Toyota sticks with two-model strategy

Tom Gorman, previous Ford Australia president, enjoyed disparaging Toyota's Aurion large car by referring to it as the 'Camry V6'. The joke rested on the V6-engined Toyota, which has been on sale since 2006, sharing a platform with the four-cylinder Camry. Both cars are built on the same production line at Altona, in Melbourne's west, but share little else.

Leaving aside caustic remarks from a competitor, would Toyota objectively consider dropping the Aurion name and reviving 'Camry V6' for its large car?

Large cars are slowing falling out of favour as buyers choose SUVs or high-spec small cars and VFACTS sales figures reflect that trend away from the core products of Australia's local automotive manufacturing industry. Renaming the Aurion 'Camry V6' would associate the car with the longer-established nameplate, one which is closely associated with mid-size cars rather than large cars.

The short answer to that is 'no'.

"The two-car strategy is still working for us," says David Buttner, Toyota's Senior Executive Director Sales and Marketing. Buttner reckons that the Aurion is holding its own in difficult times and there's no need to revisit the marketing strategy for the large car.

"Aurion's done exceptionally well. To pull that share in that market... just on 20,000 vehicles, we believe that two-fold strategy is still working quite well for us.

"I don't expect that that large six-cylinder market is going to grow. I think it will sort of stabilise about where it is, but if we can pull 16, 17 per cent consistently, that's good volume for our manufacturing facility."

In a tough market last year (more here), Toyota actually sold more vehicles than in 2007 -- but Aurion wasn't one of the 'winners' in the domestic market. While the V6-engined Toyota picked up market share in the VFACTS large-car segment (17.1 per cent for 2008, versus 16.5 per cent in 2007), actual sales slipped back by nearly 2500 units (19,562 for 2008, 22,036 in 2007).

Interestingly, Aurion and its competitors all gained market share -- almost certainly as a by-product of Mitsubishi's 380 vacating the segment.

Aurion, selling fewer than 20,000 units last year, is well short of the 32,000 units of Falcon or the 51,000 units of Commodore, but combine the Aurion's sales with those of Camry -- since both vehicles are built on the same production line -- and then take into account the 101,563 vehicles exported as well, and you have over 144,000 units running down the production line in Altona.

In fact, local production of the Aurion (for domestic and export consumption) is virtually enough in itself to be economically viable -- but Camry remains the main game for Toyota.