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Old 25th August 2012, 19:18   #61
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

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Originally Posted by prakash_ajp View Post
Could it be because the way the 5 series gets driven?
Nope he gets driven around in both, quite a lot. But when it comes to driving the 5 anyday.

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Originally Posted by deetjohn View Post
Nice review Jaggu. Thanks for sharing. Do you have a pic of the car in dark shades and without the chrome embellishments?
Unfortunately there were just 3 cars and all in white available for the media drive.

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Originally Posted by dkaile View Post
When the previous fully imported model was selling between 21~23L, it was expected that the CKD would be priced below that. Had it been launched at the expected price of say 19~20L, it would have set the particular market segment ablaze.
Bingo! There is a huge market, especially the urban audience who wouldn't mind paying 20-22 Lakh's OTR price to lap up such a car. For them the combination of refinement, reliability would work well since there annual running would be quite low. Toyota could have pulled it off even with a conservative line up of features, but the pricing has definitely made them also stay away now.
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Old 25th August 2012, 19:22   #62
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

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Nope he gets driven around in both, quite a lot. But when it comes to driving the 5 anyday.
I wasn't making a serious point, actually. What I meant was that the driver gets excited and his adrenaline starts rushing and all that once he in in the BMW. Obviously the camry not as exciting, is it? Anyway, like I said it wasn't a serious point.
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Old 25th August 2012, 19:36   #63
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

The exterior looks so boring. Neither does it have the staid solidity of the Europeans nor the flashiness of the Koreans. Even Corolla has so much more character. This looks like an overgrown Corolla with the new Innova grill.
The interior however is nice and luxurious. However the interior wood color and all that chrome on the outside looks very cheesy.
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Old 25th August 2012, 21:37   #64
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

Excellent review of a car which seems very good and modern but alas so overpriced that i think Toyota should never have even introduced this car here in the 1st place!
If it was me, i would rather buy a Fortuner which being an SUV and having higher ground clearance has added advantages in India. Being a diesel, It will surely be cheaper to run than a Camry. The Camry petrol IMHO should have been priced a bit below the fortuner,.
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Old 25th August 2012, 23:30   #65
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

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* beige will get muddy - This I say from my personal experience. I feel dark colours are more suited for Indian conditions.
* parking brake intrusion - Will the parking brake not get mistakenly pressed while keeping the foot on the dead pedal? What if this happens at high speed?
* pricing is horribly wrong
Many luxury cars have beige interiors. I've yet to see a car with a filthy beige interior but I've seen plenty of cars with grey interiors and in need of a good round of cleaning. Perhaps it's a color that suits the lifestyles of the folks who own the luxury cars.

The parking brake isn't something that you will engage accidentally - in fact, you will hardly move your left foot at all because of the automatic transmission. With that engine, you are more likely to drive off with the parking brake engaged without noticing it after getting right out of bed on a Sunday morning

Some manufacturers price their vehicles to position them as status symbols so there's the exclusivity factor. If it were entirely about VFM pricing in the luxury segment, we would have prices driven down because of competitive pricing and 6L would have bought us a lot more than it does today.
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Old 26th August 2012, 00:05   #66
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

I wouldn't pay 1 paisa more for this car than I would for an Accord, which is the only other car in this class I would consider for purchase for myself.
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Old 26th August 2012, 00:13   #67
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

Great review Jaggu!

Is it just me, or is the new Camry designed for the Asian / Indian consumer in mind. We love chrome, and it looks like the new Camry has a touch too much of it. The little touches like the front-seat adjustment for the passenger at the back are also indications - as good as any.

Of course, if Toyota had truly given India a thought, the price-tag would have been more appealing. At this price-tag, a diesel-engine would have been brilliant.

They've begun the TV adverts for the new Camry as well. So I can't seem to understand Toyota's strategy with this car, at this price-tag and with this engine-option and equipment list.

The foot-operated parking-brake seems intrusive at first, but you'd hardly take your foot off the dead-pedal anyway so it's a non-issue.

Last edited by suhaas307 : 26th August 2012 at 00:20.
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Old 26th August 2012, 00:30   #68
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

the strategy is simple. The camry is primarily a US market car where it registered 300,000+ units per year. They are not going to engineer the car with engines and costs to appeal to a market with just a 2000 units a year.

They've done what they can within the flexibility they are allowed by the budget they have for marketing the car in India. Whether it sells poorly or superbly in India will not even be a rounding error on the Camry sales performance report.
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Old 26th August 2012, 00:35   #69
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

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Originally Posted by Harbir View Post
the strategy is simple. The camry is primarily a US market car where it registered 300,000+ units per year. They are not going to engineer the car with engines and costs to appeal to a market with just a 2000 units a year.
+1

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They've done what they can within the flexibility they are allowed by the budget they have for marketing the car in India. Whether it sells poorly or superbly in India will not even be a rounding error on the Camry sales performance report.
Case in point, the Kizashi. It was advertised briefly. Looks like only a handful of Bangaloreans found it interesting enough.

Toyota's reputation world-wide has a lot going for this car. Now that it's assembled here and no longer imported, can hoteliers still benefit from some sort of tax exemption? I don't think so.

