plants around the world."

"Our team members have already been working extremely hard. I have no doubt that this will be our best ever vehicle and will leave a long-lasting legacy of our time as a vehicle manufacturer in Australia."

All told, the new-look Camry came at a cost of $108 million, of which $23.6 million came from both federal and state governments.

The vast majority of the 90,000 vehicles built per annum at Altona will be exported, roughly 70 per cent of all stock. Countries such as the Middle East, the South Pacific Islands, New Zealand and now Thailand will get a drive of the Aussie-built cars.

Details on the new model, such as pricing, specifications and standard features, will be released in mid-May, when the re-worked Camry goes on sale in Australia. The facelift of the Aurion, which is a mild cosmetic update of the current car, is due for local launch in June.
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