New Camry - the range

Toyota's senior executive vice president John Conomos is very clear about Camry's goal. "It spearheads Toyota's drive to regain Number One position in the Australian market." It's a position Toyota held five times in the last decade, the last time was 2000.

Conomos says that number one position is not just a prize, but also has benefits for the Australian public. "With number one comes critical mass - an opportunity to properly optimise infrastructure and achieve greater throughput." With these opportunities should come cost reductions and, one would hope, price reductions.

Toyota has held the number one position five times in the last ten years, losing it to Holden in 2001, and looking set to do so again in 2002.

Toyota claims it achieved a $2500 reduction in the cost of engineering and manufacturing the new Camry, so does that mean the price has dropped by $2500 across the range? Wake up. But, says Toyota, that's because we've added more value than ever before.

The bottom line is that it costs more to get into a fifth generation Camry, which goes on sale September 16, 2002. It is true that some models are cheaper than before, but the Camry range starts $710 higher than it did previously, at $26,990 for the four cylinder Altise.

Toyota's not shy about talking up the advancements, changes and improvements in the new Camry, and we've detailed that extensively in New Camry - the changes. If you want to know how those changes impact the Camry's on road performance and practicality, read our first drive article. Right now, we're going to take a look at the range.

NEW CAMRY - THE RANGE:
Forget CSi and CSX. Forget Conquest and Vienta. Fifth generation Camry comes in three basic grades, from cheapest to most expensive : Altise, Ateva and Azura. And handy tip for remembering the price and equipment grade order is alphabetically : aL comes before aT which comes before aZ. Easy.

Oh, forget the wagon also, Toyota's fifth generation Camry is the first locally built Camry without a wagon, and likely to stay that way. Demand for the load lugger, says Toyota, wasn't strong enough to warrant the extra cost in developing a new one.

So, three grades spanning one body, two engines (four cylinder and V6) and two transmissions. Then there's the Sportivo models, one four and one V6, which carry the "sporting aspirations" of Toyota's new Camry range.