Toyota Camry TRD Not Nearly As Dear As Its Big Brother

We talked up the amazingly real Toyota Avalon TRD recently, making note of its lofty, second-from-the-top price point, but now the second TRD sedan shoe has dropped.

According to pricing guides seen by CarsDirect, those of you salivating at the thought of taking a Camry to the next level — and frankly, who isn’t — can expect to pay significantly less for the smaller of Toyota’s two testosterone-fueled sedans. Five figures less.

After a $995 destination fee, American consumers can expect to land a 2020 Camry TRD for the sensible price of $31,995, some $3,410 less than the next-closest V6-powered Camry, CarsDirect claims. A staid 2020 Camry XLE retails for $35,405 after destination, with the sportier-looking XSE topping that by $550.

As you read on these digital pages, the Toyota Racing Development treatment applied to the Avalon sedan warrants a hefty price tag of $43,255. Shrink the Avalon’s platform by a few inches while keeping the same powertrain and you end up with a Camry. Clearly, the price gulf between the two is stark.

Both Camry and Avalon TRD boast a 0.6-inch ride height reduction, beefier springs and sway bars, TRD shocks, 12.9-inch front brake discs with dual-piston calipers (12-inch discs out back), a cat back exhaust, 19×8.5-inch wheels wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza 235/40R19 summer rubber, underbody bracing, a front splitter, side sills, rear diffuser, and a generous helping of interior badging, but the Camry rides away with a very prominent trunk lid spoiler. We’re getting close to wing territory here.

And yet the powertrain lurking within this beast is the same 3.5-liter V6 and eight-speed automatic combo found in the XLE V6 and XSE V6 versions of both sedans. Output is a healthy but certainly not Germany-beating 301 horsepower and 267 lb-ft of torque.

Why the vast pricing gap? Content has a lot to do with it. As CarsDirect notes, the Camry TRD does not offer the optional Navigation Package and Driver Assist Package available on the XLE and XSE and dons synthetic leather for its seats. A message sent by Toyota points out the Camry TRD’s non-sporting content has more in common with the mid-tier SE, a four-cylinder-only model.

In that case, the V6-powered Camry TRD looks less like massive V6 bargain and more like a very elaborate $5,000 appearance and performance upgrade. Too bad you can’t just option an SE with a V6. One thing’s for sure: you’ll be far more likely to see one of these prowling the streets than an Avalon TRD once they hit dealers this fall.

[Images: Toyota]