A Tale Of Two (Three, More) Camrys

Apparently, this is Camry week. TTAC has already thrown two of its most feared and revered auto testers, Michael “Hard Plastic Killer” Karesh and Alex “Yellow Fever” Dykes, into the battle – with similar, yet finely nuanced results. Yours truly has arrived in Tokyo, where he cools his heels (as much as a thermostat set to electricity-saving 82F allows,) until the JDM Camry is unveiled on Sept. 5 to by then totally Camry-numb members of the media.

Alas, your correspondent of the car wars has left China too early, because the global Camry conflict has shifted to the Middle Kingdom, which finds itself in search of the core Camry character.

Our MrWhopee (which I hope is a riff on “making whoopee” and not on the same-named cushion) opined that the reviewed Camry is “sold in U.S. only, the rest of the world (well, at least Asians) got different look Camry.” After the admonition to use “Asians” a bit more sparingly (they are – sometimes fiercely – proud of their differences, and despite alluring alliterations, one rarely sees Camrys created for Caucasians) – it seems that Whopee is right! At least in a large part of “Asia” called China.

Chinacartimes reports that “it seems that the Chinese Camry and the US Camry will have some minor differences when they both make it to dealerships.” Says CCT:

“The Chinese one seems to have minor changes around the front fog lights that has turned them from diagonal into sweet little round buttons, on the inside the two Camry’s look quite similar, but look closely at the central area and you will see that the GPS buttons are different and the Chinese version doesn’t have any drinks holders. The Communists stole our drinks holders!”

(The writer – I can attest to that – loves his drinks, so I will not editorially touch his “drinks holders.”) Now are these the only items that are different? TTAC’s image analysts have provided side-by-side views of official Toyota Camry (U.S. spec) and utterly unofficial Toyota Camry (Chinese spec) imagery, and in the wise words of Fox News: We report, you deride.

But whoa, that’s not the only difference! If Chinacartimes is correctly informed, “ Two Camry’s will also be sold side by side in the Chinese market, the older Camry will become known as the Camry Classical.” That would not be unusual. In this part of “Asia,” people are prudent, and they just hate to throw away perfectly serviceable stuff, such as previous gen platforms.

In ten days, we’ll know what Camry-incaration will be sold in that other part of “Asia,” called Japan. There, they absolutely despise anything that is “boro-boro” (tired, worn out, old) and they always go for the latest “hayari” (craze, fad, fashion).

I never thought I’d have to look whether buttons are round or on the egg side of things, but I guess this is how it – shapes up.