Toyota Lends a Little Attention to Its Car Lineup

Despite deep-sixing its Yaris hatch and sedan for the coming model year, Toyota hasn’t lost interest in all of its passenger car models (not that the Yaris was really as Toyota, but that’s beside the point). There’s been a fair bit of action on that front in recent years, and the automaker shows no signs of stopping.

New trims join the brand’s car entourage for 2021, though those looking to get into the barest-bones Camry will walk away from this article disappointed.

Starting at the bottom in terms of size, the new-for-2020 Corolla sedan gains a new flavor: Apex.

A sport package, Apex can be applied to the more invigorating SE and XSE grades, adding a tuned suspension and stiffer stabilizer bars to those trims’ 169-horsepower 2.0-liter engine. New springs and shocks lower the vehicle six-tenths of an inch, and a body kit adds a front spoiler, side sills, fog light covers, rear diffuser, and optional lip spoiler. Eighteen-inch wheels carry optional summer rubber.

Toyota says some 6,000 Apexes are earmarked for America, with all but 120 of them being CVT-equipped models.

In the Camry camp, the base L trim is jettisoned, making the LE grade the entry level sedan for 2021. New front fascias greet this clan, though it’s a game of spot-the-differences. On LE and XLE, Toyota claims it upped the lower air intake’s visual presence, with the same going for the sportier SE and XSE. You be the judge.

While nothing changes in terms of engines or transmissions, buyers can now pair the XSE trim with hybrid power, and other consumers will face newfound choice when it comes time to pick out a color. New wheel designs arrive for ’21, as well as new additions to its Safety Sense 2.5 suite of driver-assist features. The pre-collision system (w. pedestrian detection) is supposedly now better able to pick out cyclists and walkers. It might also flash a warning to the driver or automatically deploy the brakes if an oncoming car is detected during a left-hand turn.

Last and largest, the Avalon gets in on the all-wheel drive game its Camry stablemate started playing late in the 2020 model year. Available on XLE and Limited grades, the system pairs with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder.

Elsewhere, the ridiculous and uncalled-for TRD version continues for ’21, and hybrid buyers can do whatever they want with the knowledge that their battery pack has swapped nickel-metal hydride for lithium-ion. The brand’s new “Vehicle Approach System” signals the car’s presence to unwitting pedestrians when travelling at low speeds.

New colors abound, and the lineup adds an XSE Nightshade trim that dons blacked-out 19-inch wheels and exterior trim.

The new Toyotas will enter dealers this fall.

[Images: Toyota]