New Camry ahead of its time

Motoring editor ALASTAIR SLOANE looks at Toyota's new Camry, due in New Zealand late next year.

Carmakers used to get grumpy when "scoop" pictures and stories of upcoming models were published. They would bellow: "Whadidya do that for? That car isn't going to go on sale here for months yet and we've still got plenty of the old models to sell."

Nowadays they mostly throw up their hands in surrender. The world's a smaller place. Competition is fierce. Communication networks are buzzing with pictures and details of new models.

The vehicle launched in Japan, America or Europe today and arriving in New Zealand in six months might be different on the inside - specification levels and such - when it gets here, but the shape won't have changed. What you see is pretty much what you get.

Take the latest Toyota Camry, unveiled in America the other day and on sale in New Zealand late next year.

Toyota New Zealand doesn't want to talk about it, mostly because it is still deciding how to present the car here. What colours? What interior trim? What specification levels? What standard features? What optional features? What engines? What price?

It would prefer that the Herald waits until nearer launch time in New Zealand before it uses pictures from America.

There are still Camrys to sell and buyers might delay buying once they learn the new car is on its way. "But that's our problem - no one else's," says a Toyota man. "We will live with it." Toyota has always been practical.

The New Zealand-bound Camry will be built at the Toyota Australia plant near Melbourne. The American model is being built in America.

Says Toyota America: "Now entering its fifth generation, the 2002 Toyota Camry moves from sensible to sensual.

"Its styling, inside and out, is bolder, smarter, more upscale and more refined. It rides on its first all-new platform in 10 years. It is roomier, quieter and more powerful. It offers crisper handling and improved ride comfort. It has more safety features. And, like no Camry before it, it is a mass-market car with a niche-market feel."

Enter Kosaki Yamada, Camry's chief engineer: "The saying, 'The more things change, the more things stay the same', captures how Toyota approached the development of the fifth-generation Camry.

"Over the years, Camry has become a definitive term for what a family sedan should be.

"There is a Camry-ness that is familiar and reassuring. It is a product equity that has been cultivated and built upon over the past decade."

Yamada and his team concentrated on six areas of development for the new car:

* Stronger, bolder styling.

* More interior room and functional use of space.

* A new level of quiet and comfort.

* Better dynamic performance - ride, handling and braking.

* Advanced safety features.

* A new standard of value.

What he came up with was a stronger, all-new platform on which he built a wider and taller car with a 500mm longer wheelbase. Entry and exit for occupants has been improved. Legroom in the rear has been increased by 380mm and the drag co-efficient has been reduced from 0.30 to 0.28.

Yamada specifically targeted noise, vibration and harshness levels. The front and rear suspension assembly has been revised to reduce noise, to minimise camber change during body roll and to improve the overall ride.

A stronger body helped to reduce intrusive noise, too. So did the use of adhesives and foam in the pillars, curved panels in the floor, and stiffeners across the rear parcel tray, under the rear seats and in the spare tyre well.

"Our target was to build a better, higher-quality Camry for a customer who would not spend a premium," says Yamada.

"The ultimate retail price of a car is based on many factors. Costs related to manufacturing, material content and labour all come into play.

"One key element is how much you spend on engineering and development. The more significant the cost reductions in development, the more significant the content-and-quality that could be built into every Camry."

Yamada says Toyota engineers were able to cut development costs on the Camry by re-inventing the process - and streamlining production.

New digital tools enabled engineers to design, fabricate and assemble every component of the new Camry before production of a single part. Making the Camry easier to build was the final piece of the development puzzle.

"A car that is easier, safer and more enjoyable to build will be higher in quality and ultimately less expensive to produce," he says.

The Camry will be powered by a new twin-cam, 16-valve, 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine with variable valve timing (VVT-i), or a reworked version of the existing quad-cam 3-litre V6.

The new 2.4-litre engine is expected to produce upwards of 115kW at about 5600 rpm and 217Nm of torque at about 4000 rpm. The outgoing 2.2-litre Camry engine produces 94kW at 5200 rpm and 187Nm at 4400 rpm.

The V6 is expected to deliver 141kW at 5300 rpm and 279Nm of torque at 4400 rpm, almost identical output to the current engine.

Transferring power to the front wheels in both engines will be a new electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission. A five-speed manual gearbox will also be available. So will rack and pinion steering and the latest safety equipment.