Most of the Camrys I have seen are run by several star-rated hotels. As is the Teana.
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Old 26th August 2012, 10:21   #70
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

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Originally Posted by Harbir View Post
the strategy is simple. The camry is primarily a US market car where it registered 300,000+ units per year. They are not going to engineer the car with engines and costs to appeal to a market with just a 2000 units a year.
Yes, and the US spec Camry looks much better than the Asian version. The US Camry is loaded on features, whereas the Asian counterpart is loaded with bling, and low on equipment. And when it came to India, some more equipment went missing (especially on safety).
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Old 26th August 2012, 13:01   #71
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

Though sad to see the price and the fact that it won't rackin much volumes thanks to the fuel price here, i still stand by my most favourite FWD family sedan.
Used to the Camrys in Saudi Arabia where they are the staple car.
BTW, Toyota has a couple of 2.0-2.2l diesel engines in Europe in the Avensis if am not wrong. It sells in U.K in RHD, what's stopping them to bring them here.
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Old 27th August 2012, 18:06   #72
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

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Originally Posted by prakash_ajp View Post
Obviously the camry not as exciting, is it? Anyway, like I said it wasn't a serious point.
Point taken, GTO asked me the same question; feel compared to Europeans and my answer was NO. Camry is definitely a step in the right direction when it comes to overall drive feel, but not as tight as a beemer for that matter, not even close to something from the VW stable.

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Originally Posted by suhaas307 View Post
Is it just me, or is the new Camry designed for the Asian / Indian consumer in mind. We love chrome, and it looks like the new Camry has a touch too much of it. The little touches like the front-seat adjustment for the passenger at the back are also indications - as good as any.

Of course, if Toyota had truly given India a thought, the price-tag would have been more appealing. At this price-tag, a diesel-engine would have been brilliant.
Indeed the reason why the Asian spec is being assembled. Diesel in this car ruled out due to the design philosophy, only way to make it a seller would have been a competitive price. Sadly thats also not the case.

Maybe Toyota is planning to make India the production hub and rake in money through export? Or waiting for diesel price rationalization so that such models would gain sales?


Quote:
Originally Posted by Harbir View Post
the strategy is simple. The camry is primarily a US market car where it registered 300,000+ units per year. They are not going to engineer the car with engines and costs to appeal to a market with just a 2000 units a year.

They've done what they can within the flexibility they are allowed by the budget they have for marketing the car in India. Whether it sells poorly or superbly in India will not even be a rounding error on the Camry sales performance report.
To be honest when i heard the line "To be assembled in India", i thought maybe Toyota is planning to change the game plan, then the pricing happened and that was a shocker!

I guess they are not planning to invest too much at this point of time for Camry in India. But one thing is for sure they cant afford to delay it too long, the competition is quite aggressive and will just wipe out the sales figures in no time.

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Though sad to see the price and the fact that it won't rackin much volumes thanks to the fuel price here, i still stand by my most favourite FWD family sedan.
Indeed its sad to see such a "no nonsense car" being given this treatment. There are scores of Indians who were abroad and swear by the model, even their families will have brand recall which can rake in a decent number ie if priced under 20 lakhs. At 30 lakhs, in this price sensitive market of ours, people would think a zillion times and compromise for more VFM models. A decent extended warranty cover is all that is required to shift the decision for the buyer from Camry.
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Old 27th August 2012, 18:28   #73
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

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Originally Posted by Jaggu View Post
To be honest when i heard the line "To be assembled in India", i thought maybe Toyota is planning to change the game plan, then the pricing happened and that was a shocker!
That wasn't very realistic, was it? I mean if the camry is not sold anywhere with a diesel, and installing a new engine means the considerable expense of crash testing and development, besides other costs, they're hardly likely to incur that cost for a market that can only support a few thousand sales a year, are they?



Quote:
I guess they are not planning to invest too much at this point of time for Camry in India. But one thing is for sure they cant afford to delay it too long, the competition is quite aggressive and will just wipe out the sales figures in no time.

I'd say they CAN afford to delay it. The 20-25lac premium car market isn't big enough or important enough to Toyota to make it worth investing in an Indian market special model of the camry.
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Old 27th August 2012, 20:11   #74
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

On my conversation with Hormazd Sorabjee, Editor Autocar India, today on the said issue of this car being over priced by at least 3~4 lacs, he commented that Toyota had no alternative as many crucial parts were imported and the exchange rate didn't help either. He felt that all cars in this category are now being similarly priced.

When I asked him what he felt about this car compared to the Petrol Superb, he said that the Petrol Superb was a driver's car which sends blood rushing the moment you are at the wheels whereas Camry is a car which 'cools' you down. I couldn't but help laughing at his this comment. He said basically you have to take your pick, what do you want more, a relaxing drive or an engaging one.

Last edited by dkaile : 27th August 2012 at 20:16.
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Old 27th August 2012, 20:15   #75
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re: Review: 7th-gen Toyota Camry (2012)

and whether you want toyota reliability and service or Skoda lack thereof
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