The Toyota Camry hasn't changed much since 2007, but the new 212 model will be completely redesigned. 08/25/2011
The Toyota Camry has been the top-selling passenger car for more than a decade, but recent data shows a decline in sales of the Japanese car. Other cars are beginning to close in on the Camry, and Toyota is making efforts to stay ahead of the competition. The Japanese automaker recently held a news conference where they unveiled the new 2012 Camry, which has been redesigned for the first time in five years, according to The Associated Press.
"The Camry itself is not a slam-dunk anymore," TrueCar.com vice president of industry trends and car pricing insights Jesse Toprak told the AP. "There's nothing fundamentally wrong with it, but is that good enough nowadays? No, it's not."
Bloomberg reports that Camry sales dropped 7.8 percent from July 2010 to last month, while the Hyundai Sonata saw a boost in sales of roughly 27 percent. Ford Fusion sales rose 17 percent, and sales of the Kia Optima more than doubled since last year. The AP reports that the Nissan Altima was closing in on the Camry as only 21,000 fewer Altimas were sold through July. Back in 2007, the Camry outside the Altima by more than double, and did more than three times better than the Ford Fusion, Chevy Malibu and the Sonata.
Toyota lowered the price of the base model Camry nearly $1,000 to just under $22,000, Bloomberg reports. The price of the hybrid version was also dropped about $1,150 to $25,900. The car company's sales chief Bob Carter said at the conference that Toyota wants to price the car right from the start, rather that offering incentives to discount it.
The fuel economy has been improved, too. The gasoline-engine model will get roughly 35 miles per gallon on the highway, and the Hybrid will have an average mpg of 41. The Camry Hybrid's fuel economy beats that of the Sonata Hybrid (37 mpg) and the Fusion (39 mpg), which are the car's two biggest competitors.