The name ‘Camry’ is derived from the Japanese word for crown, ‘kanmuri’, a theme Toyota embraced with the launch of their Corona and Corolla brands, based on the latin for ‘crown’ and ‘small crown’, respectively.
Camry is an appropriate name, as the brand continues to stand out in Toyota’s substantial fleet earning the status of Toyota’s second ‘World Car’, after their flagship Corolla.
The Camry brand started off as a badged compact 4-door, Celica in Japan in 1979 but as they say, ‘from little things, big things grow’ and that is certainly the case with the Toyota Camry, which soon became the most successful, stand-alone brands for Toyota.
But the Toyota Camry had to break the mould and grow to a mid-size sedan before it achieved its success and earn its ‘World Car’ status. Mainly driven by an insatiable global demand for a larger sedan, the Camry has gradually grown in size over its lifetime.
In Australia, the Camry was first available as an import in 1983, but it wasn’t until the locally produced Series 2 was launched here in 1987 that the Camry stole the hearts of Australians.
Replacing the popular Toyota Corona, the Camry caused instant controversy as a front-wheel drive vehicle, bucking the trend at a time dominated by rear-drive vehicles. Instant sales success silenced the many critics establishing the Camry as a mainstay in the Australian motor vehicle market.
Australia’s love affair for the Camry was boosted by Toyota’s decision to manufacture locally after acquiring Australia Motor Industries manufacturing facility in Port Melbourne, Victoria in 1987. Manufacturing was later moved to Toyota’s purpose-built facility at Altona, Victoria, which was eventually closed in 2017.
During this time, Toyota produced over 3.5 million vehicles in Australia and reached over 1.3 million local sales taking out the mantle of ‘best selling car’ brand for several decades. The Camry was an important contributor to this milestone and continues to perform strongly for Toyota, with the Hybrid version of the Camry making-up over half the 100,000 Toyota Hybrid sales in Australia.
Under the guise of a generous mid-size family sedan, the success of the locally produced Camry also impacted the sales of larger family vehicles such as the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon, breaking the stranglehold they had on the Australian automotive market.
Transgold has a range of over 100 suspension, transmission and engine mounting parts for the Toyota Camry models from 1982 to 2017.
