Toyota Camry Atara R released

Toyota Australia has released a special-edition Camry, the Atara R, limited to about 2500 examples and claimed to offer more than $3000 of safety, performance, comfort and appearance features than the entry-level Camry Altise ($30,490 plus on-road costs).

Priced $1330 higher at $31,820, the Camry Atara R adds many features previously exclusive to the regular, more expensive Atara S variant ($33,490).

They include a sports front bumper/grille, foglights, sports side skirts and larger 17-inch (alloy) wheels, plus a reversing camera with fixed guidelines, 6.1-inch screen display audio and ‘premium’ three-spoke steering wheel with audio controls.

Toyota has also fitted the dual exhaust diffuser from the rest of the Camry sedan range, reinstating the 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine’s performance outputs to 135kW/235Nm – up 2kW/4Nm over the base Altise.

There’s also a special-edition badge, and the same exterior paint colours available for all Camrys: Diamond White, Silver Pearl, Graphite, Eclipse Black, Wildfire, Magnetic Bronze and, from upstream Atara models, Reflex Blue.

Metallic paint (all colours but white) still costs $400 extra and standard equipment continues to comprise seven airbags (including a driver's knee airbag), electronic stability/traction control, a trip computer, ‘eco indicator’ and six-speaker audio with USB, AUX and iPod inputs.

Toyota’s Melbourne-made Camry continues to be Australia’s top-selling mid-size model, the Camry sedan notching up three times more customers than its nearest competitor, the Volkswagen Passat range.

Although Camry sales are down four per cent to July this year, the mainstream medium passenger segment has declined 16 per cent, with BMW’s 3 Series finding one more buyer than the Passat so far this year.

Ford’s Mondeo is the third most popular mid-sizer overall, closely followed by the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, then the Mazda6, Subaru Liberty, Hyundai i40, Audi A4 and the Honda Accord Euro.

